I was thinking about publishing data on regional, national and international transit along the North Country Trail. Considering that the North Country concurrency with Buckeye is 917 of its 1444 miles, I might as well do the rest of Buckeye as well. But I think that the BT is now in need of a new logistics diagnostic done at the generally 10 mile per day hiking rate. I think that I last did it using transit and since that site is off-line, I think that the public needs to know how 10 miler comparable this trail is without it?
That's going to entail the updating of my Buckeye Trail custom tracks and map points. I'll have to sift through the entire circuit's maps and map updates just to make sure everything is current. And I prefer to do these in the winter if I can? These are going to be courtesy of Adventurer's Project and available in the "Special Services and Map Repository" section of it's website.
The Regional+ transit data is going to be like a stripped down version of the Ohio Transit Hiker's Resource. Local transit lines and services will be limited to getting from the regional, national and international amenities to the trail by much fewer ways. In this case, it makes sense to do the non-transit 10 miler diagnostic first to so I know how to affect the local camping/ lodging situation (if I can).
This particular diagnostic will be on camping amenities alone. The Buckeye Trail is a camping/ lodging dependent trail. But lately, the market is demanding camping only. If this diagnostic serves anything, it might serve to inform the audience that their demand is futile?
Showing posts with label mock hiker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mock hiker. Show all posts
2019/05/10
2018/12/14
ADT Diagnostic Continued
There have been problems with my GPS data for the American Discovery Trail. I've noticed that with what I have saved recently in Google Earth that I'm somehow missing things? Right now, I'm writing my Mock Hiker Logistical Diagnostic map by way of the North Mid-West Route (NMR). I was working with ADT - Indiana on the NMR earlier and it has multiple amenity gaps. That's a conclusion that I don't like coming to and try to avoid at all costs. I don't think that should be right? I know that the ADT is more supported on the north side than it is on the south. The longest day that anyone should be reluctant to have (due to availability of overnight amenities) is about 27.5 miles long in Nebraska.
I managed to find my lodging folder. But I'm thinking that my governmental reservations data will have to be rebuilt? I think I'll start that task later today, this time starting with local then county parks on up to the federal level. I like overlaying as many maps as I possibly can. Right now without so many of those, my ADT file in Google Earth is about 90 megabytes in a zipped KMZ file. I either expect that size to go up tremendously when I do this, or I'll save each state to the hard drive, which is probably the better idea. At that point, I can just open them as needed and save on my computer resources that way. Uncompressed, Google Earth has trouble opening files in the ballpark of 320 megabytes and up.
The odds of me finishing the diagnostic in the next two days are looking extremely slim.
I managed to find my lodging folder. But I'm thinking that my governmental reservations data will have to be rebuilt? I think I'll start that task later today, this time starting with local then county parks on up to the federal level. I like overlaying as many maps as I possibly can. Right now without so many of those, my ADT file in Google Earth is about 90 megabytes in a zipped KMZ file. I either expect that size to go up tremendously when I do this, or I'll save each state to the hard drive, which is probably the better idea. At that point, I can just open them as needed and save on my computer resources that way. Uncompressed, Google Earth has trouble opening files in the ballpark of 320 megabytes and up.
The odds of me finishing the diagnostic in the next two days are looking extremely slim.
2018/12/09
American Discovery Trail Data Re-Organized, Upcoming Logistics Diagnostic
I've reorganized my American Discovery Trail data using a standardized template that I use for ordering items in Google Earth Pro for every distance trail that I work with. Under ADT's directory, it should be something like 00aa. for Delaware tracks, 00ab for alternates, 00b for data, 00c for mile markers, 00d for waypoints, so on and so on. I'm getting ready to do a independent diagnostic on the trail's camping/ lodging logistics.
A westbound hiker has to be in Sacramento, California by 10/10 annually or they risk the Sierra Nevada Mountains becoming impassable. All diagnostics that I've done so far are "true thru" documents. That means that the mock hiker is true to the prescribed route of the trail, unless it's a threat to one's life, limb, eye sight or is legally impassable. If the trail for some reason were to meet those conditions and that trail alert, or map update hasn't been published, then they can affect a by-pass at their discretion. But for right now, the mock hiker will be routed in a more "perfect world."
So with 10/10 in the westbound direction being fixed, I'm going to apply my standard daily mileages for different types of terrain and see if I can get that mock hiker across the continent? This is why I don't want help from anybody else's data. Illegal stealth camping won't be factored in. I want to see if my mock hiker can make it across without resorting to a 30 mile day (not even one).
