Geo Photo Catalog

It might be 9 days before I can continue Adventurer's Project's "Geo Photo Catalog."  It has several applications.

Application #1: A photographic record of the trail to educate Buckeye Trail Association volunteers and a reference for future maintenance needs.

Application #2: Produce photos for trail adopter procurement.

Application #3: Social media content.  The photos will be released about 3 at a time in between other posts and help with fresh content during the cold days.

Application #4: Photos for Adventurer's Project's website.

Application #5: Pictures for trail promotion and volunteer procurement.

Application #6: Determine where we need to take pictures with better cameras.  Those photos can be used for trail promotion, the website and social media.

Adventurer's Project supports the Road Fork and Whipple Sections of the Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent) in Noble, Monroe, Washington and Morgan Counties of Ohio.  The photos are taken about every 50yds or less in both directions.  Currently, the photos are being taken at my smartphone's highest possible quality.  As this region's off-road total is about 40 miles, it should produce over 2,600 photos.  That's far more than Buckeye and North Country's hikers have produced at the moment. 

On-road portions have been recorded via video with spoken locations from an automobile.  Aside from that, Google Street View covers some of this area.  So at this point, it's mostly about photographing about 40 miles of off-road paths on foot.  And I'm earning my 2020 North Country Trail 100 Mile Challenge, which I've missed other challenges like this in previous years.

The "geo" part pertains to enabling my smartphone camera's "locator" to produce geotags.  This process embeds the location of where the photo was taken into the properties of the file.  From there, software can be used to extract their coordinates and then embed them into placemarks into a Google KML/ KMZ file.  In terms of the maintenance record, volunteer users can follow the photos, particularly with the GIS/ GPS track of the Road Fork and Whipple Sections.  So, this is to see the trail's line with the photos on an application like Google Earth and probably ArcGIS products?

In previous years, the camera locator was on by default.  But I like to refer to geotags as "creeper tags."  It's unfortunate because people were physically followed by others when they downloaded their pictures and had the geotags extracted.  They could tell by the days of the week when they took their kids to karate class for instance.

But recently, to enable the geotag feature, there are two safeties.  One is that the phone's locator must be enabled.  When it is, this is what enables the smartphone's mapping and navigation.  The second step is to enable the locator a second time, but in the camera app's settings.  I find it to be a wonderful tool for the trail, but I tend to use it wisely.  As of the time of this post, geotags are automatically stripped by Facebook, but not by every social media company.  Presently, Adventurer's Project is only on Facebook and no other social media service due to insufficient manpower to admin more.

At last count, it takes about 1 hour to photograph 2 miles of off-road footpath here in what I call "Far SE Ohio," which is in the Appalachian Foothills.  That's that's about 4 times faster than it takes to initially blaze (painted navigational markers) one.  But still, the "stop and go" is harder on my body and I haven't scheduled this photographing over 7 round trip miles yet.

So, that just about sums up Adventurer's Project's Geo Photo Catalog.

Valve Manifold, Clutch, Adventurer's Project 04/11/2019

I'll be bolting on my 2008 Chevy HHR's valve manifold tomorrow. And as far as I know, I have everything needed to replace my clutch?  I did a little volunteering for the BTA from behind the desk and some work on Adventurer's Project's website and Facebook page. If I end up replacing my clutch soon, I've got enough Facebook content to last us for the next 5 days.

Once that clutch is replaced, I have 5 gallons of gasoline in my Jerry can that's doing nothing but aging.  I'm pretty sure that I have a clogged catalytic converter or two and I'm not too sure about introducing it into the system until next month.  But who knows?

I'm really looking forward to continuing my geotagged photographic cataloging of the trail here.  Last week, I purchased a 20,000mAh power bank, which is an external battery that you attach to something like a smartphone with a USB cable and it acts like is on a charge.  Years ago, I learned that the thru hikers were using them and they got 9 days on airplane mode per charge.  With photo cataloging, I'm looking at getting about 23 miles per charge if I use this, another 5,000mAh external battery and the one that the smartphone has in it.  Since this photographing takes place at every blaze (painted navigational marker when off-road), I don't think there would be enough daylight during the summer equinox to go 23 miles at that rate.  I'm excited.

