View Full Version : What's up with the A.T. Data Book 2016 elevation data Fontana Dam?
Hi;
In the A.T. Data Book 2016, the elevation listed at Fontana Dam N.C. has two values:
At the end of Tennessee-North Carolina section 18, the listing at Fontana Dam is 1800'. But on the next page, at the start of the North Carolina-Georgia (N.C. Section 3) the listing at same is 1740'.
Interestingly, in the 2014 edition of the A.T. Data Book, the listing at the start of the N.C. - Ga. (N.C. Section 3) is 1781'.
I thought maybe we were talking about two different points on the trail, but the descriptions of the two entries are the same.
Arden
Climate change? :eek: :D :cool:
Typos maybe. Why would it matter? You only cited a few feet difference. Average the 3 elevations?
Wayne
It must be 1773.6666666 feet in reality (the average of all 3 numbers you listed) ;)
Puddlefish
01-25-2016, 15:59
I'm going with the entire mountain floating on a lake of magma theory, thus magma tides. We're all doomed!
No, I'm not a geologist, but you knew that.
I am currently transposing the entire 2016 A.T. Data Book to an e-book for my Kindle (for my own use only), which I plan to carry with me on my SOBO thru-hike, and came across the discrepancy. It doesn't make any difference at all, but my curiosity, combined with a bit of obsessiveness, prompted me to post the question. I guess it could also be the GPS used to take the readings, or the trail could have been re-routed a few feet, since the 2014 edition. It's a good thing I did not buy the 2015 edition :banana
Internet Hiker
01-25-2016, 18:28
I guess you know that the AT Guide is available as a PDF for a nominal eight bucks.
I guess you know that the AT Guide is available as a PDF for a nominal eight bucks.
No, I didn't know it was available in .pdf format. Before I purchased the paperback copy from ATC, I searched their site for a .pdf and didn't find it. That would have saved me the time of scanning my book, but I still would have needed to re-format it for the Kindle. I have sent "raw" .pdf files to my Kindle and was not happy with the layout. Besides that, it was a fun project. I learned a lot about the trail, and was inspired to begin planning for my own SOBO thru-hike this year.
Of course, the Kindle version of the book won't do me any good if my Kindle gets trashed, or the battery runs down before I can get to an AC outlet to recharge.
Alligator
01-25-2016, 20:46
I don't know the answer. It could be an outright error (fixed or new) particularly if it is the only one you spotted. If it was multiple points, it might be a change in the datum or projection used to produce the data points or a switch of these in the GPS unit even. I don't know if this information is listed in the data book.
I know you mentioned being done, but you can also get Adobe Acrobat from the Kindle store.
Internet Hiker
01-25-2016, 21:41
I don't think the PDF version is widely distributed. I was wrong about the price; $8 was last year. This year it's $9. You can get it from the author's web site here:
http://www.shop.theatguide.com/Books_c3.htm
(http://www.shop.theatguide.com/Books_c3.htm)
I don't know the answer. It could be an outright error (fixed or new) particularly if it is the only one you spotted. If it was multiple points, it might be a change in the datum or projection used to produce the data points or a switch of these in the GPS unit even. I don't know if this information is listed in the data book.
I know you mentioned being done, but you can also get Adobe Acrobat from the Kindle store.
I cannot afford the full version of Acrobat, but I have ABBYY PDF Transformer, which was about 30% of the cost of their full product. It will scan and recoginze text, and convert any .pdf to a searchable version. That works very well, but for the Kindle, I found that it needs to be re-formatted from the .pdf if it is going to work. Besides that, I am adding my own TOC, so I can go to any section from the front - although, one of the great features of the Kindle is that it will always return you to the last page you read.
it was the aliens. they made a landing there in 2015, late December if I remember correctly.
Traveler
01-26-2016, 06:55
Coogan is on to something. I think that was where the alien from Argentina landed to woo Governor Sanford who was innocently out hiking "the 'ol Appalachian Trail". Pesky aliens cause all kinds of trouble, yanno?
rocketsocks
01-26-2016, 07:26
Due to thickness of the page maybe.
That was eErrata lLibris from the planet DEF in the Gnuwrld.enc system. Notably inept and vertically challanged.
Offshore
01-26-2016, 08:38
I don't know the answer. It could be an outright error (fixed or new) particularly if it is the only one you spotted. If it was multiple points, it might be a change in the datum or projection used to produce the data points or a switch of these in the GPS unit even. I don't know if this information is listed in the data book.
I know you mentioned being done, but you can also get Adobe Acrobat from the Kindle store.
I don't have access to the Kindle store but the Acrobat in there may be just the reader. If you need the full Acrobat Professional for PDF authoring tools such as optimizing scans, and adding bookmarks, links, and a table of contents, etc. , you can get a legal license for Adobe Acrobat Professional on a monthly basis from Adobe for $25/month with no annual commitment. Google on "Adobe Acrobat DC" and you'll get to Adobe's site. If you only need the software for one quick project, it beats paying $450 for the disk version.
