The new Chattahoochee Bend State Park is on the river between two power plants run by Georgia Power. Plant Yates on the south bank and Plant Wansley on the north bank. Today I got my first glimpse of the stacks at Wansley. It's doubtful that the Yates stacks would be visible from the park.
Four and a half hours in the deep woods. I have just about filled in the area west of the "meadows". Soon I will have to come out of the woods and tackle the much more difficult meadows. The deep woods terrain is very familiar to me - I could probably map it at a walking pace. Very little backtracking is needed and there is almost no change in vegetation. The vegetation changes are what make the meadows difficult for me. I have to decide what symbol to use. I have to treat the edges and boundarys as linear features and get them accurately placed.
Also found an armadillo skeleton today. The outer shell is about the texture of a deflated basketball.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Arrowhead pit?
Found a pit in my mapping today. Quartz rock had been dug out of it. I've seen this before, at Russell State Park on the Savannah River. It's possible that the pit was dug by the Creek Indians while looking for material to construct arrowheads. There's no flint here - quartz was about their only choice for sharp stone tools. Of course all that stopped when the deer trade began and the Creeks could afford to buy rifles.
The county name where the map is located - Coweta, comes from the name of a Creek town on the river, although I believe the actual town wasl located down near Columbus. The Creeks stayed around their towns in the summer and on their hunting grounds on the rivers and "creeks" during the winter.
I mapped five hours today in the heat. It was 93 when I got back to the truck at noon. I start at first light to beat the heat. It's not too bad really. I wear a long sleeve synthetic running shirt that is very light and white. Long sleeves to keep off the skeeters and the deer flies and horseflies. I also wear a bandana around my neck to keep the deer flies off.
Worked on the west of the "meadows" area. I'm just not up to tackling the difficult and detailed meadows in this heat. I worked the deep, dark woods, going up and down the spurs and reentrants, filling in the vegetation boundary on the west side of the meadows. It will be quite a job to get the vegetation cover correct in the meadows - a job for another day. I plan to work around them until I have them completely defined, then come back and fill in the different shades of yellow and green in the meadows.
The county name where the map is located - Coweta, comes from the name of a Creek town on the river, although I believe the actual town wasl located down near Columbus. The Creeks stayed around their towns in the summer and on their hunting grounds on the rivers and "creeks" during the winter.
I mapped five hours today in the heat. It was 93 when I got back to the truck at noon. I start at first light to beat the heat. It's not too bad really. I wear a long sleeve synthetic running shirt that is very light and white. Long sleeves to keep off the skeeters and the deer flies and horseflies. I also wear a bandana around my neck to keep the deer flies off.
Worked on the west of the "meadows" area. I'm just not up to tackling the difficult and detailed meadows in this heat. I worked the deep, dark woods, going up and down the spurs and reentrants, filling in the vegetation boundary on the west side of the meadows. It will be quite a job to get the vegetation cover correct in the meadows - a job for another day. I plan to work around them until I have them completely defined, then come back and fill in the different shades of yellow and green in the meadows.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Drafting has begun
I've always found it a good idea not to let the field checking get too far ahead of the drafting. The more time that passes the more difficult it is to remember exactly what I drew on a particular day. Is that a boulder or a dead mosquito?
And I shudder to think of anyone else trying to interpret my field notes. The resulting map would not be useful. Orienteers would find trails where there should be roads, dark green where there should be open, boulders where there should be dot knolls.
One thing that I do with vegetation that helps a lot when it comes time to draft is to use the last two digits of the IOF number for the vegetation. I have a list of the numbers for that and other symbols taped to my board. I don't have it in front of me right now, but I think all the vegetation sysmbols begin at 400. So in the field I draw a line around the area and then label the interior with the corresponding number, like 9 or 11. I do the same thing with all the different road and trail symbols, using a solid black line for each and labeling them with a symbol number. I also do this for any other symbol that might be misunderstood or confused later. This reduces the chance of error when I draft.
So now I am up to date on the area north of the big power line along Flat Rock Road. That means about 0.7 sq km has been field checked and drafted.
And I shudder to think of anyone else trying to interpret my field notes. The resulting map would not be useful. Orienteers would find trails where there should be roads, dark green where there should be open, boulders where there should be dot knolls.
One thing that I do with vegetation that helps a lot when it comes time to draft is to use the last two digits of the IOF number for the vegetation. I have a list of the numbers for that and other symbols taped to my board. I don't have it in front of me right now, but I think all the vegetation sysmbols begin at 400. So in the field I draw a line around the area and then label the interior with the corresponding number, like 9 or 11. I do the same thing with all the different road and trail symbols, using a solid black line for each and labeling them with a symbol number. I also do this for any other symbol that might be misunderstood or confused later. This reduces the chance of error when I draft.
So now I am up to date on the area north of the big power line along Flat Rock Road. That means about 0.7 sq km has been field checked and drafted.
Monday, June 15, 2009
My Experience
I had someone email me and ask what mapping experience I had, so I sat down in front of Ocad and did some measuring.
I started making maps for the Georgia Orienteering Club back in 1995. Here is a partial list of the maps I have made and their size:
That’s a grand total of 39.8 sq km of map, or 9,835 acres. Chattahoochee Bend will add another 12 sq km to the total when it is finished.
I started making maps for the Georgia Orienteering Club back in 1995. Here is a partial list of the maps I have made and their size:
- Cochran Mill - 3.5 sq km
- Sweetwater Creek State Park - 5.8 sq km
- FDR State Park - 13 sq km
- Joe Kurz WMA - 5.8 sq km
- Smithgall Woods State Conservation area - 11.7 sq km
That’s a grand total of 39.8 sq km of map, or 9,835 acres. Chattahoochee Bend will add another 12 sq km to the total when it is finished.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Mighty Chattahoochee
Two mapping days in a row. 85 degrees today. I start at a litle after seven and quit when it gets too hot.
