outrageGIS.com Trails and Scenic Destinations

White Rocks and the Ridge Trail

cartography — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:27:29 +0000

Cumberland Gap Map
Distance: 16 Miles round-trip from trailhead
Difficulty: +++
Scenic Views: ++++
Elevation Relief: 1,800ft ^^
Ownership: Cumberland Gap, NPS
Google to trailheads

Cumberland Gap Trail Map: $12

The White Rocks overlook to Martin’s Fork on the Ridge Trail is the “power-date” of overnight trips in Cumberland Gap. You have a massive ascent, a capital view, and great camp at Martin’s Fork rustic cabin. The stadium rockhouse Sand Cave helps cool your engines and spirit. Trees bent dog-legged by mountain top winds great you like old friends. You are on the Ridge Trail.

Plans for 2 day, 16 mile backpacking trip with camp at Martin’s Fork campground.

Start at Civic Park and hike 3.5 miles up Cumberland Mountain (1,800 vertical feet) to White Rocks. The hike is almost continually ascending, but you’ll find rests in a few switchbacks. You’ll catch glimpses of White Rocks high above the trees.
White Rocks gives the biggest view you’ll have in Kentucky, save Kingdom Come or the Breaks. While most hikers stop at their first view, White Rocks is series of overlooks that rim an extensive outcropping of sandstone.
Travel west 4 miles, following the south side of Cumberland Mountain, to Martin’s Fork camp, which is nestled in a sheltered valley. You can reserve the cabin, which is a homestead structure moved to this location and has a hearth, 6 bunks, and many mice. Securing your food at night may be wise because of wandering bears, but is necessary to protect your food from marauding mice. The camp also has 5 primitive areas with picnic tables. One issue is securing firewood. The camp is surrounded by dense rhododendrons and has been so thoroughly culled through for firewood, it resembles a park.
In the morning, enjoy a hearty cup of joe next to the mountain stream tumbling down the valley before the 4 mile hike through Bailes Meadows to visit Sand Cave. Since you have covered the this section the day before, you’ll have spied a couple scenic areas for photography.
Sand Cave is about a 500ft descent from the Ridge Trail. The cave is really a resort-sized rockhouse with a football field of deep sand.
Hike 2 miles to White Rocks on the north side of Cumberland Gap around and beneath the highest point. Finally hike 3 miles down the mountain to Civic Park.

———————————-

Listen to descriptive audio about:

Daniel Boone & the Pinnacle,
9 minutes.

Gap Cave & Hensley Settlement,
8 minutes.

The Tunnel,
4 minutes

Crossing Cumberland Gap,
2 minutes

Impact Crater in Middlesboro,
3 minutes

*NOTE: audio is part of free driving tour available at firstfrontier.org

The Boone Trace Magazine

cartography — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:53:01 +0000

We are proud to have contributed to the recent Daniel Boone National Forest magazine, The Boone Trace. This comely tabloid-sized full-color magazine is the U.S. Forest Service’s official visitors’ guide and welcome publication with maps, photographs, and timely information. With over 700,000 acres, 100+ developed recreation sites, and 600+ miles of trail, this national forest provides ample opportunities to refresh, reconnect and challenge yourself in the great outdoors. The Boone’s Trace magazine is free and should be the first document you read before your adventure in the forest.

The opening paragraph reads, “Dense woodlands, towering cliffs and plunging waterfalls are just a few of the natural wonders found within the boundaries of this most unique forest. Extending across mostly rugged terrain, the forest provides breathtaking scenery, clean water, and an abundance of wood and wildlife.”

The national forest is now divided into four ranger districts; Cumberland, London, Redbird, and Stearns Ranger Districts. The Cumberland Ranger Districts has two of the most popular destinations in the forest, Cave Run Lake and the Red River Gorge. This knobby and cliff-rimmed country is home to historic iron furnaces, rare and endangered plant communities, great arches and sandstone formations, and the rugged Cliffty Wilderness Area.

The London Ranger District is defined by the Rockcastle and Laurel Rivers. Great recreation destinations include Bee Rock, Rockcastle Recreation Area, Turkeyfoot, S-Tree, and the Laurel River Lake. While forest ownership less continuous in this district, many trails (official and unofficial) spline the ridges and creeks for hikers, mountain bikers, and motorized vehicles.

