Occasional Hyker

Zaleski Backpacking Trail Revisited

2012-09-09T22:32:00.000-04:00

I received an anonymous comment on my post about the Zaleski Backpacking Trail. I originally intended to just reply to the comment, but my reply became longer than intended, so I decided to make a blog post out of it.

Here is the comment:

“Our metroparks have lovely paved or gravel trails which are well kept and close to most. This Zaleski up-and-down, relatively unimproved trail sounds more like an actual hike through the hills/woods, if that's what flavor you're looking for. Trees fall, it rains...why mess with nature and move the fallen trees or build bridges over muddy areas or streams, or lay down asphalt to make every inch handicap-accessible. That is not nature, nor hiking.” - Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for commenting. Sorry it took so long in getting your comment posted, things have been hectic at my household lately causing me to neglect my poor blog.

I’d like to make a few points regarding your comment. No, I am not looking for ‘asphalt’ trails. My complaint with the trails at Zaleski has to do with the way that they are laid out. When you lay out trials in hilly areas (and Zaleski is definitely hilly) you need to consider effect the trail will have on the drainage of the hillside. Zaleski doesn’t make use of switchbacks nor does it have much in the way of erosion control. Since water uses the path of least resistance and the trail is devoid of vegetation, the trails in Zaleski turn into streams during rain storms. This makes them prone to erosion and more difficult to hike. Humans preferring to walk on a smooth surface will walk beside the trail which removes vegetation causing water to flow down and erode… it becomes a vicious cycle that makes a greater impact on the ecosystem than a properly designed trail otherwise would.

Next, bridges across streams and marshy areas are not so much for the hiker’s convenience, but to protect the streams and marshes themselves. Hikers crossing streams will eventually damage the natural banks, leading to erosion and soil loss, etc. And hikers looking to go around marshy or muddy trails trample native plants damaging far more vegetation than if the trail were maintained well.

Finally, blow downs happen. I understand this. In a wilderness area I expect to navigate over, around and through them, and I have. But this is not a wilderness area. It’s a State Park. Specifically it is a State Park in Ohio, as state that I live in and pay tax money to. I really do expect some maintenance done to keep the park serviceable. Again, hiking around downed trees has a greater impact on the environment than removing the tree.

All this aside, Zaleski encompasses some beautiful country. The hills, streams, sandstone outcroppings and forest are all beautiful. I really wish I could look past its major shortcomings, which are not the above three items.

Here’s what I see as Zaleski’s major shortcomings:

The campsites are on the ridge tops, not near streams. I’m sorry; I really like camping near streams. I realize that it is probably ecologically better to have the campsites on the ridges since there is less chance for humans to contaminate streams with dish soap and other wastes. BUT the camps at Zaleski really leave a lot to be desired.

The camps are too easily accessible by road. Because of this fact Zaleski seems to be known in the area as a free camping spot. I saw several coolers, lawn chairs and other implements that I know didn’t get carried in from the trail head parking area. The number of beer bottles and cans strewn around the weeds are a testament to this.

Due to these two reasons I will not be back to Zaleski. It’s a shame to because Zaleski offers a challenging backpacking experience that pushes average hikers with terrain not usually found in the Midwest. Unfortunately though it really doesn’t offer much in the way of reward once you make it to your destination.

Thanks for reading!

~Occasional Hyker

My Apologies

2012-03-31T13:27:00.000-04:00

So it appears that my last post was all the way back in June of 2011. This hiatus was not intentional. Several things have conspired over the past nine months to keep me from this blog. Of course college was one of them. My last few quarters were very intense and took a majority of my free time. I haven't done hardly any hiking nor have I made any new maps recently. Thankfully I graduated this March so that chapter of my life is over.

The other occurrence in my life, the more major of the two, is still on going. My wife had several odd medical incidents last summer starting in mid-June. By September we had learned that my wife had Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma of the Lung. Our lives have been dramatically altered as you can imagine. A 34 year old non-smoker is not supposed to develop lung cancer.

My wife has gone through her first round of chemotherapy and I'm happy to report that her cancer has responded favorably. She's currently on maintenance therapy to keep the cancer at bay for as long as possible. Yet she's not out of the woods by a long stretch. There is no cure for her disease and because her disease has metastasized it is also inoperable. We are hoping to get a few months to a year of progression free living for her. This would give science time to find a cure.

There has been so much progress in cancer research over the last decade that I am hopeful that science is on the cusp of saving people like my wife from a horrible fate.

So, I am back. I plan on blogging much more frequently and since I have a hike planned for May, I'll have another trail report to make. (Yes, I still need to write up a trip report for the Cranberry Wilderness, I know.)

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!

~Occasional Hyker

Cranberry Wilderness - Prelude to a Trip Report

2011-06-11T12:24:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note here, I've just about gotten my GPX files from my trip to the Cranberry Wilderness squared away. There was quite a bit of cleaning up that I had to do with the data and I only have the tracks broken down by day. My next feat will be cutting the tracks up into trail sections.

Anyway I just thought I would share a couple of pictures from GPSVisualizer with you. Here's the overview of the hike we took:

The Cranberry Wilderness

Here's the elevation profile for the entire hike:

The different colors indicate the day of the hike.

Here's the full GPX data for our hike:

Cranberry.gpx

I hope this wets your appetite! Look for a full trail report soon!

~Lateralus

Low Cost Kayak Roof Rack Solution for Naked Roof Cars

2011-06-10T08:45:00.000-04:00

I recently decided that I wanted to be able to carry two kayaks on my car, so that I could easily take a friend or my fiance paddling with me. I considered a lightweight trailer, but ruled them out due to cost and storage hassles. That left a roof rack.

If you drive a car with integrated rack rails, that's pretty easy - you can get fairly inexpensive crossbars that attach to your integrated rack. You can then add J-shaped cradles that let your boats rest on edge.

If, however, you drive a car with a "naked roof" - no rack rails, no rain gutters, just a smooth top - you have an issue. You must find a way to add crossbars where there is no existing structure. Yakima and Thule both make systems that fit a wide variety of cars, but they are expensive. I drive a 2002 Ford Taurus and I didn't wish to spend the $700+ that a crossbar/riser /J-cradle system would cost from one of the big names.

I poked around on Amazon, and quickly found that there are knockoffs available - "Universal fit" rack kits, priced as low as $30. Additionally, there are generic J-cradles that go for about $67 per set. This brought up a couple questions - would the rack fit my car, and would the J-cradles fit the rack? Would my handcrafted strip-built kayak come off my car, explode into 10,000 splinters, and kill innocent bystanders? These are things of nightmares.

The universal rack is rated to 150 lbs. It isn't the most impressively built piece of equipment I've ever owned, but it does the job - the crossbars are steel, on plastic risers.

I did some reading and found that the universal rack didn't fit the Taurus as designed. It comes with metal clips that are supposed to hook into the door frame. I eventually decided to run cargo straps through the passenger compartment, rather than relying on the hooks. It's very strong, and very cheap - but it comes with two drawbacks.

First, the straps compress the door gasket, which could eventually damage it. I decided I didn't care, because, frankly, it's a 2002 Taurus. My previous method of carrying my kayak involved using a foam block kit and ran the straps through the compartment as well, so that was a wash for me. Your mileage may vary.

Second, it takes a couple minutes to take on and off the car. I decided that both were worth it, since I might only use the system a few times a month.

With that modification, the universal rack was very firmly attached to the top of the car. I ordered a single J-cradle to make sure that it fit the universal rack - it did, quite well. I was very pleasantly surprised at the build quality on the J-cradles at that price point - the are well designed and feel like quality.

My boats both fit the J-cradles fine - a 17 ft Siskiwit Bay and a 15 ft plastic Epitour. I secure the boats to the cradle with the nylon straps supplied with the cradle, and a bow line tied off to the underside of the car. I've since purchased the second J-cradle and await a little free time to install it.

This rack is clearly an exercise in trade-offs. You trade the straps coming through the passenger compartment and possible gasket wear against a nearly $600 difference in price. For occasional use over modest distances, it works well. As an added bonus, the J-cradles will be reusable when I buy a new vehicle with integrated rails. For a total price of $160 I am quite pleased with the results and hope that someone else will find this useful.

Occasional Hyker is expanding!

2011-06-09T08:46:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post here to let you know that I made it through my Cranberry Wilderness trek two weeks ago. I have yet to write the trail review, that's coming soon, but I need to clean up my GPS data and organize my pictures first. School is about to end for this quarter and I've been extremely busy because of that.

The North Fork of the Cranberry River - Cranberry Wilderness

I also have some exciting news! My good friend J whom I've talked about on here before has decided to join the blog to document some of his outdoor gear projects. His outdoor hobbies run the gamut from paddling to backpacking. Currently he is learning to make his own light to ultralight gear.