In total, this is estimated to produce up to about 3400 geotagged photos, taking over 14 gigabytes of hard disk space.  I plan to extract the geotags in some 3rd party software that will convert the pictures in to thumbnails and put them within placemarks/ waypoints (as to the location that they were taken) in something like Google Earth, or ArcGIS software.

This will ultimately benefit our local maintenance and the BTA's Trail Management Team.  In the short term, it's mostly an internal thing.  But some of the photos will be used on Adventurer's Project's website and Facebook page to demonstrate our vacant trail adoption segments.  And during the winters, we'll have some stock footage to use on it's Facebook page.  At that rate, it will take us 36 years to use all of them on Adventurer's Project's Facebook.  But if we start using different social media platforms, that number will diminish.

Viewers, if you have time, please click on Adventurer's Project's Facebook page and like us!

Smartphone vs Dedicated Hand GPS, Photo Catalog Off-Road Trail,

Normally, you don't want to use a smartphone's GPS to produce data for the public's consumption.  A dedicated hand GPS is a simpler device.  It's power is only committed (for the most part) to one function.  But a smartphone has a CPU, random access memory, internal and perhaps external storage.  It has an antenna for calling, text and data.  Then it has hardware for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a much larger screen and then it's GPS antenna.  The smartphone's power is more diverted than a dedicated hand GPS.  In comparison, it's as energy efficient as the dedicated device can be.  And with all this stuff being "crammed" in one form, it's likely that any given hand GPS has a larger antenna?  On the internal side of things, that alone goes a long way to making tracks and waypoints more accurate. 

The other considerations are usually atmospheric.  For instance, the sky needs to be partly sunny or better in order to accurately record GPS positions.  And very best time to record these is at night under a clear sky.  This is because the sun is not out causing interference in the upper atmosphere with the satellite reception.  However, that' not usually an option with distance trail volunteers.  On-road, you might not want to be caught "lurking around" while trying to get a fix on a location.  And night hiking is slow, more strenuous and there are plenty of tripping hazards.

Hikers, really don't need to worry about this.  With a 15,000mAh power bank, they can extend the length of their smartphone usage by as much as 9 days on airplane mode.  But the power banks are known to be heavy, so there's a trade off that should be theirs to consider.

I started photo cataloging the Road Fork and Whipple Sections of the Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent).  It's a project that's output would mostly be consumed internally.  The photos are geotagged, which means that when you use 3rd party software, it produces a waypoint in Google Earth with the pictures embedded in them.  And those waypoints are positioned according to the global coordinates that were recorded by the camera.  Smartphone's have the capability.  First the "locater" must be enabled for GPS functions.  Then as a safety, it has to be enabled in the camera's settings as well.

Considering the volunteerism that I've done with this project so far, I can say that the battery in my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 SM-N950U will last for 3 miles one way on hilly and curvy trail if a picture was taken at every blaze.  I have a 5,000mAh power bank that should get me 3 miles out and back.  Then today, I remembered that my laptop has a USB port that is always on.  I don't know if it's always on on battery mode, but if it is and I get an anti-static sealing bag for it, I might be able to "steal," or transfer power from it's battery to the smartphone's?

The last one that I did was 2.2 miles in one direction and I took 204 geotagged photos at 16:9 picture ratio, which is at about 9.1 megabytes per file.  The total project is estimated to be about 3,340 photos and be 29 gigabytes in hard disk size.  Right now, I'm having concerns about the thumbnails used in Google Earth.  That application can only handle 400 megabytes of data at once.  So with the data being broken down between map points, the total file size can't be more than 200 megabytes.  Seeing to this, while keeping the photos at adequate at quality might be challenging?  But actually being out and doing this was actually easier than I originally thought.