The Stearns Ranger District is home to the Beaver Creek Wilderness Area, Natural Arch Scenic Area, and numerous horse camps, shooting ranges and picnic areas. The area outlines the northern portion of the Big South Fork Recreation Area, which competes with the Red River Gorge for the title, “The Land of Many Arches.” The Redbird Ranger District is not contiguous with the other ranger districts, but off-road vehicle and mountain biking enthusiasts will find the Redbird Crest Trail a fine loop trail.

The Sheltowee Trace is forest’s unifying, long-distance trail, which connects the northern tip of forest with Tennessee’s Pickett State Park. This is the forest’s only National Recreation Trail and is the longest trail in Kentucky. Trail users can find more information at http://www.sheltoweetrace.com.

Magazine designed by Gwen Hensley of the forest service.

Rock Creek Loop, a cool summer hike

cartography — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:16:10 +0000

Big South Fork Map
Distance: 6.6 Miles round-trip
Difficulty: ++
Scenic Views: +++
Elevation Relief: 520ft ^
Ownership: Big South Fork, NPS

Big South Fork Trail Map: $12

Hike the scenic crossroads of the John Muir Trail and Sheltowee Trace. Rock Creek Loop is a 6.6-mile loop in our Big South Fork Guide. Half of this loop follows the cool waters of Rock Creek, a trout stream with small stretches of swift water and deep pools for summer refreshment.

Hikers weave through a forest dominated by old, stately Hemlock and American Beech trees with grassy, wildflower areas along the stream bank. The trail is a rugged footpath with a bridge across Massey Branch. Numerous backcountry campsites along the loop offer great weekend backpacking options with side trail options into Pickett State Park and the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Trout Fishing in The Great Smokies

cartography — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:02:39 +0000

One cannot fully appreciate the Smokies without fly fishing its abundant streams. From high mountains reaches to larger rivers at lower elevations, the park has nearly a thousand miles of fishable waters. The best experiences require hiking into remote portions of the park and finding clean, cold pools near fast moving rapids.

The brook trout are the only native species of game fish found here and are also known as “spec” or “speckled trout” by older locals. These native trout depend on clear and cold water to thrive and, where found, indicate a healthy, unmolested mountain stream. Although the history of logging and air pollution in the park have threatened brook trout populations, the park’s conservation effort has made the Great Smokies one of last great wild habitats for native fish in the eastern U.S.

Rainbow trout are the prized game fish in the park and are generally 6-10 inches in length. These fish were introduced here by logging camps in the early 1900s. Brown trout were imported from Europe and can reach over 2 feet in length, weigh 10 pounds, and live a dozen years. Brook trout live fewer than 3 years and rarely exceed 9 inches. Smallmouth and rock bass, both non-native, inhabit the lower rivers and streams along the park’s boundary.

“The Park’s Aquatic World

Most of the park’s larger streams begin as springs along the Appalachian Trail high on the crest of the Smokies. As these small streams travel down the mountainside, they are joined by others to form progressively larger waterways. As this happens, the streams change from steep, shady, rushing cascades, dotted with beautiful waterfalls at high elevations, to wider, slower-moving waterways with gentle gradients at lower elevations. The forest canopy no longer completely covers lower elevation streams.

These changes in the stream channel, coupled with changes in water chemistry, bedrock composition, and water temperatures determine the distribution of fish species within the watershed. For example, the headwaters of streams above 3,000 ft. in elevation are inhabited by native brook trout. Downstream, non-native rainbow trout mix with brook trout for short distances. As the streams become larger, rainbow and brown trout become dominant and native non-game fish become part of the community.

Further downstream, close to the park boundary, as the waterways become more open and warmer, the fish community shifts from being dominated by trout to one that is dominated by smallmouth bass, rock bass, shiners, minnows, suckers, and darters.

This variety of habitat types in park streams supports a diverse spectrum of aquatic insects and invertebrates, plus over 53 species of fish.

Brook trout are the only native salmonid in the park. Since the turn of the century, the brook trout has lost about 75% of its range in the park due to logging and the introduction of the non-native rainbow trout.

