Log 2015020901

I continued writing the Continuous Short Hikes 2015 document today when I finished with the south of the Buckeye Trail.  The American Discovery Trail - North Midwest Route (ADT - NMR) was omitted in the 2013 edition and that's being corrected.  The Continuous Short Hikes are routed generally at 10 miles per day with a 2.5 mile additional reserve.  And for the standard 20 mile per day hikers, they'll make it from the campground at Hueston Woods State Park near Oxford of Butler County to the Greyhound stop in Richmond, Indiana.  But I wasn't sure about it's measurement.

Since this is the part of the ADT - NMR that I'm most in question with, I started considering different options for the 10 milers.  The campground is in Preble County, whose transit only caters to residents only as per their web page, they can not be included in the Continuous Short Hikes document or Ohio Transit Hiker's Resource's (OTHR) guide.  But the nearby Union County Transit Service in Indiana can.  The problem lies in that the course of the ADT - NMR is fixed and so is the state and county line.  The 10 milers have to reach the amenity in 2.5 miles or "the shows over."  The problem is that they can make it from the ADT to the Union County, Indiana at Stateline Road line in 2.4 miles.

But if I understand transit like I think I might, only half of Stateline Road is in Union County (and the State of Indiana for that matter).  There isn't anywhere on the Indiana side for the transit vehicle to turn around and 10 mile transit hikers would have to board and disembark there on the roadside. According to my discriminator for the 10 milers, the distance between Hueston Woods and Boston, Indiana is too far.  Otherwise, it would be closer to the Union County Line and better roads within the state.

 But ADT's got a 3.1 mile widow of execution before continuous short hikers won't benefit from it, or With the trail being where it is, transit being fixed to it's zone and a road without public amenities whose centerline runs through two states, I'd say that at this time I'm not going to route the Union County Transit Service in the OTHR's 2015 Edition of the Continuous Short Hikes.  Consequently, that means that this document can only route these transit hikers as far north as the archery range parking area in Hueston Woods SP.  Since the ADT - NMR is off-road here, this area is the last place that a transit vehicle can reach hikers in Butler County before the trail crosses into Preble County.

The continuous short hikes can pertain to those who don't want to hike as far, the elderly, those with certain disabilities, but most of all it is designed and intended for entry level hikers.  In order to be a circuit hiker on the Buckeye Trail and thru hike it's 1,444 mile route in under 110 total days, one needs enough stamina to be able to hike 20 miles in one day in its west, north and east.  However, this is about continuous short hikers and these maps come psychological factors.  OTHR and myself argue that hikers need to have enough stamina to perform at generally 10 miles a day if they're intention is to complete BT's maps, which cover areas 45 to 62 miles long.  Otherwise, they may risk getting discouraged.  The American Discovery Trail runs concurrent with the Buckeye for about 580 miles in its south, but it's used as the basis.  ADT breaks concurrency in Cincinnati and is routed alone on and off road towards Chicago by way of Hueston Woods SP and Richmond, Indiana.

Log 2015012901

Yesterday, I posted two videos on the Whipple Section - Buckeye Trail on-road that took place between the unincorporated areas of Whipple and Warner in Washington County.  I also resumed work on the Ohio Transit Hiker's Resource - Continuous Short Hikes.  The American Discovery Trail's east independent arm is short by a camping/ lodging amenity in NW Washington County, Ohio to continue on into Morgan County and possibly be hikable at less than 12.5 mile route or less all the way to Scioto Trail Section (, Pt. 21 in the Waverly area of Pike County.

Right now, I'm waiting on data from the Buckeye Trail Association concerning a possible re-route of the New Straitsville Section.  I think I can route the shorter hikes per day from it's Point 14 in Trimble Township of Athens County.  Given the heavy off-road nature of South Central Ohio, I might be able to route them past the Waverly area and go further south to Peebles, maybe even as deep as Nile Township of Scioto County near Portsmouth.  But I lost my New Straitsville Section map and I don't know how that happened.  I usually keep a good accountability of my Buckeye Trail maps.  It's probably for the better.  I'm overdue on taking an inventory of them anyways and checking them for new map editions and updates.  With a 195 miles left for me to hike, I know that what that what I need to do that is good.

