My Delorme Topo, the mapping system I use on my laptop, has a choice of 7 different coordinate mapping formats. Admittedly, more than half of these are pretty obscure unless you are in the military, work for the USGS, or are just plain contrary, but that still leaves at least three different coordinate formats that are in common use.
The other day I saw a mention of the Cosmic Campground in the Gila National Forest. I hadn't heard about this place before so did a little research on it so I could stick a pin in my map.
Rather than chase down the directions I simply copied the coordinates that came up and pasted them into the find field of Topo
Except that I wasn't paying attention and copied the degree-minute-second format and Topo was set to degree format. I don't know what convoluted magic happened in Topo to twist what I copied into the degree format it was set for but,
It sent me off to what is clearly a campground loop. One I hadn't marked before. But wait! This is in the El Morro National Monument. Still in New Mexico but definitely not the Gila National Forest! What is going on?
I eventually figured out what I had done wrong and plugged the proper coordinate format for the Cosmic Campground into the find field.
Ahh, that's better. Back in Gila National Forest, only this time it's not an obvious campground. Good thing I went looking for it then.
But how great was that! Two new pins in my map for the price of one.
I looked up El Morro National Monument on Campendium, and it sounds pretty nice (and free). Putting it on my list to try someday. I choose Serendipity.
ReplyDeleteI like serendipity too, but it sure was weird. . .
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