trail map with waypoints

[kbraband]

I did a little playing around and came up with an overlay map that shows the temp cache locations on the Lapham Peak trail map. You can see it here. It’s not exactly easy to view… more of an experiment than anything. Does anyone know Microsoft PhotoDraw well enough to tell me how to make a white background transparent, instead of making the background and the waypoints both partially transparent?

[GrouseTales]

I can’t help you out with the program, but it looks like you’ve done a fine job with the overlay and it is fairly accurate. I like what you’ve done here.

[arffer]

WOW! That’s SUPER!

I’m not going to the printer’s (badlatitude) untill tomorrow around 1 now, so I’ll wait to see if you make any improvements. Should I use this type of map for the trail map handout instead of the regular one from the DNR pdf (without the cache placements)?

I never would have guessed that the trail map was accurate enough to line up with real co-ordinates.

BTW, the latest version of expertgps has the ability to use scanned maps. The idea would be to scan the DNR’s color pdf trail map, load it into expertgps, set three reference points to calibrate the map, and then use it as usual. Maybe I’ll try it out…

[This message has been edited by CacheCows (edited 08-20-2002).]

[arffer]

Okay, FWIW, here is the results using expertgps’ new feature of using your own scanned maps. I calibrated using SPRUNG, LAMPHAM’S SHADOW, and ORIENTEERING EXPRESS.

For accuracy, they look like they line up with Ken’s.

This is a nice feature, I had not tested it yet. It took me about 5 minutes after scanning the map to learn how to calibrate it, topografix did a nice job!

Still, I’m amazed that the trail map is accurate enough to do this on.

The Map

[This message has been edited by CacheCows (edited 08-20-2002).]

[arffer]

The caches on the trail map look good, but do we really want to make it that easy to find the caches? Part of the challenge is choosing the right trail, with this map it’s all laid out for you which trails to take.
-Arn

[Jeremy]

Looks good CacheCows… you can see that the trail map isn’t 100% correct, because “Barely Legal” appears outside the park instead of on the boundary. You might get slightly better accuracy calibrating using known points (like the intersection of Hwy 83 and Cty. C, etc.).

[arffer]

Excellent idea! Wish I had thought of that…

Okay, I used Cushing Park Rd. & I94, C & 18, and the bend in 83 at the sectional line. The map is updated, and ‘Barely Legal’ now shows its on the boundary.

Thanks Jeremy! Now, what about Arn’s point of these maps making it too simple?

[This message has been edited by CacheCows (edited 08-20-2002).]

[kbraband]

Your map looks great, Alan. I used a less accurate method to create my original one. I saved the jpg of Jeremy’s topo map with the caches, and got the trail map from the Lapham Peak State Park site, brought them both into Microsoft PhotoDraw, matched the images using the road intersections as a guide, then made the topo map partially transparent so the trails show through. Then I imported the waypoints into MapSource, captured a screen print jpg, opened it in PhotoDraw and matched it up to the cache waypoints in my previous PhotoDraw map. Finally, I deleted the topo layer. It worked, but it’s low rez and cluttered. Yours looks much better.

To answer Arn’s question, I have no problem with using a trail map with waypoints. Figuring out which trail on a map is just one aspect of the hunt. You still have to find the actual trail, hike it, guess where to leave the trail, then find the container. Maybe this will result in a little less plant stomping.

[arffer]

Ken, I agree with the less plant stomping the better. With 100+ people out in the park, we want to keep bushwacking to a minimum. With the DNR knowing about this event, they may be looking for signs of ‘nature abuse’ after the event. Along those lines, we should also stress for cachers to try to avoid creating trails and excessive trampled areas leading to caches, if it looks like many have gone through a certain way, circle around a bit to avoid wearing a path. We currently have 43 teams signed up, that a lot of feet to be leaving the trails all at the same spots. maybe instructions along these lines can go out in the email update

[kbraband]

Good idea to issue a request to avoid creating new trails. With normal cache hunting it’s not such a problem, because the plantlife has time to recover between visits that may occur every few days or even weeks. However, those of you who have attended a geocaching event in the past have probably seen how one-day intensive cache hunting can literally level an off-trail area.

[Author]

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