Once we get everything sorted on the site he will be posting so stay tuned for that.

Have a good one and we'll be talking soon!

~Lateralus

T-Minus 52 hours and counting

2011-05-23T21:59:00.000-04:00

Good evening friends. I apologize for the delay in posting but again, life gets in the way. This is just a quick note before I go on a trip this weekend to the Cranberry Wilderness in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. I'm planning to hike for four days and I cannot be more excited.

I was reflecting upon all of the gear I have acquired in the past two years and I have come to realize that I am married to a wonderful woman. She has patiently walked around backpacking and outdoor stores from Cleveland, Ohio to Wheeling, West Virginia while I spent our money on my hobby. It's hard to find a good understanding woman and I feel blessed to have her.

So, gear. Yes, I have updated nearly all of the gear I had before I returned to backpacking in 2009. My sleeping bag and tent are the only items I have not replaced.

There's something about 'going lighter' that is sort of infectious. I suppose it is similar to buying a new television. You think about getting a new, bigger television, you don't really need one, but you start looking. You find an advertisement at some electronics store for a really good price that you could afford, say $800. Hey, that's not bad, you can afford that. So you buy the new Hi-Def 3D Super View television get it home and realize that your old DVD player and DVD collection just doesn't do the new screen justice. So you go out and upgrade to a BlueRay or whatever is newest. Then, of course you need new movies. So you start watching your new movies in your new player on your new television and you realize that the old stereo receiver isn't Dolby compatible and all of your movies feature surround sound, so you upgrade the receiver... and on and on.

This is how an $800 deal on a new television ends up costing you $10,000. Deciding to go lighter with your equipment is very similar.

So I'll soon set out on a backpacking trip with a new backpack, a hydration bladder, GPS, new sleeping pad, new boots... the list keeps going.

The loop I'm taking is similar to the loop found on MidAtlanticHikes.com for the Cranberry. I modified it a bit and depending upon trail and weather conditions when we get there, I may modify it some more. Of course I'll be taking along the old digital camera and I will try to take as many pictures as possible to incorporate into a trail report when I get back.

I hope you all have a good Memorial Day weekend, I know I plan on it! Talk to you soon.

~Occasional Hyker

I can get a permit for that? or Nude firefighting: worse than cooking bacon naked.

2011-04-28T21:32:00.000-04:00

Earlier today I was poking around on the USDA's Monongahela National Forest website looking for information on road or trail access restrictions when I stumbled across this gem: General Use Restrictions - Order 21-108. One item in particular caught my eye...

ORDER NO. 21-108

ORDER OF THE FOREST SUPERVISOR
CLOSING AN AREA TO ENTRY, TO WIT:

ENTIRETY OF MONONGAHELA NATIONAL FOREST
CHEAT-POTOMAC RANGER DISTRICT
GAULEY RANGER DISTRICT
GREENBRIER RANGER DISTRICT
MARLINTON-WHITE SULPHUR RANGER DISTRICT
MONONGAHELA NATIONAL FOREST – WEST VIRGINIA

Under the authority of the Act of Congress dated June 4, 1897, as amended (16 U.S.C. 551), and pursuant to the Secretary of Agriculture’s Regulations set forth at 36 CFR Part 261, Subpart B (36 CFR 261.50(a) and (b)), the following acts and omissions are prohibited in the entirety of the Monongahela National Forest controlled lands, waters and administrative units...

[Text omitted]

The following are prohibited:

[Text omitted]

13. Being publicly nude. (36 CFR 261.58 (j));

Ok, so it is not permissible ( among several other things which include possessing trees and generally being a jerk in designated camping areas ) to wander around the national forest naked. Now I personally have no problem with anyone who would want to go ambling along through thick underbrush comprised of various thorny or poisonous plant species, over gnarled and tangled blow-downs, in mosquito, tick, chigger and rattlesnake infested forests with their God given talents swinging in the breeze. I'm just that much of a believer in individualism. I've been to Haight-Ashbury, I've seen naked people in public there, to each their own. What really got me though was the next section:

Pursuant to the provision of 36 CFR 261.50(e), the following persons are exempt from this order:

1. Persons with a permit specifically authorizing the otherwise prohibited act or omission (36 CFR 261.50(e)(1)); and,
2. Any Federal, State, or local officer, or member of an organized rescue or fire fighting force in the performance of an official duty (36 CFR 261.50(e)(4)),

Wow. So this tells me two things: One, you can call the rangers station and apply for a federal permit to be nude in public...

And two, nude firefighting is completely acceptable in the National Forest.

Have a good evening!

~ Occasional Hyker

Updating My Gear and Transitioning from Traditional Thought.

2011-04-27T22:22:00.000-04:00

I recently bought a new backpack. I didn't 'intend' to buy a new one but I had been browsing backpacks on Campmor.com ( which is exactly opposite what someone who is not 'intending' to buy a new backpack should be doing ) and they had a great deal on a 60 liter pack. I made another mistake by posting on my Facebook wall about this great deal I had found. One of my friends saw my post and we ended up colluding to buy two packs at the same time to save on shipping costs. So much for intentions.

So I now have a new 60L internal frame pack. It is a Jansport Big Bear 63. ( If you notice, Jansport has the Big Bear 83 pictured on this webpage instead of the 63. It is fairly similar in design. ) I will admit, even though this was on sale for an excellent price, I was hesitant about this purchase.

I consider myself an experienced backpacker. ( Note: Experienced. Nothing close to expert though. ) I have carried a pack on countless hikes through the woods of Western PA and Southern Ohio. I have hiked part of the Northville-Placid Trail, the part through the Adirondack High Peaks, and I've done a section of the River-to-River Trail in southern Illinois. I first started backpacking as a Boy Scout and my first backpack was a Jansport which I still have. This is possibly why, to me, Jansport is an "entry brand" and I believe this is why I had some trepidation about this new backpack.

Please continue reading after the jump!

Well, once I had this bag in my hands I got over my snobbish attitude. It is a well made bag. I have one major issue with it; the torso adjustment on this backpack is pitifully small. It will fit a 13" to 16" torso. I'm 5'-7" and with the torso adjustment maxed out the shoulder straps just barely come all the way around my shoulders. It fits a relatively small number of people which is why, I'm guessing, the pack was on sale. It was also another lesson in online shopping for me. ( I have since figured out a way to modify the pack slightly to give me another inch or two of extra torso adjustment. I'll write a post about it when I make the modification. )

This picture speaks volumes. Literally 1400cu. in.

The 'transitioning from traditional thought' part of this post's title ended up coming about when I started transferring gear from my old pack to my new one. As I mentioned earlier, I have been trying to update and refine my gear, going for lighter, more compact equipment, and I thought I was being successful. That is until this 60 liter backpack came into my life. I guess I didn't realize how drastic a difference living out of 3850 cu. in. was going to be. My old Kelty is a beast, plain and simple. It holds at least 5200 cu. in. if not more. Needless to say, when I started putting my gear into the Jansport I quickly ran out of space. The thing is, I'm not really sure I'm that over-packed.

Main Gear List:

Sleeping Bag: Marmot 15deg Wizard (in a waterproof compression sack)
Tent: MSR Zoid 1
Sleeping Pad: An ancient 3/4 length closed cell foam Thermarest
Clothing: 1 pair each: Socks, undies, lightweight thermals (top & bot), quick dry pants, synthetic shirt, wind shirt, rain jacket and fleece (all in a stuff sack)
Cooking: 1.5L MSR BlackLite Pot w/lid and handle, MSR Pocket Rocket, LightMyFire Spork, Guyot Designs "Squishy Bowl" and some miscellaneous stuff (soap, salt, pepper, scrubber, etc.) with everything fitting into the pot
Fuel: 2- 8oz Fuel Bottles (probably overkill for a three night trip)
Water: 1- 3 liter hydration bladder, 1- 2 liter Nalgene bottle
Sweetwater Water Filter
Nylon pouch with crushed red pepper, toiletries and 'important papers' ( if you know what I mean )
External pouch with First Aid supplies
Hip pouch: Compass, Matchcase, Deet Spray

Now here's the list of optional things that I normally carry:

Becker Campanion
100ft- 1/4" braided nylon rope
Garmin eTrex Vista HCX
2 Platypus bladders ( 2 liter and 1 liter versions )
GSI Outdoor insulated cup
3 or 4 Plastic ziplock style bags
A ziplock bag with paper napkins
A stocking cap ( food cozy / head warmer )
2 Carabiners
1 pair of Crocs ( for river crossings and camp shoes )
Hand carved wooden safety whistle
Custom made pillow

Again, I really don't think this is grossly out of line even though I'm sure someone over at BackpackingLight.com would read this list and deem me 'undesirable'. The Becker and nylon rope are attached to the bag's side compression straps and the Crocs are attached via the carabiners. Everything else can fit in either the lid or the backpack's outside pouch. I can leave the Crocs and the Becker at home, those are completely optional. I'm still mulling that one over. Again, that's the 'transitioning' issue. In my mind, I *need* them, but in reality, they are not necessary. I could do just fine without.

