Passing Up Tomorrow

I work with the weather forecast day by day when it comes to geo photo cataloging the Road Fork and Whipple Sections of the Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent). For those of you just tuning in, those sections are in SE Ohio, generally east of I-77 and south of I-70 in Ohio. That's one reason why I like to call this region "Far SE Ohio." 

I lead Adventurer's Project, which is an effort to try and create a new chapter of the Buckeye Trail Association. It supports these sections and this project is a part of our data collection, which could help in multiple ways.

But getting back to the weather, my camera devices can embed the coordinates of where the pictures are taken. But because these aren't being done with stronger, professional grade equipment, the conditions in the sky have to be good for a more accurate position.

I watch Weatherbug for skies predicted to be "partly sunny" or better.  Tomorrow, we're expected to get lightning on the Road Fork Section, but the forecast for the Whipple Section reads sunny and hot. Unfortunately, my van is fuel inefficient, old and the Whipple Section is about a hour away. I'll have to overnight, but my tent needs repairs.  I'm afraid I'll have to pass tomorrow up.

Geo Photo Catalog, A Rough Year, Whole Circuit Challenge

The Geo Photo Catalog is a project for the Road Fork and Whipple Sections that I have already underway.  It involves taking pictures with my smartphone and camera app's locators turned on.  What does is it embeds the coordinates of where the picture was taken.  The idea, is to take them at every blaze, or where they're supposed to be according to the BTA's maintenance guide lines.  Because of the weakness of a smartphone's GPS antenna, they have to be taken when the sky is partly sunny or better.  And on Weatherbug, there's a difference between "party cloudy" and "partly sunny."

It's multifaceted program as it's purposes are:

1) provide the Buckeye Trail Association with a visual record of the trail

2) provide pictures for a Vacant Segment Showcase

3) to provide Adventurer's Project and the chapter it may become photos to use on it's website and social media, particularly in the winter.

Adventurer's Project covers the Road Fork and Whipple Sections of the Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent) in Far SE Ohio, or generally east of I-77 and south of I-70.  Those sections are off-road at Caldwell Lake and in the Marietta Unit of the Wayne National Forest.

It's been a rough year.  Where to start???  The project had about 5 presentations and the public only showed up at one of them.  We have two volunteers ready to go, but with both there's some scheduling difficulties.  We might have another? 

I live in my motorhome in Woodsfield.  In December, I started getting physical therapy on my back.  That concluded in February, but my abdominals still need tensioned.  What I've learned is that I'm not in as good of condition as I once thought and now I'm unable to make the 13 mile one way trip to the nearest off-road portion by way of bicycle because the hills in this county are too much to handle at this time.

The electric warming hose that I was using for water to my motorhome failed and my hot water tank ruptured in a cold snap in February.  I had to get a motel for a couple nights, but this is when my car started acting up,  The RPM's were jumping.

In April, I finally saved up to get my car's clutch replaced.  I then added two bottles of "Guaranteed to Pass" in two tanks of gasoline to try and get the catalytic converters clean..  After the first one, it started to jump less.  But part way through the second, I wasn't satisfied it was doing enough.

  Sometime afterwards, I started to replace the entire exhaust because in the year prior, a mechanic told me that I was leaking oil and as it was dripping down the back side of the engine, that it could probably clog one of the catalytic converters?  Since the header pipe at the engine was bad and it was all practically welded together by this point anyways, I felt it necessitated a full replacement from "stem to stern."

It didn't alleviate the RPM's jumping.  I changed the oil valve gasket along with the exhaust, but that didn't do anything.  There's got to be something else?  Because then it wouldn't start.

I had it hauled to Hilltop Auto Services just outside of Woodsfield to perform a diagnostic.  They came back and said that the timing chain had gone and as a result, the valves were warped and the pistons were probably gone as well?

At that point, there was somebody in town who wanted to make my HHR into a jacked up, four wheel drive "Baby Grave Digger."  I paid for the tow truck from Hilltop to his house because it was a heck of a lot better than sending it 30 miles north to a junk yard.  But on the other hand, he had a old Chevy conversion van that I bought for $800.  It use to be a passenger van, but it's interior is stripped down.  I only have two seats in it.  And the passenger's side needs a seat belt, which is on order.

So, we're back up and running, but there's a few experiments to run with a rear wheel drive only, top heavy vehicle in The Wayne.  Most of its parking opportunities occur in a grass strip on the side of narrow, gravel roads.  But there's another reason to run these experiments...

