We’re gearing up with a new online #SheltoweeMap with a participatory aspect. Keep tuned and get a map for exploring.
In the meantime, check out some photographs from the Sheltowee Trace from our archive: http://pixel.outragegis.com/main.php?g2_view=keyalbum.KeywordAlbum&g2_keyword=Sheltowee+Trace
and current photos:Â https://www.flickr.com/photos/28640579@N02/
Click to open map
On September 20, 2014 a downtown Lexington neighborhood hosted a block party and potluck. Raffles were held, which indeed included some outrageGIS mapping hiking maps. This map is entirely custom and shows only sidewalks and the location of the block party. The map layers two different tile sets. The minimal aspect focuses one’s attention to pedestrian modes of travel, since block parties kick out the cars.
Click to view
A slippy map that shows alumni districts for the University of Kentucky. A shapefile of the districts was simplified with polygon edges snapped to align and then converted to a GeoJSON file. Tried to convert to TopoJSON with the hope to minimize file size, but unfortunately with little luck. District centroids were exported and converted to marker icons. A simple example of open source mapping.
Open draft of map in browser.
We’re almost finished with a 38″ x 13″ map of cabins and ziplines in Cliffview Resort. This is an unusual map, since it is a bird’s eye view with latitude and longitude as the index grid for locating cabins and other destinations. The base map is an ArcGIS terrain dataset with National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) aerial photography draped over a rendered TIN surface in ArcScene. The maps was then composited and illustrated in Photoshop and Illustrator.
Draft of interactive map, try it out.
In 1775, Daniel Boone and his party blazed a route into Kentucky and created the pioneer settlement, Boonesborough. The Trace is often confused with the Wilderness Road, since they follow the same route through southern Kentucky, but the Trace predates the Wilderness Road. Boone established the main road through the Kentucky mountains and into the outer Bluegrass. That road would later be known as the Wilderness Road. Boone Trace leaves the Wilderness Road south of Richmond, Kentucky and travels north to Fort Boonesboro.
Today, plenty of historical monuments exists along drivable portions of the Trace. BooneTrace1775.org describes, “There is a monument at the Daniel Boone Park in Flat Lick, Ky. Emblazoned on it are these words which pretty much say it all–  ‘No other trail is of greater historical significant to the founding of Kentucky and opening of the west (than Boone Trace).'”
This map attempts to show a driving tour of the Trace and aggregates many of the cultural and historical destinations once could visit today. It was designed for mobile web browsers and uses Leaflet to power the interactivity.
Flash-type interactive map, 2004
It’s pretty amazing to see how much dynamic web mapping has changed over the past decade. Before, we had Flash content and static layouts, as illustrated by the Elkhorn City Living Cemetery project. Today, we have data-rich maps that take a fraction of the time to create.
Come down to the Woodland Art Fair this Saturday and Sunday, August 16 and 17,and check out our new Sheltowee Trace North map. We have a couple neat projects in the works and would like to hear your trail adventure stories.
Cover wrap of our new Sheltowee Trace Map. Click to enlarge.
Trails in the northern half of the Daniel Boone
We are now printing the Sheltowee Trace North map, which covers the ST and official trails between the Northern Terminus and Mckee in Jackson County, Kentucky. That’s 138 miles of ST and  130 miles of official trail. The map is same scale as our previous ST south maps, but the sheet size has been enlarged to 19″ x 27″ and packs down to 4.5″ x 6.5″. We will also offer a lamination and heat press service to make these maps bomber in the field.
Cover wrap of our new Sheltowee Trace Map. Click to enlarge.
A couple unique additions to this title might be useful for the serious trail enthusiast. The map is formatted to show the trail network of Cave Run Lake and Red River Gorge on single, separate sheets. The new ST reroute around Morehead and new trails in Cave Run are located. Groceries, public libraries, power lines, and pipelines are located. We’ve added 1,000 m UTM grid. What else? Lots of love and devotion for the trails of the Daniel Boone.
Overview
Low resolutions drafts of the press sheets (note these previews require Flash). These have been altered in final version. The only way to see the finished map is to hold it in your hand!
Northern Terminus
Cave Run Lake
Red River Gorge
Southern Gorge, Turkey Foot, and McKee
Just like the South ST map, when the ST leaves a sheet it has a letter in a red box as label to match the trail on the next sheet. Just follow A…B…C… for 138 miles.
Thanks for the input in correcting thre above drafts!
Photos and a block diagram of NE Puerto Rico
We recently visited Puerto Rico and explored the island’s public parks and forests. Spanish forts in San Juan are wonderfully preserved by the National Park Service and the El Yunque cloud forest is the only tropical rain forest maintained by the National Forest Service. These ares are public treasures and hard to capture by photography alone. You might have seen postcards with extruded maps of mountainous areas and tourist destinations. That’s the quick experiment here, but done just two-dimensionally.
July draft of Cumberland Falls trail map
This July we have started a topographic trail map for the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. The map will use aerial photography, 20-foot elevation contours, and GPS mapped trails. This two-sided 13.5″ x 19″ full-color map will show the entire park and connecting trails into the Daniel Boone NF, including Dog Slaughter Falls. This map is at 1:15,000 scale. The second map will zoom into the central area of the park and show trails at 1:5,000 scale. We anticipate this will be an awesome map, especially when used under a moonbow.
Sample of custom guide for Lexington destinations
Imagine a lot of new people arriving to a downtown hotel and you need to recommend unique destinations for dining. I guess you could give a list that they could yelp, but wouldn’t a paper map add a nice, personal touch?
A small map of interesting places to eat and play
We have marveled at the growth of mobile maps that tap in largest collective database ever generated and, unfortunately, the subsequent loss of interest in paper maps. While mobile can help locate you in an unfamiliar city with GPS, the map data can be uninspiring and wildly inaccurate. The problem I suggest is the zoom, since we expect ever complex revelations with increasing zoom levels. We all know it’s a big bummer when you zoom into a blank screen, right? We think a static maps can better stimulate imagination and invite navigation into unfamiliar areas.
This is a small experiment integrating 3D maps, photography, and a few SketchUp models to give a quick sense of place and provide a simple navigation tool to explore the city.
3D map
A perspective view of trails and destinations in Lexington’s McConnell Springs park. This historic location host notable destinations such as the Blue Hole, The Boils, the Old Bur Oak, and the Final Sink. This map will be offered to park after some additions and modification, perhaps adding a more realistic model of the Science Center.
Mass Elevation Points
A project to develop a large-format printed document that helps visitors navigate the resort and better understand the unique ridge. This map requires developing a terrain dataset to model cliffline and dams, because the resolution of the elevation data is not sufficient for this scale. These samples focus on the zipline tour in the resort. Hopefully, this completed map will be released in late June.
Mass Elevation Points
Zipline
Zipline
Zipline
Block Diagram
Style sample
Campus pedestrian network
We’ve been visualizing campus paths with new GIS data provided by UK’s Facilities Information Services. Students have GPS mapped cut-through paths (they lovingly call cow paths) and other students have placed SketchUp models for campus town buildings. This is a preview of some of the data, so stay tuned for a featured analysis.
Outstanding Geography Teacher Award, 2014
Weekly graphs of weather variables
