Christmas 2010 update

From Chattahoochee Bend

I've been hard at work, closing in on the final bits. My main problem is the very long walk to get to the final SW corner of the map. I have succeeded once in getting entry to drive around from the construction company. It's very hit and miss in late December. The walk in is about 3 miles. The walk out is 3 miles. Plus the one-mile-an-hour mapping amble that I do. That makes for a very long day.

Here's the progress map. As you can see, only the 100 acres in Heard County in the far SW corner are left:

From Chattahoochee Bend

I have no base map for those 100 acres, so I will have to resort to the old fashioned methods. It will take a couple of days at least, maybe more. Map the linear features first using compass and pacing, then fill in the details. It's not fast, and I wouldn't want to do a large area this way, but it does work.

Estimated time of finish? New Year's day 2011.

Armadillos

From Chattahoochee Bend

I surprised him (her? how do you tell?) rooting around in the leaves. He scurried into his hole. I waited, getting my camera ready. They have very poor eyesight - I probably looked like a tree standing there. He poked his head back out and I took his picture.

I've been seeing a lot of them lately. My theory, which may be totally bogus, is that it's too cold at night for them to forage, so they have been coming out when the temperature warms up in the afternoon. It was probably 50 degrees when I took that picture.

How Much Longer?

From Chattahoochee Bend

The Visitor Center is finished!

If nothing interferes, I hope to "finish" the map before the New Year. I put "finish" in quotes because I am going to finish before the construction is finished. I will have to update the campground and the rest of the park road when they are done. Also the hiking trail currently under construction by the Friends of the Park. The park is supposed to open in the summer of 2011.

Another Week of Field Checking

Took advantage of a vacation week to get in 5 straight days of field checking and one day of drafting. What a week! I'm exhausted. Let's see if I can remember what happened.

Day 1: Finished the marshes on the west map, see previous blog post.
Day 2: Mapped all the low hills between the new road and the marshes, out as far as the campground.
Day 3: Mapped the strip of land between the new road and the big power line, finishing this base map page. This narrow area had to be mapped, of course. Who knows if it will ever be used for any real orienteering.
Day 4: Started the final base map page. This is the area that extends south past the campground along the river. I walked all the way out there, then followed the boundary around, then walked all the way back. By my calculation, a distance of 14 km. I vowed never to do that again, and when I got home I phoned a contact I had with the construction company and got permission to drive out there.
Day 5: Drove out just short of the campground and parked, then mapped in the new area. For the first time I got behind the gate and drove on the new park road. What fun!. But the logging roads are terrible, even for my pickup truck. Very afraid of getting stuck, but managed to get out there and back OK.
Day 6: Collapsed in front of the computer and caught up on the drafting.

Have rubber boots, will wade

From Chattahoochee Bend

I should be done with the marshes now, at least until I get out past the campground. I spent the day wading with my rubber boots on. I had left blank spots on the map where every marsh was in this area, saving them all up so I could wade through them all at once, discovering all their secrets. What did I find? More of the straight ditches. Someone, long ago, tried to drain these marshes. I hate to mention it, but it could have been slaves - you always have to bear that in mind in this area. I don't know for sure.

The attempts to drain it didn't work well, and when everything was abandoned the beaver took everything back. They are farming it now, and doing an excellent job at keeping it wet.

The hills crowd back in on the river now, so I will be back in the low hills at least until I get past the campground and picnic area. Saw some evidence yesterday that heavy equipment is moving in that direction, using the old logging roads to get around the bridge construction. Probably pouring concrete culvert footings. I will work around the last of the construction and finish this area up soon.

Mired in the Marsh

From Chattahoochee Bend

I have spent the last few trips down in the floodplain picking away at the marshes and flat areas. One more trip down there and the biggest wet areas should be done - I need to take my rubber boots and capture all the details of the marshes.

They are very beautiful, in a cold, wet, muddy sort of beauty. I imagine the snapping turtles and beavers are very happy with them. Orienteers, not so much. The difficulty will be in getting around them. They flow west or northwest, at an angle to the river, and block access to the sand hills on the river edge, so good course planning will place them in the way of the legs so that they have to be navigated around somehow - or crossed for the adventurous.

I've posted a bunch more pictures also. Found an impressive Osage Orange tree (or Bodark) down on the banks of the river. Unrecognizable usually, but this time of year the "oranges" are very visible, looking like someone scattered a bucket of green tennis balls on the ground. Don't eat them!

The big question is - when will I finish the map? Once these marshes are done I will climb back into the hills and work my way out past the picnic area. Then the map turns south along the bank of the river. I have never even been down there, so I can only guess that it is more of the same. It's a small area compared to what I have already done. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that, at the very southern tip, it crosses into Heard County. I have no basemap for that area.  Uh oh.

I plan to take a week's vacation before Christmas and should get in a few more days then. And I will probably spend most of the time between Christmas and New Year's mapping, hoping to finish the whole thing before 2011. Of course, it won;t be "finished". The construction is still ongoing, and I will finish the map before the construction is finished. I'll have to make "updates" as they finish up the campground and picnic areas, as well as the trail construction.

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.