The Active 10 is the GPS of choice for many people attempting charity challenges and we are proud to be able to contribute to many good causes. Let yourself be inspired by some of the impressive feats on this page and perhaps we'll be able to feature you next.
Colorado Trail Race August 2011
"The Colorado Trail Race - 500 miles and 65000 feet of ascent through the Rocky Mountains. The toughest mountain bike event of my life.
Planning and preparation had gone well, and lining up at the start I felt confident to take on the challenge.
I had my trusted Active 10 with Colorado mapping, the race route and poi's preloaded onto the SD card. Satmap had kindly loaned my brother Andy the same set up - I'd given him a few lessons on its use, but he was very much a beginner and new to GPS. I'd managed to convince him that carrying extra paper maps was not necessary - the active 10 would not let him down.
As the 70 racers spread out and the mountains got bigger and bigger route finding became more and more critical, mistakes meant hours of lost time. The active 10 kept me on track and with planning and zooming in and out I always knew what was coming up. (This was not necessarily a good thing - often it revealed another 1000 feet of climbing I hadn't realised!) The sun filter proved invaluable, allowing me to see the necessary detail in bright light whilst wearing sunglasses, I was glad I'd remembered to show Andy that feature.
As the race progressed I realised the scale of the task, and the effects of the altitude - one thing I couldn't really prepare for. The race became a challenge just to finish as my body struggled to function between 10 and 13 thousand feet. The more tired I became the more I appreciated how easy the route finding was compared to using map and compass, it almost felt like I was cheating! Other riders used an array of GPS units but none could easily produce the detail and wealth of information that I could. On day seven Andy caught me up in Silverton, an historic mining town in the San Juan range. I was relieved to see he had remembered my lessons, and had discovered more useful features as he played with his Active 10. It was also kind of comforting to know he had also been struggling with the altitude. I was not the only one out there suffering! Together we rode the final day and a bit to the finish in Durango.
After a few days rest and recovery the unit then became our satnav back to Denver (by car!)
The advanced power saving features meant that whilst averaging over 16 hours on the move each day, in just over eight days I was still only on my fourth set of batteries.
I knew the Active 10 was the best navigational tool for the job. Despite only knowing the basics Andy was won over by its ease of use and adaptability - getting him to relinquish it will be difficult!"
Steve Heading, Colorado Trail Race participant
Read a more detailed description of Steve's ride on this blog post