I've got a feeling that it won't make it. If what I hear is right, when one chooses which side of the loop that they're on, I vaguely recall the length of that trip to be 4,600 - 4,800 miles? And I know that 4,800 won't do it. And I imagine that it would probably take 4,300 to do it? There's only 6 miles of difference between the north and south of the ADT's mid-west loop.
A westbound hiker has to be in Sacramento, California by 10/10 annually or they risk the Sierra Nevada Mountains becoming impassable. All diagnostics that I've done so far are "true thru" documents. That means that the mock hiker is true to the prescribed route of the trail, unless it's a threat to one's life, limb, eye sight or is legally impassable. If the trail for some reason were to meet those conditions and that trail alert, or map update hasn't been published, then they can affect a by-pass at their discretion. But for right now, the mock hiker will be routed in a more "perfect world."
So with 10/10 in the westbound direction being fixed, I'm going to apply my standard daily mileages for different types of terrain and see if I can get that mock hiker across the continent? This is why I don't want help from anybody else's data. Illegal stealth camping won't be factored in. I want to see if my mock hiker can make it across without resorting to a 30 mile day (not even one).
I've got a feeling that it won't make it. If what I hear is right, when one chooses which side of the loop that they're on, I vaguely recall the length of that trip to be 4,600 - 4,800 miles? And I know that 4,800 won't do it. And I imagine that it would probably take 4,300 to do it? There's only 6 miles of difference between the north and south of the ADT's mid-west loop.
2018/04/16
BT 10 Miler Camping/ Lodging Streak and Throttle Position Sensor
About 2 years ago was when I completed a diagnostic on the Buckeye Trail concerning it supporting continuous hikes at generally 10 miles per day. It's an initiative of the Buckeye Trail Association. When I did the diagnostic last, I found that the longest "streak" that the trail's logistics could support was 32 days at this rate. But, with a couple of new campsites, and some "hacks" that I recently discovered, this increased by 10 days.
In the future, what I have to do is what I call a "mock hiker." It's a written simulation of the trail. Once I do that, I'll need to use Google Earth to make what is written into a graphic displaying color coded tracks (like the line that you follow in your GPS). They'd be coded green for routes of 10.0 miles or less, yellow for 10.0 to 12.5 miles and red for anything that exceeds 12.5. With the 42 day streak that I just mentioned, that's from the West Union Section, Point 21 (02/2010 map & guide) to the Pemberville Section, Point 02 (03/2018). I don't know how many miles that is, but it's roughly 7-1/2 of the Buckeye Trail's 26 sections, or about 29% of it's circuit. And the vast majority of that is North Country Trail concurrent.
My mechanic came by to check the motorhome's idle. It was surging by 200RPM's when parked. He took off the "dog house." On the older Ford Econoline vans, you can reach the front of the engine through the hood. But if you needed to work deeper inside, there's a cover that comes off in the cab which exposes the back of the engine called the "dog house." And he was back there spraying carburetor cleaner trying to get a leak to suck it in and gunk up the engine which would cause it to hesitate. Apparently it will do that because carburetor cleaner isn't combustible. But if the engine did hesitate, he'd know what vacuum hose did it? He didn't find any leaks.
We drove it for about 13 miles and when we got it back, he took some wire and tripped the diagnostic port so that it would start flashing the check engine light and blink a code. The vehicle runs the first generation of the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD I) and it displayed Code 22, which is a malfunction of the throttle body sensor. I purchased the replacement and it will be going in tomorrow.
I've never been good at blink codes. And the new Bluetooth devices that you plug in to your car is for OBD II. I have one in my Chevy HHR. But they don't make this for OBD I. But I just bought a converter cable and it should arrive here in four days. The next step is to purchase another Bluetooth diagnostic module. I'll just zip tie it to the side of the engine compartment and keep it there full time.
In the future, what I have to do is what I call a "mock hiker." It's a written simulation of the trail. Once I do that, I'll need to use Google Earth to make what is written into a graphic displaying color coded tracks (like the line that you follow in your GPS). They'd be coded green for routes of 10.0 miles or less, yellow for 10.0 to 12.5 miles and red for anything that exceeds 12.5. With the 42 day streak that I just mentioned, that's from the West Union Section, Point 21 (02/2010 map & guide) to the Pemberville Section, Point 02 (03/2018). I don't know how many miles that is, but it's roughly 7-1/2 of the Buckeye Trail's 26 sections, or about 29% of it's circuit. And the vast majority of that is North Country Trail concurrent.