The park has had an active brook trout restoration program since 1987. The primary objective of this program is to restore native brook trout populations to streams with natural barriers such as waterfalls that prevent invasion of non-native trout species. To date, this program has restored nine streams, and the restoration of eight additional streams at mid-to-low elevations is planned. The park’s brook trout restoration efforts have restored 11.1 miles of stream or 11% of the 97.5 miles of stream exclusively occupied by brook trout.

Stream acidity has increased 5-fold in high elevation streams in the last 20 years due to pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels. These data add urgency to the need to restore brook trout to streams at lower elevations with more stable water chemistry.” - NPS website: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/aquaticworld.htm

“Fishing in the Great Smokies

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has about 2,115 miles of streams within its boundaries, and protects one of the last wild trout habitats in the eastern United States. The park offers a wide variety of angling experiences from remote, headwater trout streams to large, coolwater smallmouth bass streams. Most streams remain at or near their carrying capacity of fish and offer a great opportunity to catch these species throughout the year.

Fishing is permitted year-round in the park, from 30 minutes before official sunrise to 30 minutes after official sunset. The park allows fishing in all streams EXCEPT the following streams and their tributaries upstream from the points described:

North Carolina
Bear Creek at its junction with Forney Creek.Tennessee
Sams Creek at the confluence with Thunderhead Prong
Indian Flats Prong at the Middle Prong Trial crossingThese streams are closed to fishing to allow fish to repopulate following restoration work. For the exact location, consult the appropriate USGS 1:24,000 Quadrangle Map available at park visitor centers. Detailed information, including a complete list of regulations and a map of fishable park waters, is also available at any visitor center or ranger station.

License Requirements
You must possess a valid fishing license or permit from either Tennessee or North Carolina. Either state license is valid throughout the park and no trout stamp is required. Fishing licenses and permits are not available in the park, but may be purchased in nearby towns or online (links provided by state below). Special permits are required for fishing in Gatlinburg and Cherokee.Tennessee License Requirements
Residents and nonresidents age 13 and older must have a valid license. Residents age 65 and older may obtain a special license from the state. from the state government of Tennessee.North Carolina License Requirements
Residents and nonresidents age 16 and older need a license. Residents age 70 and older may obtain a special license from the state. from the state government of North Carolina.Persons under 16 in North Carolina and under 13 in Tennessee are entitled to the adult daily bag and possession limits and are subject to all other regulations.

Season
Fishing is permitted year-round in open waters.Time
Fishing is allowed from a half hour before official sunrise to a half hour after official sunset.Daily Possession Limits
Five (5) brook, rainbow or brown trout, smallmouth bass, or a combination of these, each day or in possession, regardless of whether they are fresh, stored in an ice chest, or otherwise preserved. The combined total must not exceed five fish.Twenty (20) rock bass may be kept in addition to the above limit.A person must stop fishing immediately after obtaining the limit.Size Limits
Brook, rainbow, and brown trout: 7 inch minimum
Smallmouth bass: 7 inch minimum
Rockbass: no minimumTrout or smallmouth bass caught less than the legal length shall be immediately returned to the water from which it was taken.Lures, Bait, and Equipment
Fishing is permitted only by the use of one hand-held rod.Only artificial flies or lures with a single hook may be used. Dropper flies may be used. Up to two flies on a leader.Use or possession of any form of fish bait or liquid scent other than artificial flies or lures on or along any park stream while in possession of fishing tackle is prohibited. Prohibited baits include, but are not limited to, minnows (live or preserved), worms, corn, cheese, bread, salmon eggs, pork rinds, liquid scents and natural baits found along streams.Use or possession of double, treble, or gang hooks is prohibited.Fishing tackle and equipment, including creels and fish in possession, are subject to inspection by authorized personnel.

Please report violators to nearest ranger or to (865) 436-1294.

