Archive for June 29th, 2008

Jun 29 2008

Horse Nicknames

Published by Meredith under Mongolia, Western Mongolia

Now that our trek is over and I’ve hugged Opie goodbye, I’ll share with you some of the nicknames I gave him at various points on the trip:

  • You Stupid Horse
  • Farty McSmellerton
  • Poopy McFartington
  • Valiant Steed
  • Good Boy
  • Bad Boy
  • Eating Machine
  • Best. Horse. Ever.

BTW, Dave changed horses for the last three days of the trip because the U in UPS changed to “Useless.”  He was given one of the larger, stronger horses that the guides had and eventually he earned the name Brutus (although by the end Dave regretted not using “Goliath” since it fit nicely with his own name).  I wonder if we’ll hear later this summer about UPS having been eaten.  They do that you know.  It’s true.  It happened to Amy’s horse from last summer’s trek.  Apparently the horse wasn’t pulling its weight anymore.

- Meredith

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Jun 29 2008

Fun with GPS & maps

Published by Dave under Mongolia, Western Mongolia

Today is the last day of the trek and tonight we’re back in the ger camp in Ulgii.

I brought a GPS data logger with me on this trip. It’s not a full GPS device with screen, etc. The idea is that by minimizing all the extras (it’s just a GPS chip and some memory), the battery life is extended much longer than a big device. It seems to have worked pretty well. By massaging some of the data it created, it was pretty straightforward to create the map below of the entire route we took in western Mongolia (for those of you that subscribe to our blog by email, you’ll probably need to pull this post up in your web browser for the full effect). For those not on the trip, we started in Ulgii at the Eagle Ger Camp. That’s the waypoint on the right-hand side. We then traveled clockwise ending up back at the Eagle Ger camp.

Below the map you’ll see the elevation profile of the trip. I wish it had the waypoints noted in it so you could see the elevation of each campsite. Maybe I’ll fix that up if I get time later on. You can play with this map like you would any Google map. The Terrain button is pretty cool I think. And if you have Google Earth installed, click on Earth for a 3d view of our route. If you have a taste for the technical side of GPS and want the GPX file that describes this route, just let me know.

- Dave

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