As many of you guys know, I work for Tele Atlas North America which happens to be one of the 2 largest providers of mapping data in the world. One of the benefits of working at Tele Atlas is the Community Paid Time Off (CPTO). My plans for CPTO this year is to generate a new map of the Newport Town Forest and donate it to the Town of Newport. As of right now, Ryan has volunteered to help me with this project. Tele Atlas has already approved the idea and is going to be providing me with the GPS equipment I need and the mapping software I need to build the maps. I have also been talking with some of the GIS engineers here at TA and they have agreed to help me make the best possible map of the forest with the data that I collect. When finished, this will allow me to print out new maps of the forest, create a new PDF for the site and also create digital copies of the maps to overlay onto Google Maps and Google Earth so that people will be able to map out loops on the Local Loops section of the site.

If anyone else wants to help, your more than welcome, but you might have to come up with your own GPS because I am not sure how many I can borrow at any one time.

This is going to take longer than the 24hrs of CPTO I have because the goal is to ride/walk all the trails multiple times to get the most accurate data possible. Also, it will involve a lot of stopping to keep track of all the trail names and where they are located on the GPS data. I am hoping to wrap up the project around the end of October.

What does everyone think and is anyone interested/able to help out?
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

I think that is fantastic Ken. I am more than willing to help out as needed.
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

Ken,

Funny you should mention this........we talked about it at a recent Selectman's meeting. It is a grand idea. The first and foremost thing is that we acquire permission from Dodd to add his trails to the maps. If that is approved, we would then need to have a discussion on how we need to make signage for the trails, then color code them appropriately with slashes, ect. We can discuss as you walk the trails.

The Town would love this, as I would as Rec Director.

Talk to me privately for more thoughts.

PJ

Ken,

I can use my 3 days of CPTO for this as well as any other free time.

Dana

Well, with the cold weather approaching and the leaves pretty much off the trees, it looks as though its time to start mapping the trails. Dana, Ryan and I are planning on spending all of Monday October 23rd walking the Newport Town Forest/Pinnacle trails with a GPS device. We are hoping to be able to hit just about every trail and get a rough sketch of the entire trail system. Our last 2 days (not scheduled yet) will be spent verifying trail names, points of interest (water tower, ect...).

If you are interested in helping, or just want to hike with us, lets setup a time that we can all meet at the High School.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Ken,

We have never met but I am the NL Rec Director, would love to help out next week with GPS mapping. I actually have access to a GPS set-up from our assessing office. I will try and grab it but besides Monday when is your next rendevous??

Thanks

Stoaked,

I am not sure when our next trip will be after Monday. Hope to see you monday.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Stoaked,

If this is Chad, great race Sunday.

Ryan

p.s. Welcome to Team Pinnacle!

What time you boys looking at walking the trails? I'll be around in the morning where you planning on meeting. Nathan
 
Alone in the woods, who stands to be King?

When does everyone want to head out? I was thinking between 9 and 9:30. That way we could get about 3hrs before PJ has to go to school. Then we can have lunch, maybe throw in a MTB ride or something. Then at 2 we can pick PJ up from school, head back out for another 3 hours and finish around 5.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Ken I think it will take 4-5 hours to get out to Coit and back and hit all those trails along the way (i.e. Pinnacle to Outback, Coit, 3 Rock, etc.

Ryan

Thats fine. Then the Team that is doing Coit will just have to stay out longer or leave earlier. We just need to figure this stuff out before Monday morning.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

I'll be hauling the boy, don't know how much help I'll be but I'm willing to show up. 9-9:30 AM works great with me as I have to drop Marlia off at school at 8:30. N.
 
Alone in the woods, who stands to be King?

Let's all plan on meeting at the end of Summer St at the small parking area by the gate leading up to the water towers at 9am Monday.

We can split up into our respective groups and go from there.

Ryan

Sounds good to me. Is there enough parking at the end of Summer St. for everyone? I can just walk up.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Wear bright Colors..........please.

PJ

We split up into 2 teams. Ryan and I took coit pretty much all the trails to the right of summer street. PJ and Dana did all the trails to the left of summer street. Thats a very basic description. In all, we were able to get about 12,000 point and approx. 20 miles including backtracking. A very productive day.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini