Merging GIS Tracks - Harbor Springs Chapter

For the last 3 days, I've been merging tracks for the Harbor Spring Chapter of the North Country Trail Association in Lower Peninsula Michigan with GPS Visualizer.  For North Country, it's about 63 miles, so it not a large span.  It's definitely shouldn't be that challenging for GPSVisualizer.  I've seen it twice that distance in to one track and get the elevation profile right.

This picture is a screen shot displaying the merged path/ track with some of it's original data and an elevation profile.  In that profile, the outline of the chart should be in solid red.  And look at those straight drops between Miles 40 and 50.  I've never been on this section before.  But that also looks like an error.  The original track elevation profiles work.  It's just that merged all 63 miles together three separate times and can't get the elevation profile working.  I'm going to move on to a different chapter.  If the errors show up there too, then I can probably say that GPSVisualizer is having a bad day.

Log 2016062701

Merging the Superior Hiking Trail into one track shouldn't be too hard.  From what I'm seeing so far, it's on Google Maps.  The way it looks, it would need to be retracked in Google Maps Engine in thirds to have enough of those relocation circles, then merged with GPS Visualizer.  In order to save on those circles, I recommend rerouting Maps' track from both ends.

I'm testing the accuracy of my Maps route in Google Earth against Superior's GIS data.  If it doesn't match up in an area, I have Google Maps Engine in my Chrome browser with bottom of the window moved up to see the global coordinates (in decimal degrees) when Google Earth is under it.  When the area is the last thing that I hovered in in Google Earth, I keep my mouse in the same places as I press ALT + Tab on my keyboard and switch to Chrome.  That keeps the coordinates in place.

Once in chrome, I can move my mouse over the search field in Google Maps Engine and I'll type Earth's coordinates and press Enter.  When the map moves to that area, I can see if there's another trail in the area that matches the GIS's route.  If so, I'll reroute and move the track to the correct path.  When that's done, I'll save the revised route as KML to my hard drive, then open it in Google Earth and delete the incorrect track from before.

If there isn't a route on Google Maps as specified by an distance trail agency's, then I'll go back to Google Earth and delete the track anchors in between the affected points.  I'm doing this as a part of a North Country Trail project, so I like to work from east to west.  At this point, I have to redraw the correct path by hand starting in the east according to NCT's progression.  The tracks have to written in the same direction to be merged.

A rail grade on the Superior Hiking Trail (North Country Trail concurrent) appears on the map.  However Google Maps Engine won't route through it at 47.142827, -91.692487 that is north of Stewart, Minnesota.  Satellite mode revealed that there's no longer a crossing there as if the road that it was on was shut down.  If your working with this trail like I am, you'll need to get a track segment to end at it, then import it in to Google Earth and open it's properties.  Once there, you need to extend the route over the tracks by hand.

Log 2015111401

Today, I charted the location of the high and low points of the Buckeye Trail's 26 sections.  Afterwards, I started making placemarks of intersections, whole miles and the high and low points on the Road Fork Section only.  The goal is to have them done for the entire circuit so that when I go route my mock thru and 10 miler hikers, I can have an easy mileage reference.  This is a lot of work.  There are times when I easily loose track of what mileage I'm going for.  This happens every time I go to produce a new edition to the Ohio Transit Hiker's Resource (OTHR).  I guess it's just a lot of detail and information.

When going for whole miles, I have to delete a copy of the section's master track from it's terminator with the "Properties" menu up and set to the "Measurements" tab in Google Earth.  The track has little squares that are like anchors.  They pertain to the global coordinates in the track's XML (an Internet programming language) for every place the track turns, no matter how insignificant.  And if I'm not careful when doing as it gets close, the desired mileage might be between these anchors and I could overshoot it.  My Road Fork track has 60 of these markers.  One section down, 25 more to go.

Naming the low and high points could be useful for OTHR's guide.  But I plan on writing a page here on Blogger highlighting them in the future.  Since I've completed the successful merging of the BTA GIS/ GPS Data Depository into 26 sections, I can confirm that nothing on the circuit is higher than 50ft north of the oval in Burton of Geauga County on the west sidewalk of North Cheshire Street.  At 1,332 feet above sea level, I am certain that this is the highest point on the Buckeye Trail as of the date of this log.  Also verified it's elevation with a USGS topo map.