KMZ Files & calculating mileage

Okay, I set my GCz to log my course on Sunday on a 7(ish) mile walk.

I obtained the txt file which I have converted to a KMZ file, which I then overlaid in Google Earth.

Not entirely successful as it was a circular walk and I have an orange trace line which is broken in many places.
I know I didn't teleport parts of the route, so is this perhaps where I went under heavy tree cover and my phone lost the GPS signal?
If so it means most of my treks will never be capable of being fully logged, as I usually end up under trees at some point.

I had the phone in it's pouch on my belt (as I was using the Garmins of other team members to find the caches) To get a proper tracking log does the phone need to be held out in the open rather than, or would that make no difference?

And finally:
Regardless of how complete my track log is, how do I get the mileage from the KMZ file?
Is it done withing Google Earth somehow or is there a bit of software that calulates distance from the file?

I would really love to track some of my walks and calculate the distance. Especially as I am about to set a circular series of multi caches and would like to put on the cache page how many miles the walk is in total.

Thanks.

Take a look at this: http://gpsed.com/about . I haven't used this software, but made a note of it as I was browsing.

After a track is presented in Google Earth (and maybe Google Maps?), it will allow you to click along a route to calculate distance. Probably not an exact measurement, but perhaps close enough for what you're trying to do.

Thanks S.A.M, I will take a look at that.

I would recomend GPSed as well. I use it for all sorts of back country tracking. As long as your phone doesn't go into standby, you should be good. See example here

Andronicus wrote:I would recomend GPSed as well. I use it for all sorts of back country tracking. As long as your phone doesn't go into standby, you should be good. See example here

Yes, that's what I wanted to end up with, thanks.

I will play with that today and go for a walk round town and see if I can get an unbroken route.

My HD2 does go into standby (when on a long hike using GCz I put it into stand by to save battery).

I wonder if that's what is breaking my route.

I'll experiment today and see what happens.