Maps

The North Face of Shuksan with the route of our ascent overlaid on Google Earth

On August 3, 4, 5, 2021 I got to climb the North Face of Shuksan via the Fisher Chimneys down the White Salmon Glacier up the North Face then up the Northeast Ridge of the Summit Pyramid. Our descent was via Hell’s Highway, Winnie’s Slide and Fisher Chimneys.  This was a three day trip and we were a party of four climbing in two rope teams. We bivied at the base of the North Face and at the base of the Summit Pyramid on the Sulfide Glacier. During the trip I ran a track each day and ran that data through the Track Parser App I have developed. You can use the Track Parser for free here Track Parser App. 

The Track Parser gives you 4 data files: A .csv file, an .html file, a .geojson file, and an .xlxs file. The .html file gives you an interactive mph map that is very useful for mountain bikers, skiers, and runners but not very useful for alpine climbs so it has not been included here. The .csv is only useful for those who can manipulate that data and if you can do that you can get the .csv data from the .xlxs file albeit with one more step, so for simplicity and less confusion I have not included it.

What I have included for each day is the Geojson file that when uploaded into Caltopo you get an interactive map with each leg color coded in sync with the row colors of the .xlxs file, a .kml file that will open in Google Earth and give you the data as well in that program. I have also included links to already built Caltopo maps with the data but they are “read” only, though you can export the data from them. There is also the Excel files (.xlxs file) and an overview Geopdf map that will import into Avenza.

I hope you enjoy the data and find it useful.

Click the photo or the link below for the Geopdf

Overview Geopdf 

Day 1 Data

Day 1 Shuksan KML
Day 1 Shuksan Geojson
Day 1 xlxs
Caltopo Read Only Map Day 1 
https://caltopo.com/m/D4A5N

Day 2 Data

Day 2 Shuksan KML
Day 2 Shuksan Geojson
Day 2 xlxs
Caltopo Read Only Map Day 2 
https://caltopo.com/m/0H4DT

Day 3 Data

Day 3 Shuksan KML
Day 3 Shuksan Geojson
Day 3 xlxs
Caltopo Read Only Map Day 3 
https://caltopo.com/m/0JBDU

Click on the map to download large geopdf

I was going through some old tracks and found a track from a trip I did in March 2019. This is a pretty classic tour for me to do. The day I did this tour the avalanche hazard was low. You can see the archived forecast for the day here. The day ended up warmer than forecasted with temperatures getting above freezing at the altitude of the ravines, you can get that info from the next days forecast here.

Click on the picture to download the data

Because of the program I developed I was able to reverse engineer the route plan with the actual times and other data. On this tour I wasn’t going for a record time, it was just a good solid pace with a few breaks as you’ll see in the data. I say this so you can calibrate the information for your pace and adjust as you see fit, either planning a faster or slower pace.

The map and the data are color coded so that you can visualize each leg. The yellow areas are the transitions. Below you will find the GPS track as a .gpx file and .kml, the data as a .csv. For the map and a PDF of the data just click the photos or there are also links below.

3-27-19 GeoPDF Map
3-27-19 Data
3-27-19 csv
3-27-19 kml
3-27-19 gpx (Some browsers add a .xml extension, delete the .xml leaving only the .gpx extension before saving)

Click to get Geo-PDF Map

On October 14 and 15, 2020 I got to ride two of Moab’s classic trails The Whole Enchilada and Slickrock. I found these trails very different from each other and unique compared to trails I have ridden in other areas.. The WE was a long trail/ride that went from over 11,000 feet to the Colorado River at around 4000 feet so it rode through a variety of climatic zones. Slickrock on the other hand was all on sandstone with very little vegetation.

The WE was a long ride, about 27 miles but I got dropped off 2.5 miles from the trailhead on Geyser Pass Road and rode the 3 miles from the endpoint at Grandstaff Campground to Lion’s Park in Moab adding over 5 miles to the ride.

Click for a PDF of the data

I found the WE to be a good ride but anything that long can’t be fantastic the whole way.  My favorite parts were in the top half,  from the trailhead to the crossing of the LaSal Loop Road. The climb to Burro Pass was really good and I was able to ride most of it. As I got to the pass there was a group hanging out and all I saw was the trail going up Manns Peak. You’ll notice that I went up a bit that way and figured out I blew the navigation.

The descent from the pass reminded me of home a bit. The best part of the decent though was the Hazard County Trail. The up was short but sweet and the down was fast and with good flow that I appreciated since the area is so dry it makes things a bit slippery.

The second half was more desert like and good but not my particular favorite but it was as expected. I will say that when looked at as an entire ride it is an awesome link up that I am really glad I got to do.

I rode the Slickrock Trail the next day. I didn’t know there was a fee to get into the county park it is located in so I am mentioning it here, it was $5.00 for the day so it isn’t expensive.

Click to get Geo-PDF Map

I found out after the fact that the recommended way to ride it is clockwise but I had ridden it counterclockwise. Honestly it seemed like they would be about the same. This was a fun quick ride that I enjoyed. It is very different from what I am use to and the friction of the tires on the rock allowed you to climb nice steep hills which was cool. I will say though that riding this trails wouldn’t prepare you really for the WE, to me they seemed very different in style and flavor.

Click for a PDF of the data

You can click the maps and data above to get a PDF of those. Below are links for those and the GPX and KML files as well. I hope you find this info useful.

WE Map
WE Data
Slickrock Map
Slickrock Data
WE gpx (Some browsