Riverbanks Adventure Forum

Parents: How to make a Ghillie Suit for your kids on a budget!

// July 3rd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Adventures, Creative gear, Paintball

Homade Ghillie Suit

My thirteen year old son and his friends have been playing the all popular outdoor Manhunt Game for a couple of years now. Manhunt is the teenage version of hide-n-seek or kick-the-can (for those of you who can remember) with teams of players.  One team protects the base and the other team attempts to get back to base without getting caught.  They have developed complex strategies.  They prefer to play in the evening and sometimes they use flashlights.  Well we have watched our weekly Man-Hunt game evolve from 6 to sometimes 30 players.  The yard plus the adjacent neighbors is no longer sufficient. They have moved to the local Recreation Center that offers a small woodsy area with Florida natural terrain in which to hide.  Oak and Saw Palmetto bushes abundant.  (more…)

Battle of the GPS: Magellan Triton 2000, Garmin 550T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bushnell Onix 400 & Delorme PN40

// May 18th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Adventures, Backpacking, Busnell, GPS, Garmin, Geocaching, Hand held GPS, Hiking, Lowrance, Magellan

Shopping for GPS?  Confused on which model to get.  We have the heaviest hitters on the GPS market here in a head to head shootout!

Magellan Triton 2000

Magellan Triton 2000- Needs to be commended for being the first to offer all of the whistles and bells!  The first to offer the full color touch screen with 2MP camera/picture viewer, MP3 Player, voice recorder, led flashlight, 3-axis electronic compass, barometer and more!  It also has an SD card expansion for storage of waypoints, routes, photos, geocaches, sounds, and songs.  Comes with built-in base maps with preprogrammed points of interest of the 48 states and world wide boundaries.  Magellan is now offering FREE download TOPO maps in order to keep up with the competition. The SD slot allows for downloads of more detailed maps such as National Geographic, topo maps, and marine cartography. It also has options for an external antennae and an audio jack to listen to your songs.  It’s WAAS capability offers 3 ft accuracy and is great for geocaching! MAP Price $499

Garmin Oregon 550t GPS

Garmin Oregon 550t -  The Garmin answer to the multi-gadget GPS proves to the the heaviest hitter yet!  Improving on the already top dog Garmin Oregon 400t, the 550t full color touchscreen boast a 3.2 MP camera/picture viewer with 4x digital zoom and automatic geotagging of each photo. This will always lead you back to the exact spot of the photo. Photos can be stored online at www.Garmin.com and uploaded with Picasa.  With 850 MB of internal storage and a micros SD card expansion slot, you will never need to miss a photo opportunity. For navigation it comes with detailed preloaded topo maps of the 48 states and worldwide basemap, 3 axis digital compass for 3-D views, barometric altimeter, and high sensitivity WAAS capability for those hard to reach places.  It also capacity for up to 5000 geocache locations and 2000 waypoints which can be shared wirelessly with friends that have either the Colorado or Oregon series GPS. All this comes protected in a IPX7 waterproof rated rugged casing. MAP $599 (not available until July ‘09)

Bushnell Onix 400 GPS

Bushnell Onix 400  - For those who travel in weather sensitive areas. This GPS is the first of its kind!  It boasts satellite imagery, XM satellite radio and XM Weather Navigator.  With a subscription to XM Satellite Weather, you get real time weather information and updates. Great feature for those whole like to travel in areas where the weather is highly volatile..ie Mt McKinley.  Its layering ability allows you to download a satellite photo and layer topo map, compass, navigational aids and XM services on a single screen with a feature called  TruView NavigationLayer.  NEXRAD weather data down-linked from XM NavWeather can also be layered over a georeferenced satellite map of your location.  This can help you pinpoint those nasty storms or areas of high winds.  The subscription to XM NavWeather also allows access to over 170 channels of XM satellite featuring radio news, sports, talk, entertainment and music.  Built with rugged rubberized armor offers IPX7 waterproof protection. It also has a high gain SIRF GPS receiver, digital compass, and embedded 128 Micro SD Card.  MAP Price $499

Lowrance Endura Sierra GPS

Lowrance Endura Sierra - This is the Lowrance answer to the Garmin 400t with full color touchscreen and built in detailed topo maps, MP3 Player/voice record, picture viewer, 3 axis digital compass, and barometric altimeter.   The topo maps are detailed with hill shade, topo graphic contours, trails and points of interests.   Its has 4 GB built in memory and 32 GB Micro SD card slot allows the flexibility to directly accept GPX trails and geocaches, as well as POIs from web communities or other sources.  Speaker, headphone jack, and microphone all built into waterproof IXP7 rated casing.  It is also capable of turn-by-turn directions with optional purchase.  MAP price $499 (available in July ‘09)

Delorme PN 40 GPS

Delorme PN 40-  If satellite imagery is your preference this unit is blazingly fast with high-sensitivity 32-channel STMicroelectronics Cartesio chipset. It boasts a NEW Dual-core processor for instantaneous map and satellite imagery redraws.  This allows are downloading large aerial images files and works well on maps with multiple layers.  This unit supports SDHC high-capacity SD cards (up to 32 GB) for fast and direct map transfer from the included maps discs.
Its 3-axis digital compass along with a 360 deg raster rotation allows you to view roads, buildings, trees, rocks etc as you rotate around or drive, bike, or hike down the path. It also comes with barometric altimeter, 1 GB internal memory that hold up to 100o way-points. Boasting itself and a pure hybrid, the unit comes with software with both detailed topo and Street maps and has access to up-to-date USPS Quad maps, NOAA Nautical Charts, and high resolution aerial  imagery for yearly subscription of only $29.95.  This rugged little unit it also waterproof IPX7 rated and is a lot of bang for its buck!  MAP $399

Mountain Bike Croom on a Hardtail, Withlacoochee State Forest, FL

// May 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cyclocomputers, Florida, Mountain Biking

Croom Mtn Bike Trails 1

Croom Mtn Bike Trails

One of the most Hilly places in Florida is near Brooksville and it makes for some nice Trail riding.  The Withlacoochee State Forest is full of hills and trails including hiking, horse riding, and mountain biking.  All of the trails are separate and marked accordingly.  The local mountain biking club, the Swamp Club, does a great job of maintaining over 55 miles of single  track through Hardwood Hammock and Sandy Pine terrains.  I always tell myself that if the sand at the bottom of a nice speedy downhill doesn’t take me out one day one of those giant pine cones will!

Taking a break on the Red Trail, Withlacoochee State Forest

Six years ago,  I purchased a mountain bike and proceeded to try my first trail at Croom.  Well it was fun, exciting, exasperating, until I missed a sign and ended up on a horse trail.  Then it was sandy and frustrating and the only bearing I had was I knew the sunny part of the sky is south during afternoon.  A 1-1/2 hour bike ride turned into a 3 hour trek.  After I found my way out and figured out that trail, I only rode that trail for the next four years for fear of ending up on another horse trail again.  Then I stumbled up a Garmin Edge 205 and made that my Christmas gift to myself.  That was just what I needed to give me the courage to roam into the unfamiliar terrain.   With that I made it my mission to map every foot of trail in Croom. 

About the Author: Barbara is the owner of  an on-line store Riverbanks  Outdoor Store for two years and has frequently engaged in outdoor sports for years including camping, mountain biking, whitewater rating, kayaking, snorkeling, and hiking.    Barbara also hosts a blog Riverbanks Adventure Forum that focuses on product reviews and adventure vacations.

Liquid Image 5 MP Video Snorkel Mask – Innovative and Fun!

// May 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Camera Snorkel Mask, Product Reviews, Waterproof Video Camera

Liquid Image Underwater Digital Camera Snorkel Mask

This Video Snorkel/swim Mask is the first of its kind! The first 5 MP Underwater camera that functions as a snorkel/dive mask for up to 15 feet.
The mask has the lens built in the center of the eyebrows with the shutter button on the right. The genius of wearing the camera and always having it in “ready” position for photos/filming makes me almost wants to wear the mask at sporting events. It also frees up the divers hands for swimming.
The tempered glass lenses have cross hairs to aid in lining up the lens field of view.  Aiming takes a little practice due the the cross hairs being located lower than the lens itself.  After a few photos, I was able to line up horizontally like a pro!
We recently used the Video Swim Mask on a family adventure – Swimming with Manatees in Crystal River, Florida. This little adventure requires that you are out in the water during twilight hours (7:00 AM). We were impressed with the video camera’s responsiveness to adjust to the changing light condition as I lifted my head in and out of the water. The still photos are as comparable in quality to any 5 MP camera on the market today. Below is a still photo taken with this camera.

Kings Bay, Crytal River, FL

I have better luck with the video when I was under water.  The constant motion of swimming and the water moving made it difficult to capture a clear crisp photo.  The video was excellent and responded to the lower light conditions than the camera.

**Click here for Youtube Liquid Image Video Footage

(**Youtube processing can pixilate images and may not be representative of the quality of the video)

We were also impressed with the mask.  The mask is well made with a silicone skirt for a comfortable and waterproof seal.  I did not have any water leaks after removing several times.   It also has a watertight storage space on the side to hide extra batteries, etc.

It comes with internal memory capable of holding up to 30 high resolution photos.  There is also an SD card that allows up to 2 GB more that will hold 3000+ photos or 100 minutes of video.

The Liquid Image Video Swim mask will provide good video/photos at a Great price!

NEW Lowrance Endura Sierra High Performance GPS w/ touch screen!

// April 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Hand held GPS, Lowrance, Product Reviews

Lowrance Endura Sierra GPS

Lowrance answer to the Garmin Oregon serves at a great price. The Lowrance Endura Sierra handheld GPS has the ease of use with the fullcolor touchscreen and the functionality that is unsurpassed. It comes with detailed outdoor topographic maps already installed including detailed hill shade, topographic contours, extensive outdoor trails and POIs as well as road network. It also has turn-by-turn navigation capable for car, motorcycle, cycling, etc. with optional purchase.

There is a 4 GB internal memorey and a Micro SD card slot for up to 32 GB cards to allow for a large range of mapping options preloaded on plug & play Micro SD cards or web download.
Other features include Multimedia MP3/voice notes, picture, and video players for entertainment or viewing trail camera photos. This rugged water proof unit includes speaker, headphone jack, and microphone.
For you GEOCachers, this unit Directly accepts GPX trails and geocaches, as well as POIs from web communities or other sources. Share with your friends.

There are two other more economic models the Lowrance Endura Safari
Endura Outback with slightly less whistles and bells but still packs a punch for performance at a GREAT price!

About the Author: Barbara is the owner of  an on-line store Riverbanks  Outdoor Store for two years and has frequently engaged in outdoor sports for years including camping, mountain biking, whitewater rating, kayaking, snorkeling, and hiking.    Barbara also hosts a blog Riverbanks Adventure Forum that focuses on product reviews and adventure vacations.