Unless I already had Acrobat and really enjoyed scanning, I'd probably just buy AWOLs PDF version. I'm curious to see if he made it a "smart" PDF with links, etc. or just a scan of the paper version. (If the PDF is unlocked, you could always add your own smart features and notes using Acrobat.)
atraildreamer
01-26-2016, 12:56
I cannot afford the full version of Acrobat, but I have ABBYY PDF Transformer, which was about 30% of the cost of their full product. It will scan and recoginze text, and convert any .pdf to a searchable version. That works very well, but for the Kindle, I found that it needs to be re-formatted from the .pdf if it is going to work. Besides that, I am adding my own TOC, so I can go to any section from the front - although, one of the great features of the Kindle is that it will always return you to the last page you read.
Have you tried Calibre to convert the pdf to Kindle format? It is a free program.
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Water Rat
01-26-2016, 14:33
No, I didn't know it was available in .pdf format. Before I purchased the paperback copy from ATC, I searched their site for a .pdf and didn't find it. That would have saved me the time of scanning my book, but I still would have needed to re-format it for the Kindle. I have sent "raw" .pdf files to my Kindle and was not happy with the layout. Besides that, it was a fun project. I learned a lot about the trail, and was inspired to begin planning for my own SOBO thru-hike this year.
Of course, the Kindle version of the book won't do me any good if my Kindle gets trashed, or the battery runs down before I can get to an AC outlet to recharge.
The AT Data Book and the AT Guide are two different books... Just wanted to point that out for anyone new to this conversation (and there are a lot of lurkers out there). The ATC puts out the Data Book and AWOL does the AT Guide.
AWOL's 2016 Southbound Guide is still on pre-order status and he has yet to post (or I am blind) his 2016 Southbound Book & PDF package. The PDF was supposed to be available mid-January, and will most likely be available any day now. The Southbound book was supposed to be available for shipment around the beginning of Feb. I figure he's most likely just getting caught up on NoBo orders right now...
Puddlefish
01-26-2016, 18:18
I emailed the Guide pdf format to my Kindle using the Convert on the subject line, which has worked for other pdfs, and it was a huge mess. Deleted the mess, then emailed it unconverted, it works great now.
Alligator
01-27-2016, 04:28
The AT Data Book and the AT Guide are two different books... Just wanted to point that out for anyone new to this conversation (and there are a lot of lurkers out there). The ATC puts out the Data Book and AWOL does the AT Guide.
AWOL's 2016 Southbound Guide is still on pre-order status and he has yet to post (or I am blind) his 2016 Southbound Book & PDF package. The PDF was supposed to be available mid-January, and will most likely be available any day now. The Southbound book was supposed to be available for shipment around the beginning of Feb. I figure he's most likely just getting caught up on NoBo orders right now...Good to point out. I missed the changeup in IH's post. So does anyone know if the Data Book is on pdf yet?
I don't have access to the Kindle store but the Acrobat in there may be just the reader. If you need the full Acrobat Professional for PDF authoring tools such as optimizing scans, and adding bookmarks, links, and a table of contents, etc. , you can get a legal license for Adobe Acrobat Professional on a monthly basis from Adobe for $25/month with no annual commitment. Google on "Adobe Acrobat DC" and you'll get to Adobe's site. If you only need the software for one quick project, it beats paying $450 for the disk version.
Unless I already had Acrobat and really enjoyed scanning, I'd probably just buy AWOLs PDF version. I'm curious to see if he made it a "smart" PDF with links, etc. or just a scan of the paper version. (If the PDF is unlocked, you could always add your own smart features and notes using Acrobat.)Good to know about the short license possibility. It is just the Reader that I mentioned. It's handy to have on the Kindle, I rarely use the send to Kindle feature anymore. I'm a big fan of Evernote myself, and if there is something I want to grab off the Internet, I just clip it to Evernote. Pdfs go to my cloud drive and then I can open them on the Kindle with the reader if I want to. There is an Evernote add-in for pdfs but it is clunkier than Adobe.
late december 2015 what a night
aka.cyberman
01-31-2016, 00:00
Didn't the Appalachian Mountains used to be as big as the Rockies back in the day? Maybe they just keep evolving. IDK.
Offshore
01-31-2016, 12:24
Good to know about the short license possibility. It is just the Reader that I mentioned. It's handy to have on the Kindle, I rarely use the send to Kindle feature anymore. I'm a big fan of Evernote myself, and if there is something I want to grab off the Internet, I just clip it to Evernote. Pdfs go to my cloud drive and then I can open them on the Kindle with the reader if I want to. There is an Evernote add-in for pdfs but it is clunkier than Adobe.
