England
Backpacking Dorset
A GPS Trail Guide with World War Two Landmarks
INTRODUCTION
The coast of Dorset is steeped with history, from Iron Age hill forts, medieval monasteries, and relics of World War II. The Dorset coast is also known for its beautiful landscape and unique geology. In fact, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently inscribed the Dorset coast in its list of natural properties. According to UNESCO, "The Dorset and East Devon Coast provides an almost continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era, documenting approximately 185 million years of Earth history. It also includes a range of internationally important fossil localities — vertebrate and invertebrate, marine and terrestrial — which have produced well-preserved and diverse evidence of life during Mesozoic times."
PUBLIC TRAILS
The most difficult part of hiking across the network of publicly accessible trails is finding the next trail head. That's why there's more than 500 GPS waypoints at the back of this guide. With a GPS receiver and the waypoints in this guide, you can easily locate your position and proximity to the points referenced on our maps. In fact, if you just follow the waypoints in the order they're listed, you can follow the entire route with great precision. The trails is this guide follow a long distance trail known as the Coast Path. If you do not have a GPS receiver then just use the maps in this guide and the signposts along the trail to find your way.
GPS RECEIVERS AND GPS WAYPOINTS
The GPS receiver is an electronic device that listens to satellite signals and uses the information to determine and display the receiver's location, speed, altitude and heading. A hand held GPS receiver can pinpoint your current location, tell you how fast you're traveling, how far you've traveled, and how high you're climbing. The GPS waypoint is a navigational fix on a point of reference. The GPS waypoint is oftentimes provided as a set of longitude and latitude coordinates in the "degree, minute, second" format, as they're listed in Part Three of this guide. Your GPS receiver will display the waypoint of your current location, and you can use that information to compare with the waypoints in this guide as you hike. Many of the waypoints in Part Three are referenced directly on the maps.
MAPS
There are three types of maps in this guide: trail maps, street maps, and maps of Dorset during the Second World War. The maps of Dorset during the Second World War were first published in 1937 and used by England's residents during this period.
INSTRUCTIONS
Most of the trails in this guide include short descriptive instructions to help you find your way — without spoiling the surprise and adventure of seeing the landscape for the first time, in person. We chose to describe the route in an east to west fashion, from Bournemouth to Lyme Regis. If you don't have a lot of time to spare then perhaps you will at least visit the towns and villages of Studland, Swanage, Lulworth, and Abbotsbury. The pickatrail.com Web site has some beautiful color photographs of these locations. In fact, the black and white photographs in this guide can be seen on the Web site in color. Using public transportation is an alternative to hiking the entire route. Part Four of this guide has a distance checklist to help you plan your journey. Before you begin your journey, visit the pickatrail.com Web site. The Web site will take you on a tour of the trails with interactive trail maps. You can also find updates to this guide on the Web site. Updates might include trail diversion notices and other relevant information. Have fun, be safe, and enjoy the southwest coast of England! |
