Heading for a picnic

I started a new page of the basemap, a very large page, about twice as large as normal. It extends all the way out to the day-use area, also known as the picnic area. The first task, as usual, is to fix down the new road, so I followed it all the way out, penciling it in as I went. Here's what the picnic shelters look like:

From Chattahoochee Bend

This area of the map will finish all man made objects. It extends from the maintenance building, past the campground and the second residence to the picnic area, boat ramp, and primitive camping. This is going to take a while to finish, but once that is done, I will turn south along the river for the final part of the map.

Another milestone reached

From Chattahoochee Bend

A totally arbitrary one, but significant anyway. I finished everything from Flat Rock road west to the northward jog in the boundary line, south of the big power line. That is a 2 sq km chunk of the West map, which means I am about half done with the West map.

This is the heart of the developed area of the park, and is the area that people drive through when they arrive. It includes the Visitor Center, Adirondack Camp, one of the ranger residences, and the maintenance building. Also 2 small trailhead parking areas.
It also has about a third of the rock in the park. The rest of the rock was in the east map, already finished. Which means I am done with rock now, except for the occasional spot here and there.

The rest of the West map includes the campground and picnic area - that will be next.

I can also report an unsubstantiated rumor that the observation platform up in the bend of the river will be built in phase one construction, and the road will be improved so that people can get to it. This is good, since we hope to use that area for parking for our orienteering meets up in the bend. Much more on that later...

I've been keeping up with the road construction, mapping it about as fast as they construct it. It is paved now as far as the visitor center and the gravel has been laid in preparation for asphalt as far as the Maintenance Building.

The next section of the west map descends to the river, back in the floodplain. At one point the floodplain is 400 meters wide - yikes! Wish me luck down in there...

A break from the heat

Finally, the temperature dropped 20 degrees, which put the high in the low 70s. I put in a long 9 hours, the longest day since last Spring. Managed to finish another page of the base map.

From Chattahoochee Bend

This may be the largest beech tree in the park, roughly 10 feet around, which would make it about 36 inches in diameter. It's down in a beech bottom west of the Adirondack Camp. And no, I did not put it on the map...