While I want to minimize clutter ( no need to look like a tinker ) what I have hanging on the bag or stuffed in the pockets is not really that big of an issue; space in the main compartment is. I had hoped to fit my tent (sans poles), sleeping bag and clothing in the bottom of the pack, leaving my pot and food on top for easy access. Unfortunately once I get my sleeping bag and clothing in there, I have very little space for the cooking pot, food and my hydration bladder ( which ends up seriously compressed ). In order to carry my tent, I need to roll it up in my sleeping pad and attach it to the outside of the backpack using compression straps that snake under the backpack's side compression straps. There are no other loops for attaching gear to this bag. It ends up looking rather... unkempt.

Within the next week or so I am going to buy some nylon dry-bags I found ( at Walmart no less ) and see if I can use them to compress my clothing a bit more. I think I will be leaving my thermals at home for my up coming Cranberry trip ( hopefully ) so that will free up some space even though polyester thermals take up very little room. The big gain will be leaving the fleece at home. Once I get closer to the date of my trip I will be able to determine more accurately what the weather is going to be. At this point though, I'm expecting cold rain and buckets of it.

It looks like I need some more time both playing gear Tetris and reconsidering my gear list. I am sure I will trim some gear out. I am considering dropping the Nalgene bottle in favor of hauling water in the 1L Platypus, but we'll see. I hope some of you have big plans for adventure this spring, I know I can't wait to get myself out into the woods and test some of the new gear I've aquired.

Good luck and as always, feel free to leave comments.

Take care,

~ Occasional Hyker

New Blog Page: Creating Custom GPS Maps

2011-04-07T10:12:00.000-04:00

There's a new page on the blog!

Creating Custom GPS Maps

This page is going to be my repository for all GPS related posts that I do. As you can see I already have the links for the GPS mapping series there. In the near future I will be creating a quick reference PDF file for download.

That is about it for right now. Have a good day and remember if you see anything that needs clarification or just to give your 2 cents, please comment!

~Occasional Hyker

"Fun with Gear" or "Playing with your Junk"

2011-04-05T22:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, the title is a bit 'tongue in cheek', to be sure, but I find tinkering with my backpacking gear very enjoyable. There is something about taking your gear out of storage, making sure everything is clean and in working order, then putting it all together into a better configuration than was before which I find extremely satisfying.

This past weekend I did a bit of pack maintenance. I removed the pack from the frame (yes, I'm still using an ancient external frame pack) and I used some silicone water repellant spray on the nylon bag. After the bag dried, I put it back on the frame, then went through my gear and refined it, cutting out whatever weight I could. (When you have a pack that weighs in at 10# empty, it helps to have a light gear list.)

Please continue reading after the jump

As I mentioned before, I'm preparing for a trip to the Cranberry Wilderness. I will be taking a small crew, just one or two others, and I am a little nervous. The Cranberry is pretty remote and rugged. I want to make sure that I have everything in order so that I can be prepared for most any issue that my arise, while still packing light enough that I'm not miserable while hiking. This is going to be the most elevation intensive area that I have hiked and I'm hoping my fitness level is such that I don't die out there. Well, I won't die, but I'd rather not find myself wishing that I were dead. I have been on those types of hikes before and I don't find them enjoyable.

In preparation for this hike I have picked up a few items. I bought a pair of Platypus water bladders, a 1 liter and a 2 liter bladder. I've been wanting to buy these for a while to replace my Nalgene bottles. They take up less room and work great for storing filtered water in camp.

I also recently picked up a collapsible cup and bowl set made by Guyot Designs. I seriously debated picking these things up because of the cost, but I'm glad I did. These things are great! They fit inside my pot and because they are squishy, they sort of "fill in the cracks" keeping the rest of the contents of my pot from shifting around.

Before...

After

As you can see I can fit the pot handle, my stove, spork, bowl, cup and a little cleaning kit inside my pot. This is pretty convenient and saves quite a bit of room.

Another purchase I made was a new pair of boots. My old Vasque were really showing their age. The leather uppers were cracking, the material was faded, the tread on the bottom worn and it was just time. So I picked up another pair of Vasque. I bought the Breeze GTX boots. They seem to fit my feet pretty well in the store, but since the pair in the store had a big mark on them and the store did not have another pair in my size, I ended up buying the boots from an online retailer. I should be getting them this weekend. I have had excellent luck with Vasque in the past, my current boots are over 10 years old, but I've heard that their quality has gone down hill since they moved their manufacturing to China. I hope this is not the case, but I look forward to reviewing them soon.

That's about it for my new purchases. The only other thing I am looking to buy before the trip is a pair of used ski poles that I can utilize as hiking sticks. I just can't bring myself to pay good money for the rickety looking collapsible hiking poles you find in the stores. Cranberry is going to be challenging and I've read more than one person who wrote that a pair of poles is recommended.

Well, that's all I have for right now. Coming up soon, I have plans to make a freezer bag cozy and I'll be showing off my gear and pack. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

~Occasional Hyker

Plans for this spring: Cranberry Wilderness

2011-04-02T12:37:00.000-04:00

Well, it is that time of year again, the air is warmer, the birds are returning and people like myself start making plans to head off into the woods again. This spring has found me dreaming of a "bucket list" hike.

Over ten years ago I read an article in Backpacker Magazine about the Cranberry Wilderness in the southern part of the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) ( You can find a more recent write up at Backpacker.com ) Please continue reading after the jump for more!

For those of you unfamiliar with this part of the United States, the MNF stretches along the eastern border between West Virgina and Virgina. This rugged section of the Allegheny Mountain range contains the highest peaks in the state of West Virginia. It is also very lightly populated. In fact, the Cranberry Wilderness is located right smack dab in the middle of the darkest patch of night sky found on the Eastern Seaboard. This is an amazing fact considering that it is less than a six hour drive from Washington DC.

The Cranberry Wilderness itself is the one of the largest designated wilderness areas east of the Mississippi River consisting of over 47,000 acres. It encompasses part of the Yew Mountain range and the drainage basins for both the Cranberry and the Williams Rivers. The wilderness is a black bear sanctuary and hunting of black bears in this area is prohibited. Located mostly in Pocahontas County, the wilderness is a rugged slice of heaven.

I'm planning to take a three or four man crew on a twenty mile, four day hike through the wilderness. We will be using the parking area for the North-South trail along SR150 and hiking a circuit similar to the one described by MidAtlanticHikes.com. From everything I have read the Cranberry is true wilderness; rugged, unmaintained and lightly used. I think the trails will be challenging even though most of them are based upon the narrow gauge railroad beds that were used when this area was logged in the early part of the Twentieth Century. In many places though the trail has been washed out by erosion, causing a more difficult re-route up the steep hillsides. There are also several river crossings, none of which have foot bridges.

I'm very excited about this trip and I'm looking forward to writing a trip report upon my return. I will be making some gear related posts in the near future as I prepare for this trip, specifically I have a couple of projects that I have in the works, one is a pot cozy and the other is a food cozy for freezer bag cooking. Stay tuned for those.

~Occasional Hyker

I just re-joined Technorati

2011-03-28T14:21:00.001-04:00

Hey all, I just re-joined Technorati. I'm trying to get this blog as exposed as I can, so that anyone looking for the information that I have presented here may be able to find it.

Thanks for reading! I'll be posting again soon.

~Occasional Hyker

Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 5

2011-03-26T22:00:00.001-04:00

This is Part 5 of a multi-part series on creating custom topographic maps for your hand held mapping GPS unit. For previous posts click one of the following:
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 1
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 2
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 3
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 4

Creating Custom Topographic Maps
for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 5

Making your map work with Garmin MapSource

Well. I think we have come quite a long way. Let me just do a quick recap of what has happened so far:

Obtained the necessary FREE software.
Located and downloaded the map data that we needed.
Processed the map data. (For topography only)
Created the map.

In this post we will complete the following:

Convert the map into a Garmin Compatible format.
Load our converted map file into MapSource
Use MapSource to upload our map to our GPS Unit

Continue reading after the jump to complete your custom map for your hand held GPS unit!

In my last mapping post ( Part 4 ) we assembled all of the pieces of the map to produce a .mp file in GPSMapEdit. Now we need to modify that .mp file and process it to make it compatible with Garmin's MapSource.