I am a volunteer with the Buckeye Trail Association.  I volunteer with a functions under the executive staff.  I'm a non-voting member of the Trail Management Team.  And I'm volunteer supervisor of the Whipple Section.  I usually contribute to it's Facebook group daily.

In 3rd party to that, I lead the Adventurer's Project.  We don't have a corp of officers yet.  Things are very new, so most of it is run by me still.  I'm the admin of it's Facebook page and usually contribute to it daily.  With all it's functions combined, my being the only one isn't the way it should be.  Maybe you might call me a "Super Volunteer" because I'm more of an "orange" than an apple.  I want Adventurer's Project's volunteerism to be measured more by them's than me's.  In fact, there's no measurement. 

If you have a moment, please like Adventurer's Project on Facebook.

Geotagged Trail Promotion Photos 08/29/2018

I spent some time today re-organizing Adventurer's Project's data. When I was on trail promotion two days ago, I took some geotagged photos of the various cork boards and rack card/ brochure posting opportunities to replace the icons at those locations. The photos were exported to Google Earth Pro and are overlaid with just about any of my previous data. Those photos have more information than just the icons. It displays its size and measures its traffic.

PIcasa & Google Earth

I've always used Picasa to embed photos into waypoints in Google Earth.  But Picasa has been discontinued for years.  I found a download for it, imported my photos, but it needed a previous version of Google Earth, the free version to work.  When Google Earth 7.0 opened up, I see it found my My Places from Pro.  I sure hope it didn't taint my original work?

But I got my geotags to work.  As far as trail promotion, there are only 60 of them.  If there were more, I'm sure that they are lost?

Data Transfer

I was go to bed, but I decided to digest the data that I transferred out of The Robot. What happened is that I was trying to setup a home cloud and I couldn't get it done because my old Internet gateway didnt have the features necessary to do it. When I left, I forgot to transfer the files to my laptop. I also didnt back up the My Places on The Robot.  As a result, The Robot had some things and the Laptop had others.

Getting back to Home Port on the fly isn't exactly simple these days. And I've been miss missing the geotagged photos that I've already taken. Some of them display flier posting opportunities that I've collected in the previous 2 years.

I think I have them now? They'll be used to try and estimate how many fliers I'll need coming up on Adventurer's Project's marketing routes.

Data Transfer Aug. 19, 2018

Systems maintenance is complete.  I'm now trying to move mapping and photo files from my network area storage to my laptop.  Only that I have to back in Woodsfield by 11am for a meeting.  Those files are extensive, so I saved the My Places from Google Earth on The Robot to the laptop and I'm transferring the pictures there now.  There's over 8 gigabytes of photos that have to go through the router.  I don't think that I have a flash drive on-board that could handle it.  I even forgot to pack the motorhome's smartphone USB cable.  That could have made it faster?

I tried taking the hard disk out of the network area storage and tried plugging it directly into the laptop with a kit that I have, but Windows couldn't read the drive's formatting.  The drive back to Woodsfield is about 3 - 1/2 hours because I'm taking my mini fridge down there on a trailer with wheels that max out at 55MPH.  I hope to get enough sleep?

What's special about these photos is that I might be able to use them for Adventurer's Project's Internet media.  We've had a shortage recently.  Most of my photos are for the Whipple Section and they're mostly maintenance ones, taken of a tree down, or some other issue.  At the moment, we may not have many photos taken in the best of circumstances and know where they are???

Adventurer's Project's Facebook page is young.  It's perhaps a struggle to keep it's content fresh and the way to survive a winter is with plenty of photos.

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.

Photos Finally Organized and Smartphone Issue

I finally organized all of the photos on The Robot.  The ones that need to be done on my smartphone and laptop have yet to be moved.  Next task with these is naming them so that I can use the operating system's native search function to find them later and faster.

