Talk:Vancouver, British Columbia/Accessibility

Hahah! This is brilliant! It also makes me wish I had more free time... they seem so accessible now... Thepiguy 17:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Don't they just? Of course this doesn't allow time for getting a kayak. I have five kayak rental/retail windows open right now. If I can buy one for $400 I'm going to go for it. I can't handle lying every time I rent one. And hey, by the end of the season I'll have experience. Then it will be mountain climbing equipment I need. - Robyn

Unlike other metropolitan graticules, about half of this one is undeveloped mountain ranges (often extreme and high-altitude), and about a quarter is ocean. I'm surprised how few forest service roads appear in your area. My own "mountain" graticule looks flat and inlaid with roads by comparison.

I'm a lot more interested in my neighbouring graticule Mabel Lake, which contains ranges similar to yours. I'm trying to get prepared enough to do a two-day hike there this summer.Juventas 19:28, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

The terrain is just too extreme for roads. As I looked up the various peaks for information on trails I found routes listed for many of them, but listed as technical climbs, with numeric ratings for mountain climbers. Mount Jimmy Jimmy, tomorrow's destination, appears to host a glacier, too. Invite me, please when you spot a good one for Mabel Lake. -Robyn 19:32, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. The area surrounding hwy 101 is more moderate, and shows some logging activity, but also seems to contain a lot of reserve land. The technical climbs you mention are interesting, and I wonder how unexplored some of the other areas are. As for Mabel Lake, today is a good one! I'm heading out any minute now to make my attempt. Depending on the condition of those FSRs, it could be a very long hike! Thankfully I will have some sort of trail for almost the whole way. Juventas 20:37, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

BTW, best name for a mountain EVER. Jimmy Jimmy. Awesome. -Meghan 15:11, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm still amazed by this project. It astounds me how, so close to a big city, you can have so much of nothing at all -- no roads, no access beyond the waterways, two days to hike 32km... wow. You don't get anything like that in England. I've not gone to a few nearby hashes recently; not because they were inaccessible, but because they were too boring. {sigh} Want to swap graticules for a bit? -- Benjw 17:41, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Sure! You can stay at my house and borrow my kayak. Wade will let you in if you say you're from the Internet. I'll probably be in Atlanta. -Robyn 17:49, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Resources

I've found some tide tables online but what source do you use for weather? There are so many forecast sites. Also, where did you get the reported winds for our trip afterward? (I'm glad you checked the tide tables for our kayak expedition... as I mentioned while we were paddling, I know about tides in theory but they still surprise me in practise.) -- Rhonda 05:18, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Tide tables

24h record of marine winds at Pam Rocks

Thanks! (I seem to have gotten spoiled with google maps - I was browsing the marine winds and found the map of weather stations, and was a little annoyed that I couldn't zoom in to see where exactly they were located.) -- Rhonda 05:59, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Can I Come Along

You would be welcome any time, and I will try to always post notice here if I try, but today I am meeting people and won't have time to go. Today's you should realize we would gain 1000 metres of elevation in about 2 km through what looks like untracked brush. I would probably not have attempted it myself, but I would be willing to try harder things with a companion. Does Wednesday work for you? Be sure to bring gloves and a toque, bear spray would be a good idea and wear sturdy boots--running shoes won't be enough.

Anyone, anytime, if you want to go to a geohash reachable from where I am, and need transportation pleeeease ask! -Robyn 16:01, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Super! I'm up for strenuous but draw the line at dangerous. I was actually eyeing the route via the access road on the inland side of the ridge; park at about 500m altitude and closer to the spot, although that side is steeper. -Rhonda

Awesome! It turns out I can only go in the afternoon tomorrow and Thursday, and am busy on the weekend, but we'll get to one sooner or later. How about you update this accessibility page for today? If you work out the`numbers I can do the formatting. -Robyn 16:55, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I'm not sure how far things are from your house. But if somebody were to go up the west face, the parking lot at Porteau Cove is directly below the hash point... -Rhonda

it won't matter if you do it from your house. You could put it in a note. Oh, you did it already. Awesome. I did notice the favourable parking. I have to pick someone up at the airport this afternoon, so all-day expeditions are out. -Robyn

I've been made a fool by Google Earth

I've been using Google Earth for a long time, including when planning any geohashing expedition. Today I've come to the belief that it actually alters the imagery of unimproved roads to make them more pronounced (not the road mapping overlay). While hard to prove with such poor resolutions, it would go a long way to explain why I keep finding myself on impassable roads with imagery that looked wide and clear. It's been rather discouraging so I'm holding to this theory to make myself feel a little better. Juventas 07:48, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I can back you up on that a bit. There was a geohash a couple of towns over from me, that was in a right-of-way for high-tension power lines. On the map, it looked green, which says grass-and-weeds to me. But when I got there, it was head-high brush and bushes, much more difficult especially at night with no good light source or tools. (Am I really considering buying a machete?) But yes, satellite photos don't tell you enough. I've been looking at the MS Live Search aerial photos, they often have pictures from N-S-E-W, that's really useful for identifying fenced-off roads and the like. -- Jevanyn 14:07, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Bright green more likely means new growth, instead of grass... I know several people who get their christmas trees from power line right-of-way areas, because the maintenance crew razes the area when it gets much above 10ft high or so. That said, I'm not sure they're enhanced. Some scars on the landscape are simply very visible from the air. Especially if you're looking for road-like patterns to begin with... -- Rhonda 03:23, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Another important thing to remember is that a lot of the imagery is over 3 years 5 years old. In my own experience, logging cutblocks that look flattened are actually thick brush with young trees a few feet taller than you. Regarding the enhanced roads, I'll be uploading a good example image soon. Juventas 03:42, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Check this out. This isn't necessarily the best example, just happened to use it on my expedition page. Note the sections of road on the left and upper right, they're positively glowing! Not just the halo, but the fact that they're so white. Even in the driest months, the roads here are not that white. Juventas 02:27, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I'd be inclined to not believe that the Google folks spend all kinds of time enhancing dubious roads. It's entirely possible that the glowing white road is an artifact of the technology they used to build those maps. For example, side-scan radar (as with RADARSAT) will give surface texture and altitude information in monochrome, and laying false colour over that (eg green for typical forest textures and white for roads) could also produce that effect. (Not saying they use RADARSAT data, it just happens to be an example I learned a little bit about recently which could produce this sort of effect.) -- Rhonda 06:08, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Three Roads

OMG! You're right! It all makes so much sense now! Thepiguy 05:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

It also becomes apparent that I have cycled 2/3 of those roads almost in their entirety. *sigh* I guess that means bike trip to Whistler... Thepiguy 05:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I have been using the car past Horseshoe Bay because OMG scary under construction road. We are so going to lose some tourists off that road at the 2010 Olympics. -Robyn 06:09, 15 April 2009 (UTC)