Safety
Standing and wading in streams can drain body heat and lead to hypothermia. Rising water levels resulting from sudden mountain storms occur quite frequently, so monitor water level. Water currents are swifter than they appear and footing is treacherous on wet and moss covered rocks. Additional information about water safety.
Be A Clean Fisherman
If there’s a tangle of line, or an empty can at your feet, clean up after your fellow angler.
Brook Trout Fishing
Because of the results of recent fisheries research and the success of the park’s brook trout restoration effort, in 2006 park management opened brook trout fishing and harvest park-wide for the first time since 1976. The results of a recent three-year brook trout fishing study indicate there was no decline in adult brook trout density or reproductive potential in any of the eight streams opened to fishing during the experimental period compared to eight streams closed to fishing during the same time period

Disturbing and moving rocks to form channels and rock dams is illegal in the park!
Moving rocks is harmful to both fish and aquatic insects that live in the streams. Many fish species that live in the park spawn between April and August. Some of these fish build their nests in small cavities under rocks and even guard the nest. When people move the rock, the nest is destroyed and the eggs and/or young fish die.Aquatic insects need rocks for cover as well. Some aquatic insects can drift off or move when disturbed, but many species attach themselves to the rock and cannot move. When a rock is moved, aquatic insects fall, are crushed by the movement, or dry out and die when the rock is placed out of water.One of the fundamental policies of the National Park Service is to preserve natural resources in an unaltered state. Consequently, it is against the law to move rocks in the stream. Please abide by these rules so that future generations may enjoy the park as well.” -NPS website: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/fishing.htm

At Leisures Edge: Maps in Video

cartography — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:02:15 +0000

During the early days of outrageGIS mapping, Boyd finished a one-hour video that explored once-segregated black parks in Kentucky. The historic parks found in the movie are Douglass Park in Lexington, Iroquois & Chickasaw Parks in Louisville, Stuart Nelson and Noble Parks in Paducah, and Cherokee State Resort Park in Aurora.

Maps were used in the movie included 3D animations, fly-out detail maps, and montage backgrounds. One could argue this is an overly aggressive use of maps and maybe even lessens the impact of the movie overall. Some lessons to take away from this experiment are that good, clear maps are hard to make for video and animating the map graphics to the narration is an art. I think the Cherokee State Resort Park fly-out graphic is among the better animations and maybe the end the Douglass Park sequence has good narrative timing.

The movie weaves together 3 narratives and is represent by different styles of filming and voices. The first narrative is told from the viewpoint of a woman remembering back to her childhood summer vacations in Jim Crow Kentucky. She travels across the state on U.S. Highway 60 to Cherokee State Resort Park. The narration is performed by Lucille Jackson and the dream-like old b&w film footage shows a lonely young girl waiting at the segregated bus stop for the trip to the Lake. At the end, we see her joyfully running to the lake shore.
The second narrative, spoken by Alfred Wiggins, is the voice of law, history, and hard-luck. Viewers see old photographs from Louisville and the Jim Crow south. The third narrative is told by people today recreating and ‘leisurizing’ in 7 historic parks as well as the early founders of the park.

Watch movie

Scales, grids, and graticules

cartography — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:38:53 +0000

Measurement scales, grids, and graticules for our printed map titles. Print them at home and use them in the woods to more precisely locate yourself with a GPS unit set to DD MM.MMM, on a UTM grid, or just measure linear distance.

These handy print outs have other information about the map they cover and fit in the polyzip carry bag.

Remember, don’t rescale these pdfs when you print them.

To download scales, visit: outrageGIS.com/scales

Draft of the Great Smokies Trail Atlas

cartography — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:36:51 +0000

After about a year of design, we’ve made a public draft of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trail Atlas. The atlas consists of 3 parts.

The first part is a series of 18.25″ x 13″ full-color maps that show the entire trail network, land cover type, miles between all backcountry campsites, pioneer places, a bird’s eye view, and elevations for most landmarks (such as trail intersections, campsites, trailheads, gaps, summits, etc…). The below images link to the 1:96k scale map of the park. For samples of other maps, visit this page. If you would like more detailed online samples, then please contact us and we’ll be happy to provide you access.

The second part is a 4.5″ x 6″ 32-page booklet that explains our trail acronyms, gives cumulative elevation gain for every trail (in both directions), and is a gazetteer for major locations.

The third part is a downloadable GPS data pack for trails, intersections, backcountry features, and other useful information for exploring the park. This data pack is currently retailed here, but with an online purchase of the atlas, the data pack will be offered as an additional download.