This is our finished map from earlier.

We need to have our map opened in GPSMapEdit (as pictured above) to continue.

Once the map has loaded go to File --> Map Properties to access the map properties dialog box. The first tab on the Map Properties dialog should be the Header tab. Here we need to make sure that the Type set: is set to Garmin.

Next we need to assign the map an eight digit decimal ID. You can assign any eight digit code that you would like, but you cannot duplicate the code with another map. Conveniently, your topographic data comes in zip files that have an eight digit file name. (ex. 02167919.zip) I typically pick one of these file names as the ID value. For this map, I will assign an ID of 02167919.

**Note: This ID value is also going to be used as the name of the .IMG file when we export it out of GPSMapEdit so write it down somewhere!!

Our final task on this dialog box is to fill in the Displayable name of map field. Name the map whatever you would like. I'm going to fill in my Name field with Cranberry Wilderness Topographic Map. You can also fill in the Copyright information if you would like. I typically just put my name and the year in this field. That completes the entries for this step. Press the Apply button to save your changes.

IMPORTANT: Before you go on to the next step, go to the cGpsMapper tab. Make sure that Map is transparent is set to Y - Transparent map without background object. After setting this value properly press the OK button to save and exit the Map Properties dialog.

Save your map before going on to the next step. (File --> Save Map)

Next we are going to export the map using cGPSMapper.exe. Go to File --> Export --> Garmin IMG/ cgpsmapper.exe. This will bring up the Save As dialog box. Make sure to name your file the same eight digit code as you assigned it for the ID number. (ex. 02167919.img for the File Name) and check that the Save As Type is set to Garmin MapSource map (*.img). Once you have verified these settings, go ahead and press the Save button.

After you press Save, the Export to cgpsmapper.exe dialog box appears. Here you must navigate to the cgpsmapper.exe file. When I installed cgpsmapper I installed it in a folder on my C Drive. For me the path to the .exe file is C:\cgpsmapperFree\cgpsmapper.exe. Click on the ... button next to the Path field to use the browser and locate your copy of cgpsmapper.exe.

After selecting the .exe path, press the Run button. Depending on the speed of your system and the size of your map, this process may take a while. (My PC is a 3.2Ghz i5 Quad Core with 4GB of RAM and it took over 17 minutes to export. On my old 2.0Ghz AMD Athlon system I'd let this process run overnight.) After the export has competed click the OK button. You can now exit from GPSMapEdit.

Next we need to create a new directory in the Garmin MapSource directory. This should be located at C:\Garmin. Navigate to the Garmin directory and create a sub-directory named "Custom". Now copy your exported .img file into this directory.

We are now ready to use MapSetToolkit to import the .img file into MapSource. Locate MapSetToolkit and start the program.

The MapSetToolkit interface.

First, we need to select which .img file we are going to import. Select the Select IMG button. This brings up a Browse for Folder dialog box. Select your C:\Garmin\Custom folder. All of your .img files in the Custom folder should now be listed in the Source IMG files box. Select the map that you want to add to MapSource and click the Add button.(Note: you can create one mapset with multiple .img files. This may be necessary if you need to break up your map into multiple files. You may have to do this because the area you are trying to map might be too big for GPSMapEdit to handle.)

The next step is to fill out the Create MAPSET section. In the Mapset directory field click on the ... button and navigate to the Custom directory that you created earlier. After you select it the Mapset Directory should read C:\garmin\custom.

For the Mapset name field give the set a name. This is what will appear in the MapSource drop-down menu. For my map, I'll call it Cranberry Wilderness Topo.

Next assign the map a Family ID number. This can be any number between 1 and 65535, but it must be unique to the map. Look under the Mapset Installed section for your used Family ID (FID) numbers. In this case, I'll use 501.

The rest of the fields can be left at their default values. You can enter information into the Copyright info field if you wish, but this is only displayed in MapSource if you look at the map set's properties. The TYP files field is used if you have created custom line types for Garmin. We have not, so leave this field blank.

In the cgpsmapper/cpreview folder field click on the ... button. Like we did with GPSMapEdit when exporting to the .img file, navigate to the folder that cgpsmapper is installed in. Again, on my system this is C:\cgpsmapperFree\ . Select this directory and click OK.

Finally, make sure that under the Options section in the lower right hand corner of the main dialog box that there is a check mark next to Install in Mapsource. When you are done filling in all of the fields your dialog box should look similar to the following:

You are now ready to add your map to MapSource!

Click the Start button. Once MapsetToolkit finishes a box will appear that says Convert Completed. Click OK and check under the Mapset Installed section to see that your map is installed and that its Family ID has been entered correctly.

And that's it! Now you can open up Garmin MapSource and select your new map and load it into your GPS unit!

Congratulations!

I hope this blog series has helped you make better use of your handheld mapping GPS unit. Thanks for reading. If you find any mistakes or have any questions please leave a comment and I will try to respond as soon as possible. Thanks again!

~Occasional Hyker

A long hiatus and hopefully the last one

2011-03-21T10:49:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends!

I apologize for being away for so long. This past quarter was extremely intense and my schoolwork demanded a great deal of my time. I've found that many of the activities I used to do, including this blog, were swept aside to make time for my studies.

That being said, the quarter is now over and my mind is spinning with ideas for blog posts.

I'll be finishing up the GPS Mapping series this week. I need to get the demonstration map finished and loaded into my unit since I am planning a trip this spring to the area I'm mapping.

Along with that I've been refining my gear, picking up some stuff and removing equipment that I do not need. I'm going to also go through my first aid kit and add/subtract things. I'll make posts about this soon, as well.

So, I hope you all have been doing well and the spring is greeting you with exciting outdoor adventure possibilities! Stay tuned, there's more to come!

~Occasional Hyker

Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 4

2011-01-12T07:45:00.004-05:00

This is Part 4 of a multi-part series on creating custom topographic maps for your hand held mapping GPS unit. For previous posts click one of the following:
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 1
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 2
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 3

Creating Custom Topographic Maps
for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 4

Working with GPSMapEdit

In the previous posts we downloaded terrain and water data from the USGS servers (Post #2) and manipulated our terrain data to give us shapefiles containing contour lines at 20', 100' & 200' intervals (Post #3). Now we are going to take those files and assemble them into a .mp map file. (Just a word of warning, this is going to be a rather involved post.) Our goal is to take our downloaded data and assemble it to create something that looks like this:

Now THAT looks like a map!

Continue reading after the jump to start assembling your own map!

If you have used GPSMapEdit before you can skip this section, if not, read on.

If you remember from Post #1 GPSMapEdit does not have an installer with it. Simply unzip the file that you downloaded from Geopainting.com to your C Drive, open the folder and double click on MapEdit.exe.

This is important only if you are using U.S. Units!!
The first time you use GPSMapEdit you need to make sure a few items are set properly. Go to Tools --> Options to open the options dialog panel. Look for and select the Units tab, it should be the upper left hand tab. In this tab change these settings:

Distance, speed set to Statute (feet, statute miles, mph)
Elevation, depth set to Feet
Area set to Square Feet, Square Miles.

Your tab should look like this:

A proper set up.

Next I recommend that you create a blank map file and set it up to save time in the future. I already have one created that I named BaseBlankMap.mp. (Click on the file name to download my file, this will allow you to skip the next part.)

GPSMapEdit does not have a "New" function. To create a new map you must import a shapefile or some other compatible object then do a save as. I would recommend you do the following if you wish to set up your own file:

Go to File --> Import --> ESRI Shape (*.shp) first then navigate to one of your contour .shp files you made with FWTools. Select the file, this will open up the import dialog box. Assign the shapefile an object code (at this point it doesn't matter what), hit the Next button 4 times until the Finish button appears. You should now be able to see the shapefile.
Next go to Tools --> Select Objects and drag a box around all of the contour lines that you just imported. Use the delete key on the key board or go to Edit --> Delete to remove them.
Since GPSMapEdit will not let you save an empty file we must draw something in the file before we save it. Zoom in as far as you can. When the scale in the lower left corner reads 16ft that's your minimum zoom level. To insert a line go to Tools--> Create Object--> Polyline. Left click once, move in any direction just slightly then left click again. Right click and choose End. You will get a dialog box that asks you for an object type; select 0x0000 Roads then click OK. Press Enter to assign the object a blank label.
To save the file go to File --> Save as and set the file type to Polish format (*.mp *.txt) file. Make sure to change the file name before you hit save.

Now we have a "blank" file but we still need to set up some standard properties. These will make the map file transparent and create our different levels so we can filter out information as we zoom out to reduce map clutter.