The Buckeye Trail Association's board voted in the affirmative to have a "challenge" over the whole circuit in one weekend.  Basically, the BTA needs to be able to park cars every 3 miles or less in order to have hikers cover such distances over the 1,454 mile circuit almost virtually simultaneously at once.  Some of those vehicles could be RWD only's?  I have to come up with the contingency procedures in case it rains and their wheels sink?

Right now, I have 600 - 800lbs over my rear axle.  But I'll also be experimenting with a new arrangement of parking boards and a come-a-long, or hand winch.  With FWD, I would just place a board under each tire when I park in these places.  When I leave, I have about 2 seconds of thrust, the rest is momentum and that better get me out.

But with a rear wheel drive, the drive wheels are further back.  So the experiment is to see if four boards placed perpendicular in front of the boards being parked on would be enough traction to make it out?  My conversion van has one disadvantage that the HHR didn't and that's it's wheelbase.  The HHR could come out of a road side parking place forward, or back, depending on what was more advantageous?  The conversion van's wheel base is likely to be not as generous?  It probably has to come out in the forward direction only because of how tight the treeline is to the edge of these grass strips?  Without knowing more, that's merely speculation at this point. 

We have different grass strips.  Some are up hill, down hill and some are on flats.  We have to anticipate that these vehicles could be parked over night?  If so, will front reflectors be needed?  And if so, what color?

BTA Support, Adventurer's Project, Photo Catalog of the Trail

The BTA has offered some support.  And we're certainly going to take them up on it.  On the maintenance side, we do have access to a DR String Trimmer, which makes cutting our brushy areas easier than a weed eater.  We have the offer of getting a link for Adventurer's Project's Facebook page on the Buckeye Trail's.  And we do have an offer for guidance in regards to converting Adventurer's Project into a chapter.

But what I really want to talk about is my own person acquisition of 4 Pulaski axes and 4 sets of hand pruners and folding saws.  If I asked for BTA support on these, it could take them weeks to assemble these.  Meanwhile, our area is mostly rural, but our Facebook following is mostly urban, suburban and exurban.  I like to think that I'm prepared for volunteers of any income level.

If I need volunteers, seeing that I get my car fixed, I'll just go out and get them.  And people who don't have tools will get them on loan.  That way when people are available and we're ready to go... well then, we're ready to go.  I have everything that I need for light and the most volunteer intensive heavy maintenance.

For those of you tuning in from distance trails other than Buckeye, I have maintenance organized into two categories.  "Light maintenance" is the pruning and blazing.  That's the least that we can expect from trail adopters.  But "heavy maintenance" is the muscles and the machines.  That encompasses the DR Mowers, string trimmers, weed whackers and benching.  It's best that these be done in a group.

Adventurer's Project has a unique way of dividing this up.  We're raising two crews.  One is the primary maintenance which consists of the trail adopters on mostly light maintenance.  Two is the chapterside volunteers who most concentrate on other aspects of running a distance trail.  In theroy, the adopters are the "trail promotion reserve."  And the chapterside volunteers are the "trail maintenance reserve."  My idea is that if we can get the adopters together for heavy maintenance, about two times a year, we'll call up the Maintenance Reserve and add everybody into the mix for these projects.

On the flip side, it takes about 9 volunteers to man the shifts when we do trail promotion at a typical 3 day festivals.  The idea is that we'll call the chapterside volunteers first.  And if we can't fill the shifts, we'll then go to the Trail Promotion Reserve.

Currently, we have 3 maintainers on the Whipple Section and 2 on the Road Fork.  Unfortunately, that 5 is out of 20.  But, we picked up one or two? Getting more in the short term is contingent on the condition of my vehicles.    On the chapterside of things, I roughly estimate that we have 5 of 9.  And utilizing the maintenance reserve is also contingent on my vehicle's conditions, but this is more eminent.

To get those trail adopters, the next step is in developing a "Vacant Segment Showcase" on Adventurer's Project's Facebook page and website.  It's a project of mine.  But while I'm out there, I'm also going to work on the project's contribution to the BTA's digital map repository.  It's a fully geotagged, photo catalog of the off-road trail.  It's also a supply of photos for Facebook to get us through the winters.  The audience is media hungry and the winters are difficult to furnish content for. 

I've started it, but I don't have enough content to keep the audience occupied.  But, one good day between the Archer's Fork Loop and Scenic River Trailhead in the Marietta Unit of The Wayne (National Forest) can change that.  I have enough battery power for my smartphone to last 25 miles straight of photo cataloging on one charge.

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.