Strava saved my ass last night

Bicycling
1

Well, technically my phone with the Strava app saved my ass.

I planned a route, but didn’t download anything to my Garmin. It looked pretty straightforward on the map.
Once i got out to Eldridge road in Falmouth I would follow it to Mines road and then connect back to Falmouth Back road. No problem, right?

Once I got out there and realized the ‘road’ is more of a trail and the trail has a lot of intersections, I started to lose track of where I was.
I followed the sun and it was generally jiving with where I thought I was…Kept an eye on the time and the distance but still wasn’t 100% confident. It was about 6:30 by this point and while I still had lots of daylight, I was a little on edge.

So, I got my phone out and started a Strava session for about a km. The end of the session coincided with an intersection. I posted the ride and then I could see it on a map…zoom in and out and got my bearings. Sure enough, I was exactly where I thought I was.

Lessons learned?

Ride with someone
Going somewhere off the beaten trail? Use a GPS mapping software and download it to my Garmin BEFORE the ride.
Stay calm…and remember the stuff I learned in Scouts 30 years ago.

2

Nice! Having a phone with GPS/Google maps is a serious asset when you’re biking unfamiliar terrain. I always carry some essentials- light with a spare battery pack, a lighter or matches, phone/gps, tire and shock pumps, spare tubes… it all fits in my pack easily and as long as I have it all, I’ll never need to use any of it. If I don’t have it… I’m guaranteed to wish I did.

3

Yeah, the shock pump was real useful. :wink:

4

I was glad to have it for you to use :slight_smile:

5

Nothing like a bit of adventure to spice up the day!

You’re lucky that there was cellular reception there to be able to upload the ride to Strava, there are places where that wouldn’t have worked.

I use a handheld mapping GPS on any ride where I don’t know the trail that well or am exploring new places, sure saves having to backtrack looking for your tire tracks like we used to do.

Don’t forget the backup batteries!