Devil's Punch Bowl hiking

We had excellent weather for hiking in the UK yesterday- I simply downloaded the gpx from www.walkingclub.org.uk and hopped on the train on a 1 hour ride outside of London.
Following the route on the Fenix 5 Plus was a joy with appropriate directions. The elevation profile and being able to see exactly what is coming up ahead was very handy.

GPS tracking also looks great, especially considering the terrain- perhaps the recent GPS firmware update is to "blame"
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2961535092

0 nmyeti over 6 years ago

Looks like a great hike. It is nice to get out in the world and use the watch the way it was designed.

0 NYanakiev7 over 6 years ago

Yeah, absolutely! At one point I got distracted picking (and eating) wild blackberries and lost sight of the group I was hiking with. Luckily, I had the exact route loaded on the watch and found my way in no time. It would have been a small disaster otherwise as there was no mobile network coverage in the area.

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

I’m familiar with that area of the country; so can imagine that was an enjoyable walk. The tracking looks much better than some have reported after the GPS 2.23 update (certainly no ‘drunk man’ wobbly track syndrome). What settings did you use if you don’t mind me asking? (Smart/Every Second, GPS only or GPS + GLONASS or Galileo)

0 NYanakiev7 over 6 years ago

It's my second time doing this hike- it is such a picturesque area with varied terrain.

Yeah, I noticed some complaints floating about. I used every second recording (as always) with GPS+Galileo. Naturally, with this being a hiking activity, this was all done at a rather low pace so I am pretty impressed with the tracking. The part at the end involved walking around through the village, where the watch tracked equally well.

0 jimoestman over 6 years ago

I totally agree with nmyeti.

I have yet to see a post about someone getting lost due to the watchs gps accuracy.
IMO Too much obsession about getting the perfect track recording...

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

Thanks for sharing the settings. From the limited feedback of people walking/hiking so far with GPS 2.23, it's those using GPS only that have seen the worse results. I've only done runs and MTB rides so far on GPS 2.23 (GPS only for MTB and GPS+Galileo for runs); but I've not really noticed any discernible improvement or regression for those activity types with 2.23 (I was reasonably happy with 2.20 anyway).

0 PatrickNSF over 6 years ago

I've only done runs and MTB rides so far on GPS 2.23 (GPS only for MTB and GPS+Galileo for runs)

Are you noticing any high post-activity battery drain with GPS 2.23? I’ve been fine with the tracking of 2.20, but would try the beta if it helped with the battery drain.

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

Are you noticing any high post-activity battery drain with GPS 2.23?

This is a bit OT for this thread, so I'll keep it short. My observations of late have typically only been a 1-2% drain in the hour after an activity, which perhaps is attributable to an adjustment for the switch from higher draw on the battery in activity and the lower drain of normal watchface mode. That's not to say I haven't previously seen the much higher post activity drains people have been reporting, it's just I've not seen it in any software versions 4.xx.