Cicadas Sing at 9:45

All is quiet, at least from the cicadas, at seven, and eight, and even nine. But at 9:45 they burst out with their incessant singing. I'm no expert, but it must be the temperature. They sing in the day, they sing in the night, so it can't be the light. Once the temperature gets up to about 80, they sing out, and don't stop until it cools off late at night. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Mapped more of the area around the high point today. Lots of little bare rock areas and boulders. It should be interesting terrain for orienteering. I also found a hollowed out spot on the top of a rock that looks suspiciously human made. A grinding stone?

From Chattahoochee Bend

Lots of dead tress in this area, still standing. Why? I have no idea, unless it's the shallow soil above the granite outcropping.

From Chattahoochee Bend

I only do half days in this heat - more tomorrow.

High Point

I mapped the highest point on the map today. How high is it, you ask? Twenty-nine three meter contours above the river. That's about 280 feet. Sounds like a lot, but it's not, since the climb is spread over 2.5 kilometers. The new park road circles around to the east and north of the high point. A very nice oak and hickory forest covers this hill, and it's dotted with bare rock and boulders.

And at it's foot, a very wet beech bottom:

From Chattahoochee Bend

From Chattahoochee Bend

Twin Raccoons

Down in a stream bed west of Flat Rock Road I surprised twin raccoons playing and romping. What they were actually doing was hunting for slimy, scaly, creepy, and crawly things to eat, and then squabbling over them. But they were cute anyway. It was very dark down in that hole, but you can see their ring tails in this photo:

From Chattahoochee Bend

Anytime you see raccoons or foxes in the daytime in the hot summer, your first thought should be rabies. But even though they didn't notice me quickly, I think they were just adolescents. I also surprised a spotted fawn, but it bounded away when I almost stepped on it - no picture.

I worked the area just west of Flat Rock Road, the southern boundary leading down to the new Visitor Center. Lots of boulders and bare rock areas here. This will probably be well used orienteering terrain in the future, since there will be parking nearby.

From Chattahoochee Bend

Back in the Saddle Again

I took April and May off. It was a year ago that I started field checking, so today I started on the west, and final, section of the map. Just recon today, it was too wet to actually make pencil marks on paper.

The west map is where all the park construction is taking place. Lots of construction photos on the photo page - here's the visitor center:

From Chattahoochee Bend

And the restroom at the day-use area:

From Chattahoochee Bend

I plan to give the construction areas a wide berth until they are finished. The west map is big, bigger than the other two. It runs from the flat rock area that gives Flat Rock Road it's name all the way to the river and then hooks south to run along the shoreline. Lots of confusing logging roads - confusing because they are not yet mapped, but that will change over time. There are rock features extending from Flat Rock Road west for at least 500 meters, maybe further, but not as far west as the visitor center.

Looks like the planners did a good job. Each developed area is on a different spur, so as you drive west you come to the Visitor Center, the pioneer camping, the residence and maintenance areas, and the campground. The day-use area is actually the furthest west, and is in the flood plain. I assume there will be a boat ramp - they have logged an area right to the water's edge.

A lot of work remains to be done on the park road. It is only a swath of logged area right now - the construction workers are using the logging roads to get access. Some of the park road will coincide with the old logging roads, some of it will be new construction.

So, my plan is to work the area north of the construction and north of the powerline first, sorting out the logging roads as I go. Once I finish that as far west as the river and the day-use area I'll decide what to do next. There is no construction in the flat rock area west of Flat Rock Road and no construction in the area south of the day-use area - so there are plenty of spots to keep me busy for the next few months until the construction is finished.

Progress so far

A new progress map. This one includes McIntosh Reserve across the river for comparison.

From Chattahoochee Bend

East Map Complete

From Chattahoochee Bend

Spring is here - those are the first mayapples. And I have finished the east map just in time, because I picked off the first tick. Here are the stats:

20 field checking trips
129 hours 45 minutes field checking
37 hours 15 minutes drafting
167 hours total for 2.9 sq km is 57 hours 35 minutes per sq km.

That's slower than the north map, which averaged 47 hours 48 minutes per sq km, probably because of all the bare rock and the boulders.

Total project time so far is over 400 hours with 1920 miles traveled.

Boulder count: 936, not counting the "rocky ground" symbol.

The most prominent features of the east map are the bare rock and boulders, although the topography is interesting and confusing. It should be a big challenge for the orienteer.

The west map is next, and it is the biggest of the three. If I look at only the field checking, and take an average time, it will probably take 208 hours. I average 6.5 hours per trip, so that's 32 trips. With luck, I may finish by March 2011 - another year, which is about on par with the time it took me to do my last big map - Smithgall Woods/Dukes Creek, which took two years.

I'm going to take some time off now - my left knee is suffering from overuse.

East map - not done yet

The week of mapping is over, and I did not finish the east map. The area across the creek turned out to be more complex and subtle than I thought. Good news for orienteers, bad news for the mapper. I spent two days trying to sort out the details of self-similar saddles, hills, and reentrants. Am I in this saddle or that one? Which hill is this again? And there are plenty of old roads that all seem to be going the same way. Not good when the mapper is confused. So I will need at least one more day, maybe two to finish up the east map.