1. Go to File--> Map Properties and select the cGpsMapper tab. Make sure that Map is transparent is set to Y - Transparent map without background object. (I have had this setting mysteriously change on me so make sure you double check this setting before exporting your map to an IMG file.)

Check back to this tab before exporting.

2. Next we will set up our levels. Through some trial and error I have come up with a system of six levels. Go to the Levels tab on the Map Properties dialog box and select the bottom level on the list. Click the Insert Before button until you have levels 0 through 5. Use the Change... button and set the properties for each level as follows:

Level 0= 24 Bits | MapSource Zoom= 1 (1.2 -3km)
Level 1= 22 Bits | MapSource Zoom= 2 (3 -8km)
Level 2= 20 Bits | MapSource Zoom= 3 (8 -12km)
Level 3= 19 Bits | MapSource Zoom= 4 (12 -30km)
Level 4= 18 Bits | MapSource Zoom= 5 (50 -120km)
Level 5= 17 Bits | MapSource Zoom= 6 (120 -300km)

(When adding objects to your map make sure that Level 5 is always empty.)

Click the OK button to exit the Properties dialog then go to File--> Save Map to save.

One last step. We need to add an additional polyline into the drawing on Level 4. Doing this will cause our map to be invisible when zoomed way out on our GPS unit. First, go to View--> Levels--> Level4 4. Next zoom in as far as you can go, just like we did before. Next go to Tools--> Create Object--> Polyline. Left click once, move in any direction just slightly then left click again. Right click and choose End. You will get a dialog box that asks you for an object type; select 0x0000 Roads then click OK. Press Enter to assign the object a blank label. Save your map.

I would then close GPSMapEdit and use windows explorer to navigate to the file and set the file property to Read Only so that you do not accidentally modify this file. Now you really do have a "blank" map template file.

Ok, now that we have our blank .mp file with our levels set up properly; we are ready to start importing our shapefiles into it. I like to create a map with all of my water data in it first and save it as a MapHydroData.mp file. There are three shapefiles we want to import for water data: NHDArea.shp, NHDFlowline.shp and NHDWaterbody.shp. Locate your downloaded water data zip files (they should be named NHD******.zip) and extract them to an easy to find location. The files we need are all located in the Hydrography folder of your extracted data file. (For instance, if you extracted your NHD******.zip file to a directory called Temp on your C: Drive then the path to the above files would be C:\Temp\NHD******\hydrography\ )

The NHDArea.shp file contains stream/river and artificial waterway geometry data. This file will give your streams and rivers width on your map so they match what they would look like from the air.

The NHDFlowline.shp contains most of the data and spatial geometry for streams/rivers and artificial waterways. This file will contain the names of your bodies of water.

The NHDWaterbody.shp file contains information about lakes and ponds as well as marshes and other water features. This file will contain the names of some of the water features.

Enough about what the files are, let's import our water data.

First go back to GPSMapEdit and make sure you have your blank file open. From the drop down menu select File--> Import--> ESRI Shape (*.shp), this will open up the Import dialog box.

Once you navigate in the dialog box to your hydrography folder, select the NHDArea.shp file and import it.

Step 1. Select type of objects: Select the pattern 0x0040 Small lake then select Next>
Step 2. Select Source of labels: Find the column labeled GNS_Name and select it, then select Next>
Step 3. Assign more attributes: Select Next>
Step 4. Select source coordinate system: Make sure WGS84 is chosen, then select Next>
Step 5. Select zoom levels to import: Select only levels 0, 1, 2, & 3, then select Finish

(Do not be alarmed if nothing shows up. GPSMapEdit is filtering the objects out by default do to your zoom level. To display your objects go to View--> Levels--> Level0 0. Every time you import, GPSMapEdit resets the level to Auto.)

We now need to repeat this step for our flowline data so select the NHDFlowline.shp file and import it.

Step 1. Select type of objects: Select the pattern 0x001f River then select Next>
Step 2. Select Source of labels: Find the column labeled GNS_Name and select it, then select Next>
Step 3. Assign more attributes: Select Next>
Step 4. Select source coordinate system: Make sure WGS84 is chosen, then select Next>
Step 5. Select zoom levels to import: Select only levels 0, 1, & 2, then select Finish

Finally we need to import waterbody data. Select the NHDWaterbody.shp file and import it.

Step 1. Select type of objects: Select the pattern 0x003e Medium lake then select Next>
Step 2. Select Source of labels: Find the column labeled GNS_Name and select it, then select Next>
Step 3. Assign more attributes: Select Next>
Step 4. Select source coordinate system: Make sure WGS84 is chosen, then select Next>
Step 5. Select zoom levels to import: Select only levels 0, 1, & 2, then select Finish>

To view the water data you just imported go to View--> Levels--> Level0 0.

Oooh! Water!

You need to repeat these steps for each NHD******.zip that you downloaded. (Just a word of warning, when importing water data do not use the following patterns: 0x0029 Water, 0x003b Water, or 0x0045 Water as they are not recognized by the Garmin software.)

Once you have imported all of your water data, save your map, then do a Save As and save another copy under a different name such as MapTopo.mp. This is the file into which we will import our contour lines.

In your Topo map we will be doing pretty much the same thing as we did with the water data. First we'll import our 20' contour lines which we created in Post #3. From the drop down menu select File--> Import--> ESRI Shape (*.shp), this will open up the Import dialog box.

Navigate in the dialog box to the output folder containing your ********-20ft.shp (for instance c:\TMP\output\02167919\02167919-20ft.shp), select the ********-20ft.shp file and import it.

Step 1. Select type of objects: Select the pattern 0x0020 Minor land contour (1/10) then select Next>
Step 2. Select Source of labels: uncheck the Select field for labels box, then select Next>
Step 3. Assign more attributes: Select Next>
Step 4. Select source coordinate system: Make sure WGS84 is chosen, then select Next>
Step 5. Select zoom levels to import: Select only levels 0, & 1, then select Finish

We now need to repeat this step for our 100' contours so select the ********-100ft.shp file and import it.

Step 1. Select type of objects: Select the pattern 0x0021 Interm. land contour (1/2) then select Next>
Step 2. Select Source of labels: Select the elev field, then select Next>
Step 3. Assign more attributes: Select Next>
Step 4. Select source coordinate system: Make sure WGS84 is chosen, then select Next>
Step 5. Select zoom levels to import: Select only levels 0, 1, & 2, then select Finish

We now need to repeat this step for our 200' contours so select the ********-200ft.shp file and import it.

Step 1. Select type of objects: Select the pattern 0x0022 Major land contour (1/1) then select Next>
Step 2. Select Source of labels: Select the elev field, then select Next>
Step 3. Assign more attributes: Select Next>
Step 4. Select source coordinate system: Make sure WGS84 is chosen, then select Next>
Step 5. Select zoom levels to import: Select only levels 0, 1, 2, & 3, then select Finish

Go ahead an repeat the above steps for each set of topographic data that you downloaded from the USGS. After you are finished save your map. It should look pretty similar to the following:

Getting close!

Just a few more steps and we are done! As you can see from the image above, your map will have quite a bit of water data outside of your area of interest. To trim this data choose the Trim Map tool from the toolbar or go to Tools--> Trim Map. Draw a box around your contour lines then right click and choose Trim Outside. Next go to Tools--> Remove object duplicates. It will bring up a dialog box telling you how many duplicate objects have been deleted. Click OK then save your map.

The finished product.

That's pretty much it for assembling the map. In the next post we'll set up the .mp file and process it with cGPSMapper to convert it into a Garmin compatible .img file. Then we'll use MapSetToolkit to import our .img file into Map Source so it can be loaded into our GPS unit!

Until next time, take care and be safe.

~Occasional Hyker

It is January 5th and already I'm dreading 2011

2011-01-05T23:03:00.000-05:00

Hi all. Just a quick update here. School is getting back into the swing of things and this quarter is shaping up to be particularly nasty. I'm thinking that the academic adviser at Strayer was full of beans having me take a 400 level course before taking a 300 level one. I guess I'll find out how fast I can tread water eh?

300 courses before 400? No! Dive right in! You'll be fine.

I'm planning on finishing the next post in my GPS Map series soon, this weekend most likely. Post #4 deals with assembling shapefiles in GPSMapEdit and it's going to be a whopper of a post. GPSMapEdit is a great little program once you work through all of its eccentricities but it certainly has a bunch of those. For instance it has no New command. You cannot create a blank file, you also cannot save a blank file. This makes creating a blank map template a bit more difficult.

Anyway I'll be finishing that post and moving on to Post #5 in which I'll explain how to get your custom map into Garmin MapSource. I'm also going to create a quick and dirty outline for general reference that doesn't include as much explanation.