My mechanic came by to check the motorhome's idle. It was surging by 200RPM's when parked. He took off the "dog house." On the older Ford Econoline vans, you can reach the front of the engine through the hood. But if you needed to work deeper inside, there's a cover that comes off in the cab which exposes the back of the engine called the "dog house." And he was back there spraying carburetor cleaner trying to get a leak to suck it in and gunk up the engine which would cause it to hesitate. Apparently it will do that because carburetor cleaner isn't combustible. But if the engine did hesitate, he'd know what vacuum hose did it? He didn't find any leaks.
We drove it for about 13 miles and when we got it back, he took some wire and tripped the diagnostic port so that it would start flashing the check engine light and blink a code. The vehicle runs the first generation of the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD I) and it displayed Code 22, which is a malfunction of the throttle body sensor. I purchased the replacement and it will be going in tomorrow.
I've never been good at blink codes. And the new Bluetooth devices that you plug in to your car is for OBD II. I have one in my Chevy HHR. But they don't make this for OBD I. But I just bought a converter cable and it should arrive here in four days. The next step is to purchase another Bluetooth diagnostic module. I'll just zip tie it to the side of the engine compartment and keep it there full time.
2018/02/14
NCT Westbound Mock Hiker Completed
According to my 3rd party amateur data, if the North Country Trail was hiked continuously from one end to the other, at generally 24 and 18 miles per day depending on the terrain and zero days at every 21 days generally, it would take 295 days to complete my estimate of a total length of 4,829.4 miles. That number includes the Arrowhead in Minnesota, the NCTA's current GIS track in the Adirondack Park and a questionable smartphone trace of a map from a jogging app for part of Vermont. My tracks still contain certain inconsistencies with the NCTA's issued tracks, but not enough to affect the total by more than +/- 15 miles. That's that best that I can do at this time.
According to the parameters that I use, North Dakota has two amenity gaps and takes the mock hiker into it's reserve mileage (24 to 29.5 miles) once in this state. Those amenity gaps mean that no sleeping amenity that I could confirm here at my desk could be found within 29.5 miles of the starting location. Routing the mock hiker into it's reserve incurs a penalty of a zero day. It's part of the rules to keep it reasonable and highlight areas that need more support. But, on several occasions, I routed it in to the reserve because the mock hiker was coming up on a zero day in someplace that was ideal anyways.
Even if the NCTA doesn't recognize thru hiking, I still came out with an important piece of information. According to the written simulation, only 98.62 additional miles added to the trail's total was necessary to cover to reach an amenity off-trail. This was in question on Buckeye last year and I sure wish that I had a number for this.
Since North Dakota features two amenity gaps, there is no need to pursue an eastbound mock hiker because the difference between the two would have to start right away.
This is all a part of a 3rd party review (myself) of the North Country Trail's camping/ lodging capabilities. You might call it a benchmark test? The data from this will probably also be used to construct an "Early Warning System" map for the unofficial Adventurer's Project in SE Ohio. The way it works is that if the hiker reports their location with mapping app or Facebook, we could input their location to our map which will show how far out they are and help predict the date of their arrival at The Wilderness Loop - Buckeye Trail (North Country partial). I'd say that the North Country Trail at this rate of progress looks pretty healthy. For a distance hiking trail in the Upper Midwest, it's performing well.
According to the parameters that I use, North Dakota has two amenity gaps and takes the mock hiker into it's reserve mileage (24 to 29.5 miles) once in this state. Those amenity gaps mean that no sleeping amenity that I could confirm here at my desk could be found within 29.5 miles of the starting location. Routing the mock hiker into it's reserve incurs a penalty of a zero day. It's part of the rules to keep it reasonable and highlight areas that need more support. But, on several occasions, I routed it in to the reserve because the mock hiker was coming up on a zero day in someplace that was ideal anyways.
Even if the NCTA doesn't recognize thru hiking, I still came out with an important piece of information. According to the written simulation, only 98.62 additional miles added to the trail's total was necessary to cover to reach an amenity off-trail. This was in question on Buckeye last year and I sure wish that I had a number for this.
Since North Dakota features two amenity gaps, there is no need to pursue an eastbound mock hiker because the difference between the two would have to start right away.
This is all a part of a 3rd party review (myself) of the North Country Trail's camping/ lodging capabilities. You might call it a benchmark test? The data from this will probably also be used to construct an "Early Warning System" map for the unofficial Adventurer's Project in SE Ohio. The way it works is that if the hiker reports their location with mapping app or Facebook, we could input their location to our map which will show how far out they are and help predict the date of their arrival at The Wilderness Loop - Buckeye Trail (North Country partial). I'd say that the North Country Trail at this rate of progress looks pretty healthy. For a distance hiking trail in the Upper Midwest, it's performing well.