We like to think that we’ve created a truly unique and helpful atlas. Our maps have 1-minute latitude-longitude and UTM grids for GPS location. We print in process color, but we treat CMYK as spot colors too, and our goal is to maximize the map’s clarity and readability. Our elevation hillshades are designed with minimal amounts of black ink; that helps separate background and foreground. All of maps are custom created from raw GIS & GPS data and we spend many laborious but loving hours designing the best navigation aids for the areas they cover.

Historical & 3D Maps of the Great Smokies

cartography — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:38:59 +0000

We’re continually updating the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trail Atlas and hope to have a pre-release sample here by early March. The emphasis now is cleaning the labels on the 1:90k map series. These two maps here are sections in the atlas and we appreciate any feedback or comments. Each link takes you to a zoomable and pannable image of the map.

The map on the left is the Pioneer Places of the Great Smoky Mountains, a 1926 U.S Geological Survey map overlaid with modern-day park destinations. The map shows the park on the eve of its creation. The cartography is exceptional and has been preserved where possible. Many of the park place names have changed over the century with the addition of many dedicated names after the park’s creation. In some cases names were moved to accommodate significant persons deemed more worthy of a place name than the existing title.

The map on the right is a Bird’s Eye View of the Great Smoky Mountains. This 3rd draft 3D map shows the major landforms in Smokies and helps the hiker understand the topography and major drainages in the park. Each feature has an elevation (in feet above sea level) tagged in its label. The Appalachian Trail is signified by the yellow line. This major revision pushes the colors to purer CMYK mixes that make it less muddy in process-color printing.

New Maps Released

cartography — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:24:37 +0000

Over the past few months we’ve created some maps that are related to outdoor recreation and trails. While not guides for public recreation areas, they represent smaller cartography projects we like to do. The maps use GPS-captured data, aerial photography, and a slight 3D rendering technique to give the maps a unique and intuitive representation of the geography.

The image on the left is a screen-capture of the Town Branch Trail Plan. The trail is a proposed greenway that connects downtown Lexington, Kentucky with distant Masterson Station Park, one of the city’s largest park. The aerial photography is derived from high-resolution, 2ft-pixel imagery, and is accentuated by a subtle 3D relief. Lexington spreads over a large anticline, a geological feature characterized by a broad uplift of land, and causes the situation that most streams flow away from the center of the city. Elevation relief in the downtown area is slight, but increases dramatically as one approaches the Kentucky River to west and south. Future plans for the map are adding more interactive features, such as pop-up info boxes.

The map to the right is part of 3-part map project for Red River Gorge Cabin Rentals, an exclusive resort area in the Red River Gorge. The maps were a 2D, 3D, and Google map showing cabins, trails, and roads. We GPS-captured roads and trails and created a simple shaded relief map for generic directions, and a more artistic 3D aerial photographic map of the resort.

Here is a quote from their website, “Located in the heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky lies a paradise of natural stone arches, caves, rock shelters and towering cliffs all encircling steep, forested slopes overlooking narrow stream valleys.” You can visit thier website here.

Waypoints in the Great Smoky Mountains

cartography — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:17:35 +0000

Great Smoky Mountains GPS Data Pack
Waypoints & track GPX data for trails, trail intersections, backcountry camps, summits, gaps, and many other locations for backcountry navigation.
Download: 36 megabyte
Format: GPX & PDF
Pieces: Map Guide, GPS Manual, Gazetteer, Data
Ownership: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NPS

Great Smoky Mountains GPS Data Pack: $6

Our data pack contains 16 GPX files, companion gazetteer, and historic topographic map with 1-minute GPS grid. The product is offered only as a 36 megabyte download, which includes all documentation, maps, and data. Buyers have free access to new releases and updates.

GPX files for trails (as tracks) and waypoints for all trail intersections, backcountry camps, summits, gaps, recreational & historic destinations, populated places, stream heads, cemeteries & churches, schools, and valleys, coves, & springs. Summits, camps, intersections, and gaps have spot elevation in label.

Gazetteer & GPS Manual. The gazetteer is a list, details, and location of all waypoints. The GPS manual has links to free utilities to upload and manage your data and information about overnighting and weather in the park.

Historic USGS Topographic Map. A 1:125k map created by the US Geological Survey in 1961 is tiled onto a letter-sized mapbook for easy printing. The map is augmented with a 1-minute GPS grid to use with the gazetteer and for location assistance while hiking.