First I want to talk about the Northeastern Pennsylvania Trails Forum. I was at a Pennsylvania Trails Forum meeting on Friday, and I met people engaged in building, supporting and promoting trail development. Janet Sweeney, of Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), invited me to talk about the NE PA Trails map we are doing, and I […]
West of Wilkenweir on the H-S Trail A quick note about my book progress before head out – I’m spending a lot of time walking on the Horse-Shoe Trail and am learning a lot. Today, for instance, I’ll drive to Welkinweir and fill in a couple of gaps of the Horse-Shoe […]
We drove to DC. Visited colleges. Spent the night. Hiked on the Billy Goat Trail. It was a good trip.
Green Lane Reservoir and Peace Valley Reservoir both have lots of trails. Green Lane has a developed section with a bandstand, picnic area, small lake and campground. In the surrounding areas, there are miles of rustic hiking, equestrian and mountain bike trails around the reservoir that work well for day hikes. There’s boat rental on […]
I used Natural Earth as a short cut for a few recent maps. But this morning I wanted to try a bilinear resampling of the SRTM elevation data. I like the result.In this version, I added a few more route options and a couple of campsites. The Speakeasy is supposedly developing a campsite. It’s just […]
It’s great to have friends who want to bike north from Philadelphia to Binghamton, New York. I was thinking about this, and it’s about 230 to 240 miles. You can go west through Tunkhannock, past Lake Carey where I lived as a kid. Or you can take the D&H Trail north from Simpson. This is […]
I’m exploring alternative bike trips that relate to some level of mapping work. Destinations include Ann Arbor, Buffalo, and the Adirondacks. It’s tough. I don’t have much time. Now is the ideal time to go. Trip idea 1, when the Canadian border opens: From Owego, New York to Ann Arbor or Detroit is about 550 […]
Dordogne, in France, captures my imagination. It offers a contrast to most anywhere in Pennsylvania. Rather than towns choked by in-fill development and suburban sprawl, the architecture and the agrarian or wooded landscapes work together to provide cultural and outdoor experiences in close proximity without the dominance of car traffic. I value the French village […]
It was November 2020. The woods were so silent that the sounds of my sleeping bag woke me up as l lay in the sandy soil. Looking up into the sky from the 20 oz sleeping bag I was testing, this is what I saw at 4:02 am shortly before getting up to bike the […]
We visited Tempe, AZ, so I decided to focus on Arizona’s landscape for a few days. While there, I started working on some maps to convey the sense of my experience. We went out on a pontoon boat through the Salt River Canyon, but much of Arizona is desert, so I learned more about these. […]