Field Testing Maps for Hiking

This weekend we tried out hiking maps for use with our cell phones.  We created the maps with digital data downloaded from the web, and then downloaded them to the phones to use with my software.

For field verifitcation, we went to Susquehanna State Park, where we took the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway Trail, to the base of the Conowingo Dam.  Coming back we took trails above the river level, labelled as very strenuous, what that is a very East Coast flatlands view of activity levels.  Altogether we hiked about 14 km.

At the dam.  Our visit was inspired by a show on MPT about the dam.

It might have been peak flower season in the flats along the river.

This was not prime time for eagles, (and the attendant bird watchers),  but we saw ducks, herons, and a few eagles.

Our route on a merge of the 4 USGS topo quads that covered it.

Our route on the DSM created with the lidar point could.  Most of our route was in the trees, for which this map is not very helpful

Our route on the MD DNR state park map.  This was the first park map I have seen that was a GeoPDF, with the potential for using the map in a GIS program or a mapping program on the cell phone.

Close up of the USGS map.  This one has the trails on it; when we hiked in Joshua Tree National Park, and at Sedona AZ, last month, the USGS maps did not have hiking trails, so we had to add them from OpenStreetMap.

Directions for data download, processing on the PC, and transfer to the phone are at https://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth/hiking_maps.html   If you have questions, use the forum at http://forums.delphiforums.com/microdem/start.  We are working to make the process as seamless as possible, and document it.