The time has finally arrived. I have a good basemap consisting of LIDAR contours and aerial photos, and I have permission to make the map. Now all that is required is that I spend the time on the ground. This will take at least a year, maybe longer, depending on the level of detail that I encounter.
It's exciting to start a new map, but it's also a little sad. All the secrets of the park will be revealed. Every boulder, every fallen tree, every ditch and gully will be pinpointed (I hope) and drafted on the map. Making an orienteering map is a little like submitting to a full-body search - with photos. There will be no spot left unexamined by the time I am through.
And sometime in the not too distant future, several hundred orienteers will be handed the new map and sent out to see and find for themselves the hidden treasures of the park.
I have also added new photos to the Picasa web album I am keeping. I was out there (in the rain) last Saturday doing an "inventory" of boulder sizes. This is not mapping, but a walkthrough to set some standards. What will be the smallest boulder that I will map? Probably waist-high, unless it is a solitary boulder separated from its cousins. I also found very few rootstocks (fallen trees) and minimal ditches and gullies, but I restricted this inventory to just the area east of the bare rock.
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