Another plan that I'm kicking around is taking a Saturday and doing a day hike down at Raccoon Creek State Park in PA. I want to grab a GPS track of the trail I hiked in November 2009. Of course my ability to do that depends heavily upon my course load. Library here I come!

So, anyway look for the rest of my GPS Mapping series and hopefully another RCSP trail report coming up soon! Take care.

~Occasional Hyker

Kudos to Ka-Bar

2011-01-03T22:20:00.001-05:00

About this time last year a really good friend of mine gave me a gift. It was completely unexpected, in fact it knocked my socks off. He gave me a Becker BK2 Campanion knife made by Ka-Bar Knives, Inc. This knife is awesome to say the least. (Thanks W! I know you'll read this so I just want to say that I love and appreciate this knife quite a bit!) It weighs in at about one pound has a 5.25" length blade and an over-all length of 10.5".

Trust me, it's a big knife.

The BK2 Campanion (yes, it is Campanion, not companion) is one of the most comfortable fixed blade knives I've used. Even though it is heavy the handle is contoured just right and fits in the hand perfectly giving you control and confidence. The back of the blade is 1/4" thick allowing you to use the knife as a wedge, beating on it with a bludgeon if necessary. The knife is sharp enough for field dressing a carcass but also strong enough to break a joint when quartering. It just is a great knife.

But that's not the kudos that I want to give Ka-Bar. Please keep reading after the jump!

If you notice in the below photo, there's something funky going on with the tip of the sheath.

A crack, and a sad, sad attempt at fixing it.

The day after Christmas I pulled my BK2 out of storage (my bedside table) and I was getting ready to strap it to my day pack for a hike the following day. That's when I noticed the big crack across the tip of the sheath. I was puzzled because there had been no damage to the sheath when I had gotten it out just a few months prior. Upon further inspection I found out what had caused this crack.

The sheath is made of two hard plastic shells fastened together. The front of the sheath is contoured to fit the knife, the back piece though is flat. Apparently the back piece started to curl away from the front piece and this caused enough stress to split the front piece at the tip of the sheath.

I was honestly pissed about this because the knife is so damn nice. The crack isn't a real huge problem, even if the tip of the sheath came completely off the knife would still be protected, but cosmetically it looked bad, especially after I tried to fix it. I sat down and brought up Ka-Bar's site and filled out the email form on their "Contact Us" page.

Like I said, this was the day after Christmas and I really didn't expect to hear from anyone for about a week. You can imagine then my pleasant surprise when I received a very nice email that Wednesday from a customer service representative apologizing for the problem and requesting my mailing address so that I could receive a replacement sheath.

That sheath was hanging from my door handle (in a box of course) when I arrived home this evening. That's 8 days from the date of my email WITH the holidays and everything!

Sheath Front

Sheath Back

This sheath is a bit different design than my old one. The old one would accept the knife with the sharp edge toward either side whereas this sheath the knife only goes in one way. The new one does allow you to switch the side that the belt loop attaches to enabling you to carry the knife however it bests suits you. The new sheath is also much, MUCH stiffer than the old sheath which makes me wonder how I'm going to attach it to my backpack. The old one I'd weave through the tension straps on one side of my pack. This enabled me to reach behind with my right hand, while wearing the pack, and draw the knife if I needed it. I don't think the new sheath will allow a one-handed draw. I hope that it loosens up a bit with use.

Well that's my experience with the Becker BK2 Campanion so far. It is a great knife and I am very impressed with Ka-Bar Knives, Inc for their fast and courteous response to a very minor issue. I am going to look at more Ka-Bar knives in the future based solely on this experience.

Until next time, happy hiking and take care!

~Occasional Hyker

Happy New Year Everyone!

2010-12-31T12:23:00.000-05:00

Well, that's all she wrote for 2010. I cannot say that I will be sad to see this year pass. It was a long and arduous one full of worry and disappointment. Now is the time for putting 2010 in the rear-view and heading full throttle into 2011. I have several trips planned already and a family vacation that I'm trying to finalize. Hopefully 2011 is the year that I've been waiting for!

Photo courtesy of jscreationzs

Coming up soon on the blog: I'm going to finalize my GPS maps How To so look for that in the next few days. I'm also going to go through my gear and pack and show what I carry and how I carry it. The other day I found an Osprey Aether 60 pack at a local shop... I shouldn't have put it on. Stay tuned because I may have a nice new pack to review!

Occasional Hyker's 2011 Wish List:

3 to 4 night backpacking trip to the Cranberry Wilderness
2 night trip to central PA along the Loyalsock Trail
An overnight backpacking trip with my daughter, her first.
A week long trip with the family to the Upper Peninsula featuring lots of hiking.
Another 4 quarters of straight 'A's in class.

That's all for now, Happy New Year everyone! See you all in 2011!

~Occasional Hyker

Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 3

2010-12-29T23:15:00.002-05:00

This is Part 3 of a multi-part series on creating custom topographic maps for your hand held mapping GPS unit. For previous posts click one of the following:
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 1
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 2

Creating Custom Topographic Maps

for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 3

Manipulating Topographic Data

In the last post, Post #2, we downloaded topographical data from the USGS Seamless server. The data we downloaded is in the GeoTIFF format, and while it looks pretty cool, we need to convert that from a shaded picture to contour lines.

Pretty groovy, but you can't go orienteering with it.

To change that mess up there into contour lines we are going to use the FWTools software that we installed way back in Post #1, so please keep reading after the jump.

Access the FWTools Shell program by going to Start -> All Programs -> FWTools. You should get a screen that looks like the following:

Ooooh, a shell!

Now with this program we are going to do four things:

Convert the GeoTIFF file from meters to feet.
Create minor elevation lines in 20' increments.
Create intermediate elevation lines in 100' increments.
Create major elevation lines in 200' increments.

Remember in the last post when I said to download the elevation data to a convenient location on your computer? Well this part is the reason why. In the FWTools Shell we are going to run a gdal command to process the GeoTIFF file and create a shapefile with elevation lines. The basic format for the gdal command is as follows:

gdal_[*] <options> (Path to Input File\Input File) (Path to Output File\Output File)

You will need to enter the full path for both the input file and the output file every time you run the gdal command. I like to create a working directory off of the C Drive called TMP. This is the directory into which I downloaded the zip files from Seamless. Make sure to unzip the files into their own directories in \TMP before you proceed.

Because this command, and the other gdal commands that I will run, are so complex yet similar, I have created a text file with the basic format of the commands in it. I simply modify the commands for the particular file I am working on and then copy and paste the command into the FWTools Shell program. You can download my text file here.

Our first step will be to use the gdal_translate command to convert the geotiff from meters to feet. To accomplish this I will use the following command:

gdal_translate -scale 0 0.3048 0 1.0 c:\TMP\02167919\02167919.tif c:\temp\02167919\02167919-ft.tif

I now have a file called 02167919-ft.tif located in c:\temp\02167919\

After converting the GeoTIFF to feet, we are now able to run the gdal_contour commands to create our contour line shape files. (Make sure to create your output directories under the \TMP directory first.) For this next step we will use three different gdal_contour commands:

gdal_contour -a elev -i 20 c:\TMP\02167919\02167919-ft.tif c:\TMP\output\02167919\02167919-20ft.shp

gdal_contour -a elev -i 100 c:\TMP\02167919\02167919-ft.tif c:\TMP\output\02167919\02167919-100ft.shp

gdal_contour -a elev -i 200 c:\TMP\02167919\02167919-ft.tif c:\TMP\output\02167919\02167919-200ft.shp

The results.

We should now have three shape files, one for 20' contour lines, one for 100' and one for 200'. Repeat this process for each GeoTIFF file that you downloaded from Seamless.

In my next post I will explain how we can create a map using GPSMapEdit and incorporate both our hydorgraphic data and our topographic shape files. Stay tuned!

~Occasional Hyker

Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 2

2010-12-29T15:48:00.001-05:00

This is Part 2 of a multi-part series on creating custom topographic maps for your hand held mapping GPS unit. For previous posts click one of the following:
Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 1

Creating Custom Topographic Maps

for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 2

Finding and Downloading Data

In Part 1 we discussed the steps required to produce a topographic map for a mapping GPS unit and the tools we will use. In this post I will walk you though the process of downloading data from the internet.

For this tutorial I am going to create topographic maps with hydrography data. These maps will overlay the existing maps in your GPS unit, this way, if you have Garmin Street Navigator maps, you will still be able to see the Garmin Data beneath your custom map. I will eventually post an advanced How-To that includes the shape files for park boundaries, but this requires quite a bit more work and is not necessary for creating a basic topographic map.

Step two in our process is downloading data. We will start with the topographic data from the USGS after the jump.

