Data collection on the AT....GPS

[Wise Old Owl]

Hi,

I wanted to "test" the waters to see if there is any interest in adding more information than what we currently have on the AT, Right now it is easy to get the Trail as a route & as a track for your Garmin, & include Shelters as waypoints. What I am looking to see if folks would be interested in collecting waypoints of water sources & campsites on the AT? Yes it could be a lot of work but with so many members hiking the AT it would be something really cool to add to the data base. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Mark

[Pedaling Fool]

I remember reading a story about the ATC (couple years ago) doing very accurate GPS documentation of the trail. Not sure the status of that effort today, but would be interested in hearing more about it.

[minnesotasmith]

I read an aside in an article in a hunting magazine about an older navigation system called LORAN. It had two potential attractions to hikers IMO:

1) It was supposed to be better at having its signal penetrate deep valleys than is GPS.

2) When the US mil is in or near to a state of war, GPS can be intentionally made less accurate. This is always a possibility.

Anyone know about LORAN?

[Wise Old Owl]

Yes John, they did and here is what they offer, but lacks the information I am discussing here.

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.jkLXJ8MQKtH/b.851255/k.4226/Appalachian_Trail_GIS_and_GPS_Data.htm

[Wise Old Owl]

MS here you go
http://www.ac11.org/gpsvs.htm

I was more interested in collecting springs & water source & campsites. LAT/LONG

[pyroman53]

Last October I met a SOBO thru-hiker (completed over 2 seasons) who said he was getting GPS data for Backpacker Mag. I think his trail name was BP. He was at Neels Gap. Not sure what he/they did with his data. I think he was getting a pretty complete dat set (trail, shelters, water, etc.).