Tried to Move Road Fork/ Whipple Work Week, Dispersed Camping, Timeline, Failure

Three years ago, I was asked to request that the BTA move it's Road Fork/ Whipple Work Week back from July annually to June.  I explained that this could be difficult because Buckeye only has one crew to spare for this region.  We do it at the height of the growing season and that moving it back to June could entail the Buckeye Trail Association having to field a second crew. 

Well, I did it.  And all of those were concerns at the BTA, there was another.  The BTA expanded to include more work weeks elsewhere.  As a result, it was impossible to move Road Fork and Whipple's back.  I'm not sure if the outside understands just how big the BT is?  I'm certain that National Forest Service's view is deficient with it, however, that's not really their fault because this sort of data only resides currently on my computers. 

They think that the forest has truly dispersed camping when it comes to distance hikers, but they're missing a number of factors.  They have to do with the balance between Buckeye's very fixed amenities, the terrain in the Marietta Unit and the intent of the hikers, which influences where they disperse camp.  And I think that there are these unauthorized campsites on wonderful terrain because the hikers over the decades independently reached the same conclusion and that's what cased them to be well impacted?

The Hiker Hurricane was about 2 years ago (I think).  The three year plan for this region entailed stabilizing the Whipple Section.  That was done.  The second year was supposed to be for maintenance and using my section supervisor credentials to improve the trail adoption numbers for it.  But Year 2 was a dud.  I'm a Disabled Vet.  When my housing situation hit the fan in Year 1, I withdrew back to Painesville.  In May of Year 2, I purchased a 29 year old motorhome.  But it's expenses and mechanical needs exceeded my abilities.  The hiker hurricane hit that year.  In Year 3, I can't remember what happened then?  But in the winter, my family has a mechanic friend and we spent 4 months working on the motorhome and got me in Far SE Ohio on May 7th.  I've been here ever since.

While I was having difficulties, there are certain people who I don't entirely trust around both within and without.  And sometimes, some in the BTA can be impressionable to failure.  With exceptions, I kept my whereabouts a secret for the most part.

Dispersed Camping Waypoints - NCT NY

I'm pretty convinced that the GPS camping information is pretty much compiled for the North Country Trail in New York State.  The re-formating of the commercial campground and lodging waypoint labels sill has to be done.  I determined that I might be able to program a series of commands and keystrokes on my gaming keypad to speed that up.  There's a number of redundant waypoints that were a result of my search and save method that need to be eliminated.  But today, I'm focused on dispersed, or backcountry camping.

  I determined that when I start the mile markers, that I'll use the dispersed "on" and "off" signals that I devised as to where to put down a mile marker.  If I have markers there and a dispersed campsite on the mock hiker simulation occurs between them, I won't have measure very much from the last one.  In fact, I'll probably add to the markers as I do this.

Michigan DNR, Pennsylvania DCNR and Vermont ANR Plotted

Michigan DNR parcel GIS data is taxing my computer to it's limits.  I have to set my CPU's to "high priority" for Google Earth Pro and it barely runs it.  I can't find any shapes of for DNR's reservations.  Instead, I'm using the parcels, which has a lot more entries.  I'd like to color code them for the camping that's available, but with how I'm throwing everything my computer's go into it and it's running really slow, I don't think that it's worth it.

Google Earth displays the state forest reservation lines, but doesn't have an icon in them telling me what it is.  I started the DIS C I's and O's (dispersed camp, on and off), but it's a shot in the dark if I got them right.  They will probably have to do?

The state polygons (shapes) for Pennsylvania commonwealth reservations are in.  It's state forests are few, but dispersed camping is permitted and they're all colored green.  I just finished up Vermont's state reservations.  That's it.  The ground work is laid for camping.  The next thing I'll be doing is lodging and I should probably be done with that quickly?

And of course all this is a continuation of my North Country Trail mapping project.

Dispersed Camp Permitted 05/23/2017

Dispersed camping is permitted on Nebraska state wildlife and fishing lands, except fish hatcheries which require permission as of 05/23/2017.  Pursuant to:

1) http://www.sos.ne.gov/rules-and-regs/regsearch/Rules/Game_and_Parks_Commission/Title-163/Chapter-2.pdf

2) http://www.sos.ne.gov/rules-and-regs/regsearch/Rules/Game_and_Parks_Commission/Title-163/Chapter-4.pdf

Dispersed Camping, Arches NP on the ADT

ADT people - Dispersed camping is usually only permitted on BLM lands and certain National Forests. If your unfamiliar with it, usually the regulations are that you can camp anywhere as long as it's 150ft from a road, trail, trail head, established campground or recreation area. I've heard the Pacific Northwest Trail going as high as 300ft.

I just went back through my NFS data. Their statements on their website are confusing. But being in Ohio and knowing the regulations here (Wayne National Forest), I had a basis for comparison. Nonetheless, the dispersed camping data has been corrected. We've got it a little better than i had thought.

Basically, like The Wayne, you've got other forests out there that permit dispersed camping almost "stem to stern." In my map, those forests are colored "green." Then you've got some that permit dispersed camping, but only in certain areas. They're colored "yellow." And then you've got one like the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri, where we only pass next to a little portion of them. This is an example of a forest that only permits it in certain areas and none of them are within a hiker's patience (a quantifiable distance) from from trail. Those areas are colored "red."

I'm at the point now where I'm the most concerned about water resupply in the deserts. With all this lodging and campgrounds stuff that I've been doing, I'm going to plot the grocers and post offices for them only. I wonder how close to one resupply a day could I get??? The American Discovery Trail - Nevada by-passes Arches National Park. By the map, they could have routed through there on existing road and trail. Why they didn't? Well, it could be soil, or geology, or trail logistics. And sometimes, distance trails are not judged based on the traffic that it's currently producing, but how much they think it could do? I'm going to be working on this all day. This blog is "Treeman's Adventures and Volunteerism." You could probably just search for "Treeman's Adventures" from a search engine and get here.