Navigating Squak Mountain with the Garmin Fenix 5

Today, I set out to do my easy weekend long run on Squak Mountain. I was looking for a run of 12 miles and I wanted a good deal of elevation gain, but I also wanted to try out navigating with my Garmin Fenix 5X.

After reading the Garmin forum, I decided to use Garmin Connect to create a course, which I sent to my watch. I used the "freehand" feature in Garmin Connect to draw my own route. It gave me elevation gain and mileage--nice! The map showed the trails on Squak Mountain and I planned out a lollipop loop route. The mileage was 12.23 and the elevation 4100 feet. I have to activate "Navigation" as a choice when I activate my watch (like when I choose trail run, run, mountain bike, etc.) and then I can choose "Map" to see the course or "Do Course." It seemed like a good plan. (Note: Since I first published this post, I have learned it is better to leave it on "follow roads." Even though I am not running on roads, it will still trace the trail(s) between point A and point B for me. Nice!)

I started off at 6:00 am in drizzle. As I crawled my way up Margaret's Way Trail, my watch beeped at me. I rushed to put my reading glasses on (my sunglasses are being redone and besides, did I mention it was raining?) but by the time I got them on my face, the notification was gone. I held them in my hand waiting for the next one. Soon after, my watch vibrated. I noticed it gave a green loop arrow and an "On Course" message. I guessed correctly that beeping meant I was off-course and vibrating meant I was on. These messages continued as I ran up Margaret's Way. I continued on the Chybinski Trail with positive reinforcement from my watch, but when things got confusing, Garmin was silent. I wasn't sure which way to go, and my watch gave me no feedback.

I tried pausing the run, choosing "Resume Later," but that didn't allow me to see the map of the course. I exited the run so I could see the map. It showed the course and where I was, and I tried to zoom in but couldn't find the trail or my location once I did. Useless. I continued on, starting the watch again.

By the time I was climbing the Central Peak of Squak Mountain, I knew I was off course. This would not have been too big of a deal, except that I needed to be back at my car by 9:10 to get to a hair appointment in North Bend. I had all kinds of trouble, from going up to the peak when my watch told me I was off course many times and even when it showed me a map with an arrow I couldn't decipher what I was supposed to do, to running STEEPLY down Squak Mountain Road in hopes of finding a trail to the west, to getting forced into mud by a branch only to have my shoe stay behind as I ran. No kidding! It took me three tries to yank it out.

In the end, I wound up desperately following signs back to SR 900 which is where my car was (but there are two trailheads on SR 900 about a mile apart). Eventually, I ended up on Chybinski Loop (not that any signs told me so) from the opposite side and I headed back down Margaret's Way as fast as I could go. I got to my car by 9:13. I was about five minutes late to my hair appointment.

Back to the drawing board...or should I say Garmin Connect? I refined my route by adding course points just before trail junctions. I named the points with things like "LEFT W PEAK" for a left turn on the West Peak Trail. My watch is supposed to give me warnings of the points as I approach. This, of course, is dependent on the watch having good reception.

The Garmin Connect application is TERRIBLE. I had done about half of the course points, clicking "save point" as I went. I got booted out--zoomed out completely and having to click edit again--when I had done half the course points. Only then did I realize that none of my work, including fine-tuning the trail, had been saved. I had spent about an hour doing this so I was kinda upset. I started over and clicked "save changes" often, which resulted in a full zoom out and having to click edit again. If I didn't, it booted me out, but only after I made some more changes to the course. Otherwise, nothing happened at all. I had to make changes to get booted out and lose those changes. Super annoying! I learned to save changes after each course point, which took a long time because it would always boot me out shortly after and then take forever to reload the edit screen. Garmin, please improve! (Note: I was using a PC laptop when I made my courses. Today I tried it on a PC desktop computer and didn't have any problems. Hmm.)

Kinda small, but you can see my course points, the purple flags on the route.

I plan to make new routes for my eight-mile run on Wednesday and my 20 miler next weekend and use course points. The only way to view the map is to avoid starting my watch ("Do Course") at the beginning of the run. I can't see the map if I start my watch to follow the course. But if the navigation isn't working due to poor reception, then the course point warnings do me no good. It would be nice to somehow be able to see the map when needed when I am following a course. According to help on the Garmin Forum, I should be able to see it. I believe I tried what it says to do (use the up or down arrow and hold menu for three seconds). I will try again Wednesday on a shorter run. Since the weather is supposed to be nice both Wednesday and Saturday, I am hoping to "Do Course" to try the course point warnings to make my way correctly. We shall see.

If anyone knows how to use the Garmin Fenix 5X to navigate while running in the woods, please comment! I could really use some help.