NCT Wb Mock Hiker About 80% Complete
- I finished routing my mock hiker written simulation of the North Country Trail from it's new eastern terminus at the Appalachian Trail to Mile 21.7 of the Kekebabic Trail Club in Minnesota. The last time that I tallied up where I was with this was for Mellon, Wisconsin and that was over 3,300 miles of about 4,806. Considering that I just got through the Superior Hiking Trail tonight, I could probably have the westbound mock hiker done tomorrow?
- I've decided that I'm only going to route the eastbound mock hiker to Stockport Section, current day Point 7/ Whipple Section, current day Point 24 - Buckeye/ North Country Trail in SE Ohio.
- At a rate of 24 and 18 miles per day depending on the terrain and taking a zero day once every 21 days generally, I've determined that a thru hike of the North Country Trail is impossible to complete within a 210 day window. By my independent review of the trail, North Country's length exceeds that window of execution by about 1,500 miles. I did hear that this may be the case, but I wanted to test it myself. Regardless, I'm familiarizing myself with the trail in hopes that I can one day anticipate North Country hiker's arrivals in SE Ohio. I won't know this until I complete this project, but roughly, off the top of my head, it may be possible for those hikers to start at either terminus and end on Road Fork or Whipple Sections - BT/ NCT?
- I've decided that I'm only going to route the eastbound mock hiker to Stockport Section, current day Point 7/ Whipple Section, current day Point 24 - Buckeye/ North Country Trail in SE Ohio.
- At a rate of 24 and 18 miles per day depending on the terrain and taking a zero day once every 21 days generally, I've determined that a thru hike of the North Country Trail is impossible to complete within a 210 day window. By my independent review of the trail, North Country's length exceeds that window of execution by about 1,500 miles. I did hear that this may be the case, but I wanted to test it myself. Regardless, I'm familiarizing myself with the trail in hopes that I can one day anticipate North Country hiker's arrivals in SE Ohio. I won't know this until I complete this project, but roughly, off the top of my head, it may be possible for those hikers to start at either terminus and end on Road Fork or Whipple Sections - BT/ NCT?
- What I think North Country needs is a 10 miler study. But after this project, I'm on to doing some GIS research for American Discovery trail.
2018/02/12
NCT MI Tracks Corrected and Adventurer's Project
My North Country Trail GPS tracks for the State of Michigan are now corrected. The mock hiker written simulation can now continue because the bog just broke. To bring some of you up to speed, the "mock hiker" is a document that details the daily mileages and camping/ lodging of a hiker who will never see the trail. It has rules to keep me in bounds. Buckeye Trail is my "first language," so I'm getting familiar with North Country. And ultimately, I'm trying to predict when their hikers will arrive in SE Ohio. I have mapped out a hiker early warning system, but North Country's end of is imprecise at the moment because I still don't know how it flows.
I'm just really through. This document needs to be done westbound and east bound. But I'll be doing nothing but it from now on.
I want to take this time to write one thing about Adventurer's Project. Starting a chapter in Marietta/ Parkersburg is going to be a different kind of challenge compared to what I believe that we're use to on the BT. That's because unlike other chapters, this area doesn't have a whole lot of existing support in the area. So the members that it gets are probably (and literately) going to have to come right off of the streets as apposed to Buckeye or North Country Trail Association's roster. That's probably more from scratch that it's use to.
I'm just really through. This document needs to be done westbound and east bound. But I'll be doing nothing but it from now on.
I want to take this time to write one thing about Adventurer's Project. Starting a chapter in Marietta/ Parkersburg is going to be a different kind of challenge compared to what I believe that we're use to on the BT. That's because unlike other chapters, this area doesn't have a whole lot of existing support in the area. So the members that it gets are probably (and literately) going to have to come right off of the streets as apposed to Buckeye or North Country Trail Association's roster. That's probably more from scratch that it's use to.
2018/02/05
NCT Mapping Project Complete
I just found the easy way to make digital mile markers. I used http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input and in the "[+] Show Advanced Options," there's a field for "Add equal-interval tickmarks as waypoints." It can do it distance, or time, so I just loaded my chapter tracks one by one and set the interval to "0.1" and it gave me mile markers every tenth of a mile. I'm several days ahead of schedule now. That was ridiculously easy. It took about 7 years to to finish reorganizing the NCTA's data.
