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2016/02/19

Log 2016021901

I continue to edit the guide for the upcoming 2016 Edition of the Ohio Transit Hiker's Resource (OTHR).  Today, I added two sections to it to compensate for transit on the Belle Valley and Delphos Sections of the Buckeye/ North Country Trails (BT/ NCT).  So far...

The map needs:
1) For me to account for all resource points that don't pertain to transit.  I may have used them for the Continuous Short Hikes document (both with and with out transit).  This is where I write up two schedules for two mock hikers to test what parts of the distance trails can be hiked at 10 miles per day.  Or they might be used in the thru hike compliance documents (also both with and without).

 Here in Ohio, I deem a distance trail as able to sustain a thru hiker at a rate of 20 miles per day in the west, north and east, then 15 miles per day in the south with "just in case" reserves of 3.0 and 4.9 miles in addition respectively.  The document assumes that the hiker isn't willing to walk more than 3.0 & 4.0 miles off trail and also respectively.  That's just a cookie cutter.  The daily mileages are often less, and invoking the reserve is rare.  The distance hiking community as far as I know really doesn't really have a means to measure themselves.  If they did, they could pin point their weaknesses and concentrate on those areas.  Otherwise, what they want to do and where they want to do it might as well be a guess, or perhaps even a shot in the dark.  They need to put together a realistic method based to meet the demands of their markets.

2) Some of the unmaintained amenity spurs in the south were accidentally drawn on the 4.0 mile standard.  They need to be cut back to 3.0 miles or less to comply.  That means that I might have to eliminate one or two from the map, and then the guide.

The guide needs:
1) "In transit range of" statements pertaining local transit and if it can access regional transit within a certain county.  Then because of our county wide dial-a-ride agencies, it needs to state how far they'll have it.
2) Belle Valley and Delphos Sections - BT/ NCT need to be added.  I use book marks in my table of contents so that digital users can just tap, or click on the name and go right to a section.  Well, the bookmarks were done in Roman numerals, so they and the text (from Section's XV - XXXVII) need to be modified.

3) Single digit points and resource points need have a preceding zero.  That's because all of the single digits in map data has them to conform with Google Earth's numbering system.
4) It seems that the former Greyhound affiliate "Lakefront Lines" no longer has regularly scheduled routes like they use to.  I noticed something was up when the affiliates "GoBus" and "Baron's Bus" now stop in Cleveland.  But I'm not complaining.  This year the resource picked up two new regional transit stops in Caldwell of Noble County and Delphos of Allen County.  Those are great locations for transit hikers on distance trails.

5) Between now and the 2013 edition, the New Straitsville and Old Man's Cave Sections of the Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail had rerouted to come along the property for a state natural area.

6) All paragraphs need to be indented

7) A statement in the Advisory Section needs to say something like "transit services cataloged in this resource are based on the content of the agency's website."  OTHR catalogs one (that I know of) who may have given me contradicting information.

8) The Allen County Regional Transit Authority (ACRTA) has be added back on to the OTHR for the upcoming 2016 Edition as a provider of Paratransit services for the disabled.  The word disabled is like a "catch all phrase," where it could mean anything.  And that could mean that some of them could hike, or given the right surfaces... "handihike."

9) It needs a spelling and grammar check.

10) OTHR uses a combination "Glossary & Site Index" to define terms and assist with search engine indexing.  The terms and codes need to be bolded in the guide so that the user knows that they can look them up.  OTHR works when it's materials are printed on paper, but it's really designed to be read on mobile devices.

11) When I convert the guide from it's word processor file to a .PDF, I'll need to make sure that the links and bookmarks carry over.  That didn't happen in the 2013 Edition.

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