Mileage information

There are times when my GPS throws a wobbly and either misses great chunks of miles, or adds some surreptitiously. Here is a record of those discrepancies with a running total of added/lost miles:

• 07/07/07 – From Leysin to Basel, Switzerland
• These first 428.5kms of the skateboarding leg were recorded without the help of a GPS. I got my current GPS unit in Basel, Swtizerland. I worked these miles out with the help of a bicycle computer attached to the board, and using mapquest.com for distances. Running total: 428.5kms / 266 miles
• 24/02/08 – Day 584: Minus 5 miles
• While sleeping under a bridge, my GPS ‘wandered’ in a digital sense, and added 5 miles to my route. Running total: 420kms / 261 miles
• 26/02/08 – Day 586 – Add 10 miles
• I ran out of batteries 10 miles out of Alpine, Texas, USA. Running total: 436km / 271 miles
• 05/03/08 – Day 595: Add 9 miles
• I forgot to turn my GPS back on after a lunch break, and noticed 9 miles later. Running total: 450km / 280 miles
• 10/06/08 – Days 689 to 692: Add 156km / 97 miles
• I had issues with batteries running out prematurely in my GPS unit, so had no battery power for three days. Running total: 606km / 377 miles
• 20/08/08 – Day 759: Add 16km / 10 miles
• Batteries ran out on this long, cold, rainy, windy day. I calculated the missed miles by measuring the ‘crow-fly’ distance between the GPS location where I stopped for the night and the GPS location where the batteries ran out. More than likely, due to the snaking road, I travelled more than the 16km. Darn it. Running total: 622km / 386 miles