I'm now heading into the final phase of my project, which is to create a mock hiker written document. That will simulate a thru, end-to-end hike on the North Country Trail by the minimum daily mileage needed to cover it within about a 7 month window of execution.
I'm now heading into the final phase of my project, which is to create a mock hiker written document. That will simulate a thru, end-to-end hike on the North Country Trail by the minimum daily mileage needed to cover it within about a 7 month window of execution.
2018/01/17
Public Parking Along NCT/ FLT
There are over 228 parking areas on the North Country's concurrency with the Finger Lakes Trail. Right now, I'm measuring it at just over 429 miles long. It's an average of one public parking place for every 1.88 miles. I have the mile markers placed, but at 228 just for parking, it's going to be slow backing the track down and getting mileages in the triple digits with decimal places sometimes in the ten thousandths.
And for those of you following my progress in trying to write a mock hike written simulation of the NCT, the saga goes on. This is lengthy when you have to compile the data and do the mock hiker. These logs are detailing almost every step of the way.
I'll step out of this log's character and tell you something hypothetical. I've got some people working on something that might permit me to program smartphones and GPS's for other hikers in one sitting. Stay tuned...
And for those of you following my progress in trying to write a mock hike written simulation of the NCT, the saga goes on. This is lengthy when you have to compile the data and do the mock hiker. These logs are detailing almost every step of the way.
I'll step out of this log's character and tell you something hypothetical. I've got some people working on something that might permit me to program smartphones and GPS's for other hikers in one sitting. Stay tuned...
2017/12/18
Moving on to North Country Project
Yesterday, I finished my project in support of the Warrior Expedition on the Buckeye Trail. There could be two ways to deploy it. One is that a download link is already scheduled to be published on Adventurer's Project's website. The other might be that since this is a special program paid into by the Buckeye Trail Association, that the makers of it's app on Android (so far) might be able to accommodate it? That would make things much simpler for Warrior Expedition hikers. Otherwise, I might have to perform chat support to help them upload the necessary files onto Locus (or make a video)?
My next project is a North Country Trail one. I rediscovered that I have all of New York State properly merged. In fact, everything is in order in the westbound direction until Michigan. I got about half way done merging Michigan before I stopped months ago. Wisconsin and Minnesota's baby tracks still need to be re-labled according to the chapter/ partner that they're routed in.
North Dakota has to be altered for the elimination of the Lonetree Chapter. And then there are some missing segments that I'll have to transplant from the North Country Trail Association's GIS data and merge it all together. That's unless of course that this all pertains to some bicycle right of way that's on Google Maps, in that case, that would be faster.
- The NCTA's waypoint data will have to be organized by type and then maybe state? It already has some camping data that I need.
- Overlays where the image's source needs to be on the Internet so that when shared, all can see need to be done for every governmental agency that the trail is routed on or near.
- Camping/ lodging data beyond what the NCTA collected needs to be done.
- Mile markers for what the NCTA hasn't already been done have. The the NCTA already started these and mine would need to be in the eastbound direction. I'm not thrilled about this considering that most thru hikers travel westbound.
Once I have all of this, that will paint the most complete picture by which I can devise a "mock hiker," or a written simulation of a hike. They usually pertain to entry level thru hikes and that is based on the trail's window of opportunity and what the NCT grassroots usually considers acceptable for a hike of about 4,600mi.
My next project is a North Country Trail one. I rediscovered that I have all of New York State properly merged. In fact, everything is in order in the westbound direction until Michigan. I got about half way done merging Michigan before I stopped months ago. Wisconsin and Minnesota's baby tracks still need to be re-labled according to the chapter/ partner that they're routed in.
North Dakota has to be altered for the elimination of the Lonetree Chapter. And then there are some missing segments that I'll have to transplant from the North Country Trail Association's GIS data and merge it all together. That's unless of course that this all pertains to some bicycle right of way that's on Google Maps, in that case, that would be faster.
- The NCTA's waypoint data will have to be organized by type and then maybe state? It already has some camping data that I need.
- Overlays where the image's source needs to be on the Internet so that when shared, all can see need to be done for every governmental agency that the trail is routed on or near.
- Camping/ lodging data beyond what the NCTA collected needs to be done.
- Mile markers for what the NCTA hasn't already been done have. The the NCTA already started these and mine would need to be in the eastbound direction. I'm not thrilled about this considering that most thru hikers travel westbound.
Once I have all of this, that will paint the most complete picture by which I can devise a "mock hiker," or a written simulation of a hike. They usually pertain to entry level thru hikes and that is based on the trail's window of opportunity and what the NCT grassroots usually considers acceptable for a hike of about 4,600mi.
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