I've been using Evernote premium for the last couple of years and the web clipper is great. Once I finally sorted things out into notebooks and tags, it does a great job suggesting notebooks, etc. for clipped materials. As much as I like Evernote, I'd really like to move everything to OneNote since I have it as a part of my Office 365 subscription and it uses OneDrive as its online component, but haven't found a decent converter. A while ago I did a "cloud consolidation" and selected up on OneDrive for a number of reasons, but find things getting "cloudy" again with OneDrive, Adobe Document and Creative clouds, and Evernote.
Offshore
01-31-2016, 12:30
Didn't the Appalachian Mountains used to be as big as the Rockies back in the day? Maybe they just keep evolving. IDK.
Geologist here - The Appalachians are far older than the Rockies (in terms of the events that led to their uplifting) and were thought to be bigger than the Rockies at their "peak". They may or may not keep evolving, but they most definitely keep eroding. So the next time your water filter clogs on the trail, don't get annoyed - embrace the natural history.
aka.cyberman
02-04-2016, 10:21
Thanks for clarifying that Offshore
I emailed the Guide pdf format to my Kindle using the Convert on the subject line, which has worked for other pdfs, and it was a huge mess. Deleted the mess, then emailed it unconverted, it works great now.
I tried that first, but didn't like the result. A pdf on Kindle cannot be searched, and font cannot be changed. That's what I use the OCR and LibreOffice Writer (or MS Word) and Calibre for.
Geologist here - The Appalachians are far older than the Rockies (in terms of the events that led to their uplifting) and were thought to be bigger than the Rockies at their "peak". They may or may not keep evolving, but they most definitely keep eroding. So the next time your water filter clogs on the trail, don't get annoyed - embrace the natural history.
I have read several times that it is possible that the Appalachians were at one time 50,000ft high!!
Alligator
02-10-2016, 21:31
I've been using Evernote premium for the last couple of years and the web clipper is great. Once I finally sorted things out into notebooks and tags, it does a great job suggesting notebooks, etc. for clipped materials. As much as I like Evernote, I'd really like to move everything to OneNote since I have it as a part of my Office 365 subscription and it uses OneDrive as its online component, but haven't found a decent converter. A while ago I did a "cloud consolidation" and selected up on OneDrive for a number of reasons, but find things getting "cloudy" again with OneDrive, Adobe Document and Creative clouds, and Evernote.
I tried using Onenote due to the Office integration as well but I found I liked Evernote better. The forty or so bucks for the premium version is worth it in my opinion. Evernote really shines with the cross device integration, at least on the Android side of things. Then I just use Google Drive for cloud storage.
Traveler
02-11-2016, 06:05
Didn't the Appalachian Mountains used to be as big as the Rockies back in the day? Maybe they just keep evolving. IDK.
There have been at two major uplifts, one about 500 million years ago, the second about 300 million years ago, a third impacted some of the range about 150 million years ago. Altitudes are calculated to rival that of the Himalayan range during these periods. Its a very impressive range geologically speaking that have some unique features like the Tyringham Cobble, where the strata at the base is younger than the strata at the top that led to a series of scientific studies combined with other unique areas having similar characteristics that eventually led to tectonic plate theory and the study of uplift in mountain ranges. We sometimes take for granted the complexity of the rocks we walk over and sometimes swear at.
Sojourner 70
02-11-2016, 12:02
I'm willing to concede tectonic plate action with so much recent volcano incidence, but I was also enlightened and amused by Jon Krakauer's thorough investigation of mountain height competition over the last several centuries as to theolodite usage and modern technology in his book, "Eiger Dreams". It reminded me of the Mt. Mitchell vs. Clingman's Dome controversy. Also on my mind, though, is the new construction at Fontana Dam I experienced last April in 2015. The visitor/tourism place was opened unusually early, and I was told it was just something they were doing, but it looked huge-scale and I wondered about vehicle and hiker access in the future. Perhaps the gates locking access to the bridge were just safety measures to do with the construction. Any real connection to the height? I don't know.
Sojourner 70
02-21-2016, 21:50
I'm willing to concede tectonic plate action with so much recent volcano incidence, but I was also enlightened and amused by Jon Krakauer's thorough investigation of mountain height competition over the last several centuries as to theolodite usage and modern technology in his book, "Eiger Dreams". It reminded me of the Mt. Mitchell vs. Clingman's Dome controversy. Also on my mind, though, is the new construction at Fontana Dam I experienced last April in 2015. The visitor/tourism place was opened unusually early, and I was told it was just something they were doing, but it looked huge-scale and I wondered about vehicle and hiker access in the future. Perhaps the gates locking access to the bridge were just safety measures to do with the construction. Any real connection to the height? I don't know.
"THEODOLITE", sorry!