Trail Manual - Mileage Sheets

Let's recap... I've been writing a mileage sheet for a book that I wish to deploy at two shelters on The Wilderness Loop - Buckeye Trail (North Country partially concurrent).  Parts of the book are location specific, including the mileage sheets.  The mileage sheets are based on the mile markers that I have for the Buckeye and North Country Trails.  They were derived from the merged tracks that I have for them, but accumulative mileages have never been tabulated until I started this project.

There may be inaccuracies in what I'm writing in the books.  This thing might need a disclaimer?  That's because when North Country chapter spans are larger than 99.9 miles, Google Earth's measurements tab rounds up or down to the nearest whole number.  What I wish I would have done was converted them to inches, use a calculator and divide by 63,360 to get the mileages for each section with a decimal place in the ten thousandths.

The first thing that I do on a project like this is accumulate the mileage from one section terminator to another from one of the shelter until the both trails are completed.  Then for the mileage sheet, it lists villages, cities and other locations.  Having the terminator measurements makes it easier to use the section's mile markers.  Mine are done every tenth of a mile.  But if I had to do it over again, I'd have them made to every hundredth.  I just added, or subtracted (depending on the direction I was working on) the locations mileage to the last reported terminator.

I've worked on the book's minor differences for the Road Fork On-Road Shelter.  I found that there are some mileages that I forgot to fill in and I really don't know why?  And I'm pretty satisfied that the numbers are in for the other shelter now.

So here's how updating it goes.  We don't have the volunteers in Far SE Ohio to stay up with Buckeye and North Country Trails "around the clock..." it's quite impossible right now.  Any corrections will have to be done during the cold days when we don't have any maintenance, or trail promotion.  Additionally, the roads to access those shelters may be impassable to anything other than 4WD vehicles and we may not be able to issue the books new corrections until the snow thaws and exposes the gravel road surfaces?

But in the end, the hikers can reference these sheets and the next day, they can write their fans and support that they're a certain distance from somewhere, perhaps their ultimate destination?  I know Buckeye thru hikers and I believe that they would spend a few minutes studying this sheet?

Trail Manual and Motorhome Overhead Bunk 03/23/2018

I've continued work on the Trail Manual for the Stout Shelter on the Stockport Section and The Wilderness Loop of Buckeye Trail.  This location is not on the span for my project concerning Road Fork and Whipple Sections, but it's only 0.7mi north of Whipple @ Stockport Sections.  The logistics for the Whipple Section depend on this shelter because it's so close. 

The only thing that differs with the book set to be deployed at the Road Fork On-road Shelter is that this book's mileage sheet mentions 3 directions, instead of just two.  I don't have all of the mileages for the North Country Trail (NCT) westbound beyond the Buckeye Trail yet.  But I did finish the counter clockwise/ eastbound mileages today.  Somehow, the NCT eastbound beyond the Buckeye Trail was finished and correct?

Today, my mechanic continued work on the overhead cab.  We drove over to Lowes and got two pieces of plywood and some sheet insulation.  The day after tomorrow, my dad "called in the calvary" as we have him, my uncle, brother and myself.  Today, I was still fatigued.

The brake lights on my utility hauling trailer work.  I'll be towing that with my Chevy HHR in case we need anything bulky?  But right now, it's got a load of materials that was stripped out of the overhead bunk area that need to go to the landfill.  Not to mention a 30 year old chair that was just taking up space.

Trail Manual for RF On-Road Shelter Complete

The trail manual for the Road Fork Section - Buckeye Trail's (North Country concurrent) on-road shelter is written.  I now have to compute the mileages from the Stout Shelter on the west end of The Wilderness Loop for various locations around it, the rest of the Buckeye and North Country Trails.

Early Warning System - Adventurer's Project Finished

That's it.  I've done it!  I just got done plotting waypoints for certain municipal boundaries and filling in their mileages. 

This here is a map depicting the mileages from the Whipple Section - Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent).  This is along North Country's route to the west.  The whole thing is done, but it would look like a mess in one image.  Like I mentioned in a previous log, this project has a dual purpose.  One is for a mileage sheet to go into the Trail Manuals at two shelters in SE Ohio.  The other is for our Early Warning System that pertains to mobilizing trail angels and resupply in the area.  I believe that i can make this data user friendly for all involved internally in Adventurer's Project?

The way that the Early Warning Map works is that hikers would report their positions somehow and we in far SE Ohio would track them as they come in based on what they report.  From that, we should be able to predict their arrival based on their pattern?  We'll have to readjust for irregularities, but the closer they get to us, the more accurate the prediction becomes.

At this point, all that I have to do now is enter the mileages into the Trail Manual.