How To- Desert Adventure Fitness

How To:

This online multisport adventure guide book is visual. Pictures are worth a thousand words. With a glance you can immediately see "what's up".

Image icons, video, and Google Maps make this possible. Every effort has been made to give you what you need to find and do an adventure and yet, leave the adventure and the discovery up to you.

IMPORTANT: See notes below for detailed explanations of the visual imagery.

Name of the Adventure

Navbar - home page is the index for all the adventures

Terrain & difficulty

Icons

The ACTION at a glance

Logo: Vitruvian man, golden ratio, compass rose

Profile giving the distance and elevation profile for each discipline

Google Map HQ for planning

Clicking on the logo takes you to Kayak Lake Mead for information on kayaklessons and kayak skills

Info Icons

At a glance estimated TIME

Flyover of the topo map

Video clip of the adventure

Paddling in canyon

Canyons

Paddling

Hiking/running difficulty 1 to 5

Mountain biking difficulty 1 to 5

Climbing Class 2, 3, 4, or 5

Swimming

Navigation difficulty 1 to 5

Approximate duration of the adventure

Approximate driving time to the start

Paddling on open water

Desert 2000' to 6000' - joshua trees

Open desert shoreline

High mountains

Trekking - long distance hiking, difficulty 1 to 5

Action & terrain icon - day & night movement

Pack Rafting

Info icons:

Terrain icons:

Action icons:

Open desert below 2000'

Contact Us

Click the logo to find about Kayak Lake Mead.

Difficulty rating

Highlights &

Description

NOTES:

NAME OF THE ADVENTURE: The names given are not commonly known place names. Often, these locations are in fact unnamed, largely unexplored, and most likely almost never visited. So, the names often reflect whatever our thoughts were at the time of our exploration.

DIFFICULTY RATING: Ratings are always subjective. Desert Adventure Fitness ratings try to take into account difficulty of terrain, skill level needed, and the estimated time that will be required.

beginner easy - one will need just a modicum of skill and fitness

beginner intermediate - more advanced but still OK if you are a novice adventurer

intermediate - more challenging

advanced - and even more challenging

Extreme Adventure - this will require well developed outdoor adventure skills and fitness

TERRAIN ICONS: At a glance determine what terrain is involved.

ACTION ICONS: At a glance - sports and the difficulties involved.

Climbing is rated according to Yosemite System. Class 2 = steep hike. Class 3 = some hand holds. Class 4 = might want to use a rope. Class 5 = most definitely want to use a rope

Trekking (long hikes), hiking/running, mtbiking, and navigation (map & compass) rated 1 to 5 easiest to hardest

Swimming, paddling, and packrafting unrated. Weather and water conditions determine difficulty

INFO ICONS:

Estimated travel time from downtown Las Vegas

Estimated duration of the event from start to finish

Whether the adventure is point-to- point or there-and-back. There-and-back you can park and go do it. Point-to-point will require driving support

ELEVATION VS. DISTANCE PROFILE: This gives at a glance the overall distance, the distance of each sport, and the elevation gains.

FLYOVER OF THE TOPO MAP: Just a little fun really. But it does give a glimpse of the area and the terrain.

VIDEO CLIP OF THE ADVENTURE: Shows a little of the action. All clips are taken from the actual course.

GOOGLE MAP: This is the 'gem' of the matter. With this tool, you can spot the waypoints, explore the adventure in views; street, satellite, terrain, or even Google Earth, if you have Google Earth on your computer. Often the Google Map will have photos embedded directly in the map.

BUY THIS MAP NOW: This link leads you to a PayPal checkout page. For $10 you get a 1:24000 topographic map of the adventure with the waypoints plotted for you along with coordinates in case you want to bring your GPS.

More resources:

Outdoor Safety:

important and coming soon

Map & Compass:

learn the basics and more

Kayak Skills:

from basics to advanced survival

Kayak Lessons:

beginner to advanced lessons from Kayak Lake Mead

Fitness:

crazy upper body cross training ideas

A there-and-back adventure -

park and return

A point-to-point adventure - requires support

Dense vegetation

Bush whacking no rating given.

Packrafting in canyon

Packrafting on open water

Urban

How to continued...

Pick an adventure, glance at the icons and the profile, watch the flyover video and the action video, then study the map. Decide if you need a printed map (usually you will). Get your map and make notes on it. Make a nav (navigation) plan. To navigate, use the map, a GPS and or a compass. Decide upon the gear that you'll need. Multi sport adventures are gear intensive. Gear decisions will get easier with experience.

Info window about each waypoint or point of interest, sometimes with photo or video embed. Zoom in or out, magnify, get directions, or go directly to the adventure page from the map.

Interactive features include search on this map as well as Panoramio and Wikepedia overlays

Interactive sidebar of the map's contents