Open your web browser (I am a dedicated Firefox user, but for this operation I use Internet Explorer. Firefox sometimes has issues running scripts and the following sites are very script intensive) and navigate to:

http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/viewer.htm

The above link takes you to the USGS Seamless Viewer. Using this interface we will select the topographic data we require for our map. The biggest difficulty in using the USGS viewer is responsiveness. It is not a snappy interface so please be patient.

The USGS Viewer

On the left hand side of the viewer are the navigation tools, on the right are the data filters. To make navigation easier I would suggest going to the Elevation heading on the right and turning off the NED Shaded relief and the GTOPO60 color shaded relief. This will make the interface quicker. Also to help find your area of interest I suggest going to the Places heading then the Boundaries heading, again on the right and turning on the GNIS Cities (with labels) and the Counties and County Labels. Again, this is all to aid you in locating your area of interest.

Once you have located the area that you want data for, select the Define Rectangular Download Area tool on the left hand side under Downloads. Left click and drag your mouse to define a box. This should select all the data in and around your area of interest. After you complete the selection, a pop-up window will appear.

The Pop-up Window

In this window we will select Modify Data Request. This will allow us to change the default data and select our data formats.

Modify Data Request window.

Under the Elevation heading choose either the National Elevation Dataset (NED) 1/3 Arc Second or the National Elevation Dataset (NED) 1/9 Arc Second option and uncheck the National Elevation Dataset (NED) 1 Arc Second option. The 1/3 Arc Second data is very detailed and the 1/9 is even more so. For my needs the 1/3 Arc Second is plenty accurate enough.

Also make sure you change the data format from ArcGRID to GeoTIFF. Next scroll to the bottom of the window and under the Delivery Options change the "Maximum size (MB) per piece" from 100MB to 50MB. This will make the data files more manageable. Click the Save Changes & Return to Summary button.

You should now have a window that looks similar to this:

Click the Download buttons on each Data Set to save the files to your computer. Make sure to save the files to an easy to find location on your computer. I suggest creating a TMP folder in your C Drive and saving them here. The closer to the C Drive that you locate your data, the simpler our GDAL commands will be when it comes to creating our topographic lines.

Next we are going to download Hydrographic data from the USGS 'National Hydrography Dataset' viewer found at:

http://nhdgeo.usgs.gov/viewer.htm

This viewer is similar to the USGS Seamless viewer so it should have a familiar feel. Again, navigation tools are on the left and data filters are on the right.

NHD Viewer. Very similar to Seamless

Zoom into your area of interest. Now, here's the tricky part. The USGS Topo data that you selected will be very nice rectangular areas. The NHD data is broken up based upon subbasins. A subbasin is basically a drainage area for a tributary. They have no regular shape so you must download data for every subbasin that your topo data crosses. Unfortunately sometimes this is not very obvious since your topo data selection was an arbitrary rectangle that you drew on the map. It sometimes takes several trips to the NHD to grab all the necessary data. Don't worry about having too much hydro data for you map. We can trim your hydro data in MapEdit to match your topo data area.

On the right hand side, click on the NHD High Res heading. If there are no options under this heading, you have not zoomed in far enough. Once you are the options for this data set will appear. When they do, place a check next to the NHDFlowline, NHDArea, and NHDWaterBody options. Under the Hydrologic Units heading, place a dot in the circle next to the Subbasins option.

Your selections should look similar to the above picture.

Next, select the Polygon Extract tool on the left side of the screen. With this tool. click just once inside the subbasin that you want. This will bring up a window:

In this box we need to select High Resolution under Option #1 and Shapefile Under Option #2. Leave Option #3 blank and provide your email address under #4. Within an hour up to a day you will receive an email with a download link to your data. Again, like the topo data, save the file in an easily locatable directory.

Well that's all for this phase of the map building process. In the next part I will discuss preparing the contour data and creating topographic line shapefiles with the FWTools Shell. Stay tuned!

~Occasional Hyker

Creating Custom Topographic Maps for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 1

2010-12-29T11:10:00.004-05:00

Creating Custom Topographic Maps

for your Hand Held GPS Unit - Part 1

A Brief Introduction

So you just bought yourself that hand held GPS unit that you've been wanting. It looked so good in the store and it came in a very nice box with impressive and professional looking graphics on the outside. You, of course, pay little mind to the box as you open it up and extract your new toy. A mapping GPS unit! Now you have the power to always know just exactly where you are at all times and it fits into the palm of your hand!! Hurriedly you turn the unit on only to discover... the damn thing doesn't have hardly any detail on the base map. Now what?

Shiny and at the moment, useless.

Well Garmin is hoping that you will purchase map packs from them. I guess it is good for Garmin, I mean, when you buy the map packs from them you end up spending half again what the unit cost just to make it... well, usable. But what if I told you that you could create accurate, custom maps for your Garmin GPS unit and all it will cost you is some of your free time? Sounds great doesn't it? Well continue reading after the jump to learn how to create your very own completely customized maps for your GPS unit.

I have found several different tutorials on the web for creating custom maps for your Garmin, but most of them were either not complete, vague, or they used software that I did not like. I am going to lay out, in a series of blog posts this week, a "How-To Guide" for downloading USGS data and creating custom maps for your Garmin GPS unit.

Here are the basic steps that we will take:

Obtain the necessary FREE software.
Find and download the map data that you need.
Process the map data. (For topography only)
Create the map.
Convert the map to a Garmin Compatible format.
Load your map file into MapSource
Use MapSource to upload your maps to your GPS Unit

This task takes some moderate computer know how, but I will try to walk you through it in a simple step by step fashion. Let's start with step number one: Obtain the necessary FREE software. (I keep emphasizing free because there are many good people out there who have spent time and energy creating these software packages for our benefit. While they do not charge for use of their software, please consider donating to them. Hobbyist programmers need to eat too.) We will need several tools in order to process our data and assemble it into a map. Download and install the following:

FWTools - Download Here
GPSMapEdit - Download Here
cGPSMapper - Download Here
MapSetToolKit v1.40 - Download Here

I'll briefly explain each program:

FWTools is the program that we will use to produce topographical maps for our GPS units. FWTools allows you to process contour data downloaded from the USGS into elevation lines. In it's raw format, the USGS data (called GeoTiff files) look like satellite pictures which indicate elevation using shading. With FWTools we will run a shell environment in which we use the GDAL commands to interpret the elevations in the GeoTiff files and produce shape files with topographic contour lines. (Note: This step is processor intensive and may require a large amount of time to complete.)

FWTools is an installable program. Download the Windows 32bit installer and run to install. After installation there will be a new program group in your Start -> All Programs menu called FWTools. To use FWTools select the FWTools Shell icon.

GPSMapEdit allows you to assemble your map data into one file. We will use GPSMapEdit to bring our shape files together, layer them and also filter them as required. I'll explain more about layering and filtering when we get there.

GPSMapEdit downloads as a .zip file and does not need to be installed. Simply un-zip the program (I would recommend un-zipping it to your C Drive) and double click on the MapEdit.exe program to use.

cGPSMapper is a support program used by GPSMapEdit to create Garmin compatible maps. You don't actually use this program yourself.

cGPSMapper is also a .zip file that does not require installation. Again, un-zip to the C Drive.

MapSetToolKit enables you to install your new map file into MapSource.

MapSetToolKit is a... you guessed it, a .zip file. Once more, un-zip to the C Drive.

Stay tuned. In my next post I will be discussing finding and downloading free data that we will use to create your maps!

~Occasional Hyker

Merry Christmas everyone!

2010-12-19T21:48:00.000-05:00

It has been a long couple of months but I finally finished this last quarter of school this weekend. I'm looking forward to having a few weeks off for Christmas. Since I'll have a bit of free time I hope to compile a mutli-part guide on how to produce your own map files for the Garmin eTrex series GPS units.

It will require a bit of research and organizing a butt-load of notes that I have made, but this is something that I have wanted to do for myself anyway, so might as well post it up for others to enjoy. I hope everyone has a good Christmas season and you'll hear from me soon!

Merry Christmas!
~ Occasional Hyker

The "Cook's Source" Kerfluffle - Copryright and Blogging

2010-11-05T12:57:00.000-04:00

I just read an article on NPR by Linda Holmes titled The Day The Internet Threw A Righteous Hissyfit About Copyright And Pie which relates the recent story about Cook's Source magazine recently getting caught reprinting material gleaned from the Internet.

According to the article a food blogger by the name of Monica Gaudio found one of her blog posts in an edition of Cook's Source magazine, a free but ad supported periodical. Although the magazine gave Ms. Gaudio credit for writing the article, she was obviously upset that her material had been used without her permission and sent emails off to Cook's Source to inform them of that fact. Cook's Source editor, Judith Griggs, replied with an astounding email that leaves one shaking their head in disbelief.

