What is a Data Book?

 
I couldn't find the picture I wanted to show you today. Annoying, because I thought I knew where it was. Oh well.

So, I guess I'll just show you what I've been working on all day. I'm about 2/3 done for my upcoming trip.

A Data Book for hikers is a trail description reduced to mileage numbers and pertinent information about water sources, lodging, turns, parking, and perhaps other amenities. The trail association for the Knobstone offered a basic one for sale. However, the wording is not consistent, and more to the point, there are a couple places where there are alternate routes, and the mileage numbers are not for the route I am choosing. It's also really incomplete as to possible water sources. Everyone says that water is the biggest issue on the Knobstone. However, it should be much less of an issue in the spring. Anyway, the databook they sent notes a lot of places where there is possible seasonal water, but doesn't seem to list some places that look pretty much like serious water sources to me. Also, there are some ponds marked on the map that aren't in the data book. I'm trying to get all the info into one document to be used with the map set I marked up in the last few days.

This is a fairly straightforward project to do in a spreadsheet, but it can be tedious. Here's a sample of the first 7.8 miles. I'm up to mile 110.8 of about 145. You can click to make it bigger if you care.



And just FYI, I've been working on making data sheets for lower Michigan counties of the North Country Trail. These are available on line in Google Sheets. So far the only ones done are Hillsdale, part of Calhoun, part of Newaygo (not posted yet), Lake, Mason, Manistee, and part of Wexford (not posted yet). It takes a lot of work to get good enough info to do this well. And a poor data sheet is rather useless. This is part of what I've been doing on my hikes for the past year or so. You can find the links to these data sheets at Explore the NCT.

This page (set of pages) is one of my many projects. This one will have no end. It's what I hope to work on for the rest of my life, one of the big goals of level 5. There isn't a lot there yet, but maybe enough of a start to give someone an idea of what it can be.

Here's a sample of one of the NCT Data Books.



In other news: I made yogurt, cleaned up the kitchen, and worked on the ExploreNCT project a little. Should be able to finish the data book for my Indiana hike tomorrow. Then I'll start on food and some equipment things that need tweaking.

See More About Hiking the Knobstone