I set up a new service yesterday from VisualPing.  It's set to monitor trail alert and map update web pages on the Buckeye, North Country and American Discovery Trails websites.  When one of the set pages is modified, it's designed to send me an email.  Once I get them, I'll designate their senders or subjects to automatically filter to a special folder and forward a copy to my smartphone's email address, which will convert as much as it can to a SMS text message.  Since the text will only be 160 characters, the full contents will be cut off.  But I'm on counting on the notification alone to prompt me to look up the alerted web page.  Since the SMS text message is the best way to reach me in the most remote areas, when I loose data signal, I can just hike back into range, or stop by a local library and check it on a computer.  But in the unlikely event that I'll incur a trail alert, or a map update on the section that I'm on, or the one after, I'll have the most immediate notification possible.

Prior to social media, an Internet protocol known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) was popular.  It was code that was written into the website and when it had a feed, the end users Internet browser would have an icon that would light up orange.  By clicking on it, the end user would subscribe to that feed and the icon would become orange again when ever an update was detected.  But the way I see it, not all web masters know how to write in RSS and due to social media, I believe that it's becoming obsolete.  I'm hoping that VisualPing will circumvent that.

Log 2013110302

The 2008 Chevy HHR continues to have maintenance issues. The most recent is that the trailer lights, while hitched, had a short and blew out the night time running light filaments in both rear bulbs of the car itself.  I can say that because the car and trailer brake lights and turn signals still work.  It's definitely a tell-tale sign that there is a short in the trailer's wiring. So, this afternoon, I left Basecamp Juliet in broad daylight and barely made it home before sunset this evening.  At this point, I'm not sure if its a fuse, or a bulb that needs to be replaced?  I might start that diagnostic tomorrow?

The drive back to Lake County was uneventful and I used it to generate fuel efficiency data as stated in the previous log.  While at Basecamp Juliet, I managed to hike the Stockport Section, pts. 3 - 15, or from the AEP ReCreation Lands Campground H to the Village of Stockport, both being in Morgan County on the 1st.  Getting home took me well into the morning on the 3rd.

I would have hiked further down trail to pt. 19 in the Village of Chesterhill, also of said county, and met the independent east arm of the American Discovery Trail.  If I could have taken lodging in Stockport, it could have been done on a hike & bike.  But I got to Stockport at 2330hrs.  Two lodging establishments only operate their business offices during certain hours and one of the hotels was totally leased. So, I had to get on my bike and ride 24 miles after the hike back to Basecamp Juliet.

Once back, I slept in because I'm dysfunctional on anything less than 8 hours of sleep.  When I awoke, there wasn't much time between then and my usual bedtime, so I slept until 0830 on the 3rd.  When I awoke then, there was some frost on The Cramper, so I'd rather let it melt before I disassemble it put the The Cramper in Transport Mode.  I broke camp today because tomorrow, I have medical appointments in Cleveland.

There were a lot of Lady Bugs at Basecamps India and Juliet. At Juliet, the dozens of them crawled inside the top crevices of each door.  And I had them in every crease in The Cramper's outer shell.

At the moment, according to the mileages published on the affected Buckeye Trail maps, I have 340 miles remaining.  In the meantime, the government could shut down again and I'm not sure that I want to be caught downtrail when that happens.  Besides, the load on the trailer has always made the Chevy's back end sag.  And right now, its about as good as a front wheel drive mini van in slippery conditions when hitched.  A lot of points on the Buckeye Trail intersect or take place on roads that are not maintained in the winter.  I think that this is a good time to sit out the worst of this upcoming season at home port.  It'd be one thing if the Chevy had studded, or chained tires with a wench on the front bumper and perfect suspension.  But it doesn't.