Printed out more basemap, and started out on the area west of the small powerline. This is a big area, with no obvious handrails to use. My usual tactic is to make a handrail out of something so that I can enclose an area, then radually work away on the interior. I used the northern boundary of the inholding, which has a nice forest road along it. I mapped that out about 700 meters, then mapped a stream north west all the way to the river. The terrain is very pretty here. The stream is in a wide reentrant until the last 100 meters when the hills close in on it and it passes through a two contour deep channel down to the river.
Then I worked my way back up one of the hills and discovered an area that had been logged 20 or 30 years ago. It was only logged along the very top of the hills and spurs. Very odd. This is all hardwood forest, and the loggers did not replant, but let the volunteer trees come back. As a result, there is everything from bare clay to grass, blackberyy canes to muscadines, and trees of every height. Mapping the vegetation changes will be a chore. I predict I will spend a lot of time trying to get this right. My usual tactic is to map the edge as a linear feature first. I tried that and managed to get confused, but by that time the heat was getting to me.
I uploaded plenty more pictures, including a couple of the river. Check them out.
Printed out more basemap, and started out on the area west of the small powerline. This is a big area, with no obvious handrails to use. My usual tactic is to make a handrail out of something so that I can enclose an area, then radually work away on the interior. I used the northern boundary of the inholding, which has a nice forest road along it. I mapped that out about 700 meters, then mapped a stream north west all the way to the river. The terrain is very pretty here. The stream is in a wide reentrant until the last 100 meters when the hills close in on it and it passes through a two contour deep channel down to the river.
Then I worked my way back up one of the hills and discovered an area that had been logged 20 or 30 years ago. It was only logged along the very top of the hills and spurs. Very odd. This is all hardwood forest, and the loggers did not replant, but let the volunteer trees come back. As a result, there is everything from bare clay to grass, blackberyy canes to muscadines, and trees of every height. Mapping the vegetation changes will be a chore. I predict I will spend a lot of time trying to get this right. My usual tactic is to map the edge as a linear feature first. I tried that and managed to get confused, but by that time the heat was getting to me.
I uploaded plenty more pictures, including a couple of the river. Check them out.
Small Victory
Today I finished the area east of the small powerline over to Flat Rock Road. It's pretty satisfying to actually finish off an area, no matter how small. This section is narrow, no more than 200 meters wide, and I can use the powerline poles as references - after I put them on the map, of course.
Found some pits that someone had dug in this area, as well as the usual root stocks. Also finished the last of the pine forest, which has a narrow strip west of the road.
Worked my way all the way north to where the powerline bends to the east. Here I got totally confused. The photo and the powerline did not agree. I was right at the edge of the photo and I didn't have the next photo north printed out. Gave it up until another time.
At this point I have finished about 0.6 sq km.
By the time I got back to the truck it was 82 degrees. Whoo.
Found some pits that someone had dug in this area, as well as the usual root stocks. Also finished the last of the pine forest, which has a narrow strip west of the road.
Worked my way all the way north to where the powerline bends to the east. Here I got totally confused. The photo and the powerline did not agree. I was right at the edge of the photo and I didn't have the next photo north printed out. Gave it up until another time.
At this point I have finished about 0.6 sq km.
By the time I got back to the truck it was 82 degrees. Whoo.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Tickless
The good news today was that I came back from field checking with not a single tick. Last week I picked up 20 or 30 seed ticks. So I went to REI in Atlanta and bought some Sawyer clothing treatment. This has 0.5% permethrin. I followed the directions religiously, spraying my shoes (running shoes), socks (Thorlo hiking socks - seed ticks go through the weave in these like a man throuh a barn door) and my hiking pants from the knees down. I wore my pant cuffs tucked into my socks, so I looked like I did in the Army with my fatiques bloused over my boots.
It worked. I checked my ankles several times during the day and found no ticks. The terrain was the same as last weekend - pine forest with lots of weeds, perfect habitat for ticks. So far, it's a success. I suppose I'll see as the summer progresses.
Finished the area east of Flat Rock Road and north of the power line. Also checked the boundary around the smaller inholding. This is just a few acres along the road with three houses in it.
Found an old homestead. You know you have found one when the privet is so thick you can't move. Long ago the homeowner planted a privet hedge and it escaped. Now it's twenty feet tall and covers everything. Photographed several old buildings, see the photo page.
The northernmost point east of the road is an impressive stand of 20 foot tall cane - also escaped from the old house just outside the boundary. Need a fishing pole?
So now I move on, west of the road and north to the river. Now it will become a chore to walk out and back to the area I am field checking each day - there is no other road access.
It worked. I checked my ankles several times during the day and found no ticks. The terrain was the same as last weekend - pine forest with lots of weeds, perfect habitat for ticks. So far, it's a success. I suppose I'll see as the summer progresses.
Finished the area east of Flat Rock Road and north of the power line. Also checked the boundary around the smaller inholding. This is just a few acres along the road with three houses in it.
Found an old homestead. You know you have found one when the privet is so thick you can't move. Long ago the homeowner planted a privet hedge and it escaped. Now it's twenty feet tall and covers everything. Photographed several old buildings, see the photo page.
The northernmost point east of the road is an impressive stand of 20 foot tall cane - also escaped from the old house just outside the boundary. Need a fishing pole?
So now I move on, west of the road and north to the river. Now it will become a chore to walk out and back to the area I am field checking each day - there is no other road access.
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