I'm curious to see how many of them are geotagged?  That's the primary reason for doing this.  And some of them that aren't, I can embed a tag after the fact.  Those that are tagged can be imported into Google Earth.  When The Robot had a different configuration, I did this.  But their Google Earth properties are based on the previous file structure and those embedded placemarks might not read anymore.

Visual maintenance records for the Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail are among them.  I'm hoping to take plenty of geotagged photos when I hike through the rest of the Scioto Trail, Sinking Spring and West Union Sections - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail.

A member of the Buckeye Trail Association's Facebook group recently just got his first smartphone.  The question is could one last 10 years.   And I'm skeptical that one could go that long.  I have one now that was on the market maybe 3 or 4 years ago.  And right now, I'm having problems with it's 25GB of internal memory.  The internal memory can't be upgraded and many apps force themselves to be installed there. And now, my operating system won't read the two drives when it's tethered.

Log 2016041701

I geotagged 4 fords on Tittle Run Rd/ T43 in Independence Township of Washington County.  The road was a little rough on my Chevy HHR.  But on my way to check the name of a location that's in the Whipple Section's guide, I noticed a car that was parked near the pond at County Road 9 and Archer's Fork Road/ C14.  It was nice to know that somebody was hiking the section today.  And they weren't parked on the hill, but in a spot next to the road on federal property.  That might mean that they've read my Personal Section Supervisor's Page, which details public parking parking like that.  Then again, it could just be a coincidence?  All in all, I clocked in about 4 volunteer hours today.

Log 2016040401

Picasa Web Albums is needed to host geotagged pictures from the Internet.  I'm glad that I tried it.  It generated a KML file with each geotag's embedded global coordinates.  And that's great because I plan on sharing these generated KML files with others.  Otherwise, if I hosted them from one of my computers, should I share that file, their mapping software would try to located the photo (at the specified location, but on their computer), Google Earth would return a white box with red "X's" in them (image file not found).

So I took the liberty of getting them named in Google Earth.  That was something that I wasn't able to do in Picasa Web Albums because I didn't have the photo thumbnails overlaid with the Buckeye Trail's tracks there.  Most of Whipple's on-road intersection pictures are missing.  I had KML placemarks for when I uploaded them from Picasa's desktop application last time.  But I'm lost as to where they went?  The Robot had a fresh Windows re-install in November.  So if for some reason, they were on the desktop application only... they're gone now.  But I can't see how that is.  Being a computer guy, I know that those photos must have had a physical location somewhere.  107 geotagged maintenance photos of Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail's apertures and intersections are just gone.

Log 2016032201

It took 4.5hrs to geotag photos and track one 0.5mi trail over about 40 miles along the Burton Section - Buckeye Trail.

Log 2015042201

I arrived in the Marietta area about 20 hours ago.  And I've been staying at a hotel on the West Virginia side since.

- More items were dropped off at the supply point

- Before I left, I forgot to charge my power tool batteries, but I got them done at the hotel.

- I set up a PO box in the unincorporated community of Whipple in Washington County.

- I attempted to track the trail from Leith Run Recreation Area to the Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail.  But I didn't have a map, so I was working on just my memory.  And when it got longer than it should, I exited the forest on to Archers Fork Rd/ C14 and took the pavement back to my car.

- I got hiking maps from the National Forest Service Ranger Station in the unincorporated community of Reno in Washington County and found that I was tracking the wrong trail yesterday.

- I did some grocery shopping and I have enough supply to last at least 8 days.

- While I was at the hotel, I a small amount of laundry.

- I realized that my geotagged photos on Google Earth from my desktop computer didn't transfer over to the laptop.  This is because the geotags were dependent on the location of the photo files on the desktop.  The solution to the problem is to place geotagged photos on my Dropbox account, then create an identical file structure on my laptop and reassign Dropbox's local synchronizing folder to it.

- My toiletry bag has a few items that it did have before and is over filled.