NCT Pennsylvania Partially Re-labled

I only had part of a day to re-label mile markers with their mileages.  So, I completed the task for Wampum, Butler, Clarion Chapters, the official route through the Allegheny Valley and Rachel Carlson Trails (NCT Concurrency).  That's one marker for parking, campsites and lodging, or the intersections to them over 200.73 more miles of the North Country Trail.

My tracks for the Superior Hiking Trail is in four parts.  And I've never gotten the whole thing to merge with an elevation profile.  That concurrency is about 268 miles.  My Finger Lakes Trail track is merged together, but Google Earth's elevation profile won't read about 100 miles of what it reports as it's length in Rt Click-> Properties-> Measurements.  Normally, I don't like to merge anything larger than about 120 miles long because Google Earth is more prone to errors.

Motorhome Update 01/26/2018

My family mechanic friend got the drive axle pinned up today.  And in order to put a fuel cleaner and octane booster in it, I had to drive it a couple miles to get 17 gallons of gasoline.  The ride was a little bouncy, but that's because the tires were inflated below 70psi.  But one of the rear brake shoes is ceasing to it's drum and I was smoking it's brakes.  The gasoline sending unit still isn't working.  It's believed that Ford isn't making the sender for this Econoline anymore and he and I are hoping that the fresh gasoline will break the one that's in there free at some point?

He installed the new Bluetooth stereo and got started on the new CB with weatherband radio.  Looks like I'm going to have a 19 gallon fuel cell, sending unit and rear in-tank pump to sell on ebay now that he got my 38 gallon stuff working.

I think that we're going to spend most of February doing the interior?  I've gone in and out of state parks in the past, so I'm wondering if I should mount some Wi-Fi antennas?  I've already got unlimited data on Verizon and it can hotspot to the laptop when needed.  But the Wi-Fi might have better reception?

I'd like tile to be put in instead of carpet in case I come back from the trail muddy.  Due to water damage, the seams will have to be resealed and the walls will have to be rebuilt.

Data Reorganizing, Motorhome CB, GPS Mile Markers Re-Labeling

-I just reordered my data so that it starts at the BT's southern terminus in clockwise order so that it reflects how I organized North Country's.

- ArcGIS Explorer has been discontinued, but I just downloaded ArcGIS Earth on the my laptop.  I don't know it's capabilities yet.

- The motorhome's new CB is powered up and one antenna mast is mounted.  I just purchased another new mast, splitter cable and 2 more mounts.  I also got some more

-Middlebury Land Trust and the Green Mountain Club's NCT route in Vermont mile markers have been re-labeled with their respective mileages.

- Central New York Chapter, an at-large section and Adirondack Mountain Club's mile markers have been re-labeled with their mileages. I'm about 43% done with NCT NYS.  Right now, my single track for North Country's concurrency on the Finger Lakes Trail is about 425 miles long.  It's the biggest track that I have on record (for any trail).   From the way it looks, it has a lot of markers because of how often it comes in and out of dispersed camping.  Markers pertaining to dispersed camping are laid at the beginning and end of continuous parcels where it's permitted.  I wish I had a solid 6 hours to commit to them, but something tells me that I'll have to do them over a couple of days.  I prefer going straight through and finish whole chapter/ partners/ affiliates.  But I'm feeling good about getting the Adirondack Mountain Club done.

So far in addition to what I've stated, I've got mile markers from the North Country Trail Association for North Dakota and Michigan.  The mile markers are complete for Ohio, including the Buckeye Trail now.  That leaves the Finger Lakes concurrency, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania left to re-label.  After those, it's on to the final leg of the project.

FYI... I don't think that I can release any data for the Finger Lakes concurrency considering that they are based on it's copyrighted work, which is not open to the public for free.  It's data can be purchased in the GPX format for maps M-1 through 22, then O1 & O2.  I don't believe that it comes with any mile markers, but it's maps may be of use for that.

Generic Legend

I started on writing a Generic Legend.  I was thinking about doing it in the properties of the waypoints, wrapping a polygon around the Buckeye, North Country and American Discovery Trails, or doing it with transparent state polygons so that it would always come up in something like a track listing on a GPS or smartphone.  But, I've decided to write a list to a separate file instead.

The mapping that I'm doing has to be encoded for use on a rudimentary GPS.  A campsite might come up as "C - Shelter."  Those with more sophisticated units will see the label, but also more appropriate icons.  ArcGIS, which makes basemaps, doesn't work on my computer.  If it did, I've heard that I could make them there and embed all of the icons on to it and it would probably work on any device?

Finished Mile Marker Positions - NCT and Motorhome Update

I finished placing the position of the digital mile markers for the entire North Country Trail.  But I'm going to take a break from the next phase of the project because I now need to track every alternate by-pass and spur along the American Discovery Trail.  I only got the main route last year.  I suppose it's probably going to take me until the end of the week to do that.  Releasing North Country's data should take place about a week before Valentine's Day.  That's just for the GPS data that's most relevant to hikers.  Getting the mock hike written simulation done by then... maybe, maybe not.  That could be tight?

The motorhome runs.  Even better than it ever has and it currently has a broken EGR valve.  I already have the replacement, but it's nut is ceased to it's right side breather tube that leads to the cylinders in the engine.  My family mechanic friend is waiting to take a hot torch to it to get it off. 

Meanwhile, we'll be dismounting the drive axle and taking it to a friend's garage where the U joints can be mounted.  Right now, the drive axle is disconnected from the rear one because my old U joint was very corroded and the wrecker (tow truck) had to take it apart in order not to destroy the drive train about 18 months ago.

NCT Minnesota Mile Markers Placed

The position of the digital mile markers in Minnesota are in place.  I wasn't going to overlay the state forest maps, but I changed my mind.  Then I realized that I didn't account for Minnesota DNR's camping shelters, so I went back and cataloged those, other backpack sites and parking areas.  At that point, I determined that I needed to go back through all three national forest websites and determine if I was missing campsites and picnic areas (parking)?  Minnesota really took a while and I'm glad that it's over. 

This state was kinda hard.  All the waypoints adding up and the shapes of six MN DNR divisions and 3 national forests, plus their roads and trails was really taxing The Robot.  I'm a volunteer.  With Wisconsin and Pennsylvania remaining, the worst is over for now.  The hardest part now will be backing down the track on the North Country's concurrency with Finger Lakes.  That's a 429 mile track with frequent markers.  I'm lucky I got 429 miles to merge.  You could probably thank Finger Lake's GIS for that.  They made it snap together so well.

P Areas NCT in the Adirondacks and NYS Mile Markers

I completed the placemarks/ waypoints for the parking areas along the North Country Trail in the Adirondack Park.  I also finished placing the mile marker positions for the trail in New York State.