Log 2016041501

I finished the 6mi corridor polygon for the Stockport Section - Buckeye/ North Country/ American Discovery Trail and it took about 8 manhours to complete.  That's it.  The set for the sections that are attached to The Wilderness Loop are complete.  I might be the guinea pig in testing more enhanced trail promotion techniques.

Log 2016041301

The 6 & 8 mile corridor polygon that I made for the Belle Valley Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail took over 13 hours.  It has multiple applications, but I made it because it's on The Wilderness Loop and it's apart of my preparation for some upcoming trail promotion.  I believe that promoting for Whipple in the Parkersburg - Marietta - Vienna Metropolitan Area may have some collateral effects.  While I think the possibility of it bearing effects on the Belle Valley Section are low, it's still a possibility and I'm prepared now.  I'll start on the corridor polygon for the Stockport Section tomorrow and that will make it the fourth and last one that I can see myself making in the foreseeable future.

Log 2016033101

This is a picture of a trail promotion aid.  It's a 6 mile polygon around the Road Fork Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail.  While there is no formal standard as to how to determine the trail's adequacy, if a thru hiker can sustain about 15 miles per day in the south of Ohio, then they should have to travel no further than 3.0 miles from trail to reach an amenity.  If during trail promotion, we get an offer for a campsite, or resupply for example, the address could be input into a smartphone app.  When the result returns, if it's inside the polygon, then it's relevant to those of thru hike abilities.

The idea here is to hope that we stumble across an opportunity to break up the northeastern 1/3rd of the section with another campsite.  The reason is that the campground at Wolf Run SP to the shelter in the middle of the image is 19.8 miles.  I've done it and known others who also have.  That territory is hilly and it's at the end of most hiker's stamina here in Ohio.  It can be a bit of a struggle to get there.

I discovered the remnant of a former railroad right of way in Caldwell of Noble County.  I have no idea who it belongs to, but since it was nice and straight, I took a measurement of it, then got directions from the trail to it and added their mileage... it added 0.1.  I've tried every way I could to try and and shave 0.3mi off of the distance from Road Fork Section to the Greyhound affiliates at the Caldwell Park-n-Ride.  Bringing that distance from 3.3mi to 3.0mi or lower is not possible.  There's just not enough coaxing that I can do to get it down.  This one might bother me indefinitely.

Log 2015091101

I've spent the last 4 days cleaning and critiquing The Robot some more.  At this time, I'm using a USB Wireless N antenna until I pull my mounted network card out to determine what model it is so I can download drivers and get the internal working again.  While I'm at it, I'll have to pull the 4 port USB 2.0 card out and examine it some more.  I plan to upgrade the operating system in the upcoming months, so I'll be determining if these two pieces of hardware are even compatible with it?  And I have a higher grade sound card that I don't think is handling playback correctly, but it comes with a lot options.

With my laundry done and a pitcher of tea made, the plan is to draw 50 mile and 175 mile polygons based on straight line distance to the outside of the Buckeye Trail circuit along the Whipple Section.  Polygons are shapes with unlimited sides.  I already have an 8 mile corridor (4mi on either side of the trail) drawn based on walking distance using every thoroughfare that intersects it..  This is something that I use in Google Earth when searching for amenities and addresses.  If it's in that polygon, it's in range of hikers.  And so it's about using it for a quick reference.

The 50 & 175 are proposed promotion areas for the section.  They too are a quick reference to essentially determine what's practical.