Log 2016040101

Yesterday, I joined the new Facebook Group for the American Discovery Trail.  I would love to see pictures for the ADT's intersections with the Triple Crown (Appalachian, Continental Divide and Pacific Crest Trails).  And I'd like to know more about those three wheeled strollers that I've been seeing.  But I'm really there to assist their adventurist with giving them some Ohio data and "pointers."

I now have GPS tracks for the American Discovery Trail (ADT) in Ohio & Kentucky, it's by-passes and one spur.  The Buckeye Trail (BT) is off-road on a variety of surfaces and in some places, as far as the permitted mode of travel is concerned, they can be at the mercy of the park district.  About 90% of the BT's off-road surfaces occur within government reservations.  However, the BT by the nature of it's establishment is a "hiking route."  The ADT on the other hand is more "multi mode."  That's why they need bypasses.

But many of those who hike or volunteer on the BT can tell you where it and the North Country Trail (NCT) intersect.  They can do so with the ADT intersection in Cincinnati.  But they're sometimes foggy about where the SE intersection is.  Where the NCT is reliant on the BT's maps when their concurrent, for it's own purposes, the ADT produces its own map and guide, even when their concurrent.

With the addition of their spurs, this might be confusing.  I don't know of any ADT support between Belpre of Washington County and Cincinnati of Hamilton County.  And I can't recall if ADT's map and guide has ever being submitted to the 9 concurrent BT section supervisors?  If they haven't, they might not know what's going on.  And that's why I'm not sure if BT's Facebook Group will know what's going on.

For an ADT traveler on BT concurrent sections, the best way to get support would probably be on their Facebook Group.  But here's the thing.  It's something a local custom around here that anytime that one a distance trail wants to run concurrent with a second distance trail, that the first one will only be there for ROUTING ONLY.  Some of the administrative and nearly all of the maintenance (for instance) is the domain of the primary agency.  The problem is how ADT weaves in and out of the BT on those by-passes.  With the exception of the Shawnee By-Pass, those are not a part of the BT.

On the BT, they have map and guide combination documents.  It's like being on a limited access toll road.  And instead of having exit numbers based on mile markers, this is one of those roads where they go 1, 2, 3 and so on regardless of the distance between them.  Often times, locations are expressed as being something like "New Straitsville Section, Pt. 13."  ADT mentions the section names, but does not use the BT's point system.  BT has explored going to a mile marker system and so far it's been unpopular and perhaps difficult to implement as of yet (communication with ADT adventurist could change that).  Meanwhile, the guides have mileages, but probably not as frequent as the ADT's.  So, their adventurist and the BT community might have some communication problems and confusion over the admin and maintenance of those by-pass routes.  I think that ADT should save themselves some manpower and get out of the business of mapping on concurrent distance trails... leave it up to those agencies.  ADT should only produce materials for the bypasses and all other areas beyond the BT.