2017/11/20
American Discovery Trail Total Mileage: Washington County
As of the date of this log, the total mileage of the American Discovery Trail in Washington County is 30.6 miles. The total of BT/NCT + ADT in Washington County combined is 87.9 miles.
Buckeye Trail Total Mileage: Washington County
As of the date of this log entry, the total mileage of the Buckeye/ North Country Trail in Washington County is 57.3 miles.
2017/11/07
Trail Promotion, Geotagged Photos
Off-road trail segments often need maintenance 3 times annually. And 1/3rd of any segment needs to be reblazed in that time. When I was a trail adopter, at first, I lived 29 miles from my segment. It was pretty easy to get to. But after I moved, I was 65 miles from it then and found it to be much more difficult. It was still doable, but I wouldn't want to be much further. This is why in trail promotion, I use a 65 mile standard. In all thoroughness, my #1 goal is volunteer recruitment (instead of exposure and membership). So, I want to know how far I can possibly push it and I think that 65 miles is it.
In all of this GPS mapping that I've done, I've created a map with 130 mile corridor polygons. These are shapes with unlimited sides that has the trail's track running through the middle. I did mine "as the crow files" to save time, so a location on the edge of the polygon will still need to be checked and be within 65 miles driving distance. With that all being written, it creates a quick reference for me to determine if a event is worth promoting at.
Unmanned promotion??? Well somebody has to put up a flier or lay brochures and cards down. This might not be as effective as a manned table or booth, so a volunteer would need to do these in great number. With a polygon like this, the post offices, libraries and another other opportunities could be mapped. And from there, routes can be devised. Of those other opportunities, I take "geotagged" photos of them with my Android based smartphone. To do this, the "Locater" needs to be enabled. This is the one that enables GPS navigation. Then in the camera app -> Settings (gear icon)-> Locater Tag needs to be set to "on." This is like a double safety. When your done geotagging photos, you might want to switch the "Locater Tag" to "off." This is something you might want to do if you could be followed in-person. The whole point of this is to snap the photo and go. By way of freeware (software that is free), those photos will tell you where a cork board (for instance) is and also how large it is. All those photos being taken in the zone will add to the trail promotion routes. What the freeware does is it extracts the geotag from the photo file and gives you the option to save embedded photos in a Google Earth KML File. How to share geotagged photos? Well, in Google Earth, they read as an embedded waypoint and the photo is the one stored on the hard drive. Everybody's "My Documents" directory is a little different. Sharing could be made easier if the photos that were geotagged were stored in a directory like "C:/(trail)/(section)." From there, other users would download everything from an e-mail attachment and be instructed to put it in this directory. That way everybody has the same file system. And no matter who's computer it's on, Google Earth will read everything.
In all of this GPS mapping that I've done, I've created a map with 130 mile corridor polygons. These are shapes with unlimited sides that has the trail's track running through the middle. I did mine "as the crow files" to save time, so a location on the edge of the polygon will still need to be checked and be within 65 miles driving distance. With that all being written, it creates a quick reference for me to determine if a event is worth promoting at.
Unmanned promotion??? Well somebody has to put up a flier or lay brochures and cards down. This might not be as effective as a manned table or booth, so a volunteer would need to do these in great number. With a polygon like this, the post offices, libraries and another other opportunities could be mapped. And from there, routes can be devised. Of those other opportunities, I take "geotagged" photos of them with my Android based smartphone. To do this, the "Locater" needs to be enabled. This is the one that enables GPS navigation. Then in the camera app -> Settings (gear icon)-> Locater Tag needs to be set to "on." This is like a double safety. When your done geotagging photos, you might want to switch the "Locater Tag" to "off." This is something you might want to do if you could be followed in-person. The whole point of this is to snap the photo and go. By way of freeware (software that is free), those photos will tell you where a cork board (for instance) is and also how large it is. All those photos being taken in the zone will add to the trail promotion routes. What the freeware does is it extracts the geotag from the photo file and gives you the option to save embedded photos in a Google Earth KML File. How to share geotagged photos? Well, in Google Earth, they read as an embedded waypoint and the photo is the one stored on the hard drive. Everybody's "My Documents" directory is a little different. Sharing could be made easier if the photos that were geotagged were stored in a directory like "C:/(trail)/(section)." From there, other users would download everything from an e-mail attachment and be instructed to put it in this directory. That way everybody has the same file system. And no matter who's computer it's on, Google Earth will read everything.
2017/11/06
Life Membership, Resupply Points and Thru Hiker Completion
I just received my life membership card for the Buckeye Trail Association about a week ago. I may have mentioned in a previous log that I used money orders to make 10 installments of $60. I was late sending it in due to the Thru Hiker Hurricane in September.
I downloaded GPS data that I generated over the past year today, got it organized in Google Earth. It was uploaded to the cloud. This past week, I attended a finale celebration for Mei Ling Liber's completion of the Buckeye Trail circuit in Milford of Clermont County. Afterwards, I drove to Marietta.
Once out there, I drove from site to site and collected GPS waypoints on resupply areas. We are prepared for the next thru hiker now. After that, I drove through almost all of the roads, collecting information on which ones have utility poles. Previously, my on-road blazing opportunity data only stated where it's could be possible (it didn't differentiate between surfaces)?
I downloaded GPS data that I generated over the past year today, got it organized in Google Earth. It was uploaded to the cloud. This past week, I attended a finale celebration for Mei Ling Liber's completion of the Buckeye Trail circuit in Milford of Clermont County. Afterwards, I drove to Marietta.
Once out there, I drove from site to site and collected GPS waypoints on resupply areas. We are prepared for the next thru hiker now. After that, I drove through almost all of the roads, collecting information on which ones have utility poles. Previously, my on-road blazing opportunity data only stated where it's could be possible (it didn't differentiate between surfaces)?
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