Griggs claimed in her email to Gaudio that Gaudio should be pleased that her blog post had been chosen by Cook's Source for the magazine because it was now "professionally edited" and published. Griggs also claimed that the web is considered "public domain" and anything on it was fair game. Umm... no.

The Internet is a wild place with no police to enforce the rules, but there are rules and copyright is one of them. It may seem otherwise since both copying and reposting are rampant; heck just look at Facebook feeds, mine included. I have tons of pictures on my Facebook page that are not my own. It does seem though that a line has emerged on the Internet as to "fair use" of copyright. If you are copying or reposting for purely entertainment purposes, such as on a forum, then the masses see it as OK. If you are trying to generate revenue with other people's work, then it is not OK. Then there are the gray areas. When I make this post, it shows up on my Facebook page. This blog has ads (not that I am making money off of them, they were a 'why not' decision) so technically all of that reposted copyrighted material on my Facebook page could be considered as "revenue generating" because I post my blog to it. Of course I don't make a dime off of Facebook, I simply use it to let my small group of friends know when I make a new post. Am I infringing copyright?

Like can happen on the Internet, this story of an injured blogger and an arrogant editor caught and spread around the world. The idea that the all content posted on the Internet is public domain incensed many and the Web Vigilantes came out en masse. Turns out this incident of Cook's Source swiping content from the web was not an one off event. The faceless Internet masses found article after article that had been taken from the web without permission, though with credit given to the authors. The more troubling finding though were the photographs that were reprinted in the magazine with out compensating or crediting anyone at all.

According to the NPR article, no comment has been gleaned from Cook's Source nor Ms. Griggs, but the Internet has spoken. Cook's Source's Facebook page has exploded with the angered denunciation of the denizens of the Ethernet and I'm sure Cook's Source will have problems with marketing and ad sales in the future. There are so many facets to this story, the arrogance of the editor, the vigilante administration of "justice", the power of communications in the modern world, that it just fascinates me.

I hope you enjoy reading the linked article and I hope it gives you something to ponder like it did me.

~Occasional Hyker

Raccoon Creek State Park, PA Backpacking - Appendix A

2010-10-21T12:28:00.000-04:00

In my two previous posts about my overnight hike at Raccoon Creek State Park (Part One Here & Part Two Here) I mentioned that once we had arrived at the backpacking shelters our evening was fairly uneventful. Well, that was untrue, but the events of that evening had not much to do with my review of RCSP so I felt it only proper to leave them unmentioned until later. Now I'll iterate my misadventures of that evening.

I want to come back in the summer. This looks like a beautiful park!

After we had finally sorted out sleeping arrangements and gotten ourselves unpacked we set about to collect firewood. Not far from the firepit was a very conveniently downed tree. I grabbed my backpacking axe (it is a Gerber Camp Axe which I had bought from Smokey Mountain Knife Works while on my Honeymoon) and set to work chopping some limbs for our fire.

Two things to note: One, I keep that ax sharp. Extremely sharp. It is a light weight axe and as such it needs a sharp edge so that it bites into the wood. Two, it is a light axe; it will bounce off once in a while no matter how sharp you make it.

As I was chopping, the head bounced. It skipped off the log and I felt it hit my pinky finger on my left hand, then bump my left thigh. I looked, finger didn't hurt, pants were not cut, everything is good. I went back to chopping.

A few minutes later W came walking by with some wood he found. He looked at me and said "Dude, you do know you are bleeding right?" I looked down and sure enough, I had blood streaming out of the second knuckle of my left pinky finger where the axe had "brushed" it. It was bleeding pretty good. Really good in fact. The amount was almost shocking, especially since it didn't hurt and I didn't know I'd even cut myself.

Holding my offending digit away from myself, lest I get blood on my backpacking clothing (I'm not sure how I managed to NOT get any blood on my clothing) I walked across camp to find my first aid kit. Apparently in doing so I left a blood trail from the tree to my backpack. Later on, my caring companions gleefully pointed out every drop of blood I had left behind. Once I got to my pack I dug my first aid kit out, then I realized something: my first aid kit which was tightly packed in a seal-able sandwich bag was totally inaccessible with just one hand. I struggled against the baggy trying to dislodge the hard-sided kit.

Eventually I did get it out and opened my first-aid kit, only to find that it was woefully inadequate for dealing with real injuries. Oh sure, I had a couple of band-aids, some moleskin, a couple of alcohol wipes and a small bit of gauze, but I had a real bleeder going. I called out to my companions and luckily my future Brother-in-law had a more substantial kit than I.

Oops! There was at least this much blood back at the injury site.

As you can see, I made a bit of a mess. I cleaned the wound with alcohol and used a couple of gauze pads plus direct pressure to stop the bleeding. After that it was another bit of gauze and some tape and I was all better.

Mostly.

When I got home I revamped my first aid kit. I still need to go through and tweak it. Right now it is bulkier and heavier than I'd like. Of course getting rid of the snake bite kit and the hard-sided first-aid container would help. The snake bite kit I'm prepared to leave behind, but the hard sided first-aid container is a nice little waterproof container that I keep nail clippers, ChapStick® and some zip-ties in among other things.

Besides injury, the other problem we had was dinner. I tried a recipe that I had found on Trailcooking.com called Pizza Pan Biscuits. (As of the writing of this article, the recipe seems to be 404 on Trailcooking's web server. I still linked to the recipe in case the link gets fixed sometime in the future.)

I was really looking forward to this tasty little dish, I mean, what is not to like? Biscuits? Good! Pizza Sauce? Good! Pepperoni? Good! Cheese? GOOD! Unfortunately I did not do a trial run of this treat before I tried it. Like the recipe suggested I added the chunks of mozzarella string cheese to the dough before frying it. This was an unfortunate mistake. Not only did it end up being too much dough to fry in my little pan over a backpack stove, but the cheese added way too much moisture and the biscuits never did firm up properly.

Not exactly a successful attempt.

Oh, they were damn tasty, but really really messy. Next time I make them I'm just cooking the biscuits then shredding the string cheese on top of the warm biscuits with the pepperoni. This will call for dunking in sauce, but that's OK. I really need to play with this one at home before trying it out again.

Ok, well that's all I have. My full report on Raccoon Creek State Park is now complete. I hope you enjoyed it. Please keep an eye out for more posts in the future and have a good day!

Occasional Hyker

Blogging - More involved than I thought

2010-10-15T09:36:00.000-04:00

Well, I did have the best intentions of being a regular blogger. I'm not giving up. I still enjoy coming up with stories and topics to write about and I have several partially written blog posts waiting to be finished. I didn't realize how much effort is required to put something like this together though. Free time is a precious commodity for me right now; school started back up last week and I am astounded at the amount of reading that is required for this semester. I'm already 2 weeks behind in my lecture note taking for both classes, though I do have most of my reading done for this week.

Then there's always the calls for PC help I get around this time of year. I really don't know why, but from September to January it seems like everyone I know calls for assistance with their computers. I walked in the door yesterday to a message on my answering machine from a fellow that I had entirely forgotten about. After not hearing from him for over three years he calls out of the blue for computer assistance. I arranged to help him out this coming Sunday, but I'm not sure my school work load will permit that. I'll have to see.

Speaking of PCs, my home computer is about eight or nine years old and I'm afraid it is starting to die. It is getting slower, the fans are making more racket and the power button is malfunctioning. I've always been suspicious of the motherboard. It is not properly shielded and I've always gotten odd electronic noise though the audio ports with it. It is worse with the on-board audio, but still present with the sound card that I am currently using. I have been snooping around the net looking for deals and I found a nice system at Newegg.com. All I have to do is figure out which of my orifices is containing an extra $1000.

Oh, another reason for less posting is I have had very few trips this year to post about. I was supposed to go backpacking this past weekend, but the Fates again conspired against me and my trip fell through. So I ended up setting the tent up in the backyard and sleeping outside with the kids. They had a blast, and admittedly I did too. Sometimes you need to find pleasure in the small things.

I do have a couple of trips brewing for the 2011 season. Hopefully I can pull some of them off. I'm trying my damnedest to hike either the Cranberry Wilderness or Dolly Sods in the Monongahela National Forest this spring. I've always wanted to hike the Cran and from what I hear Dolly Sods is spectacular. If I am to do this though I MUST get my sorry butt in gear and get fit this winter. I spend entirely too much time sitting on my ass. Time time time. That's the only thing I need more of in life.

So, this has been a bit of a ramble, but sometimes that is cathartic for the author. I'll have some more posts soon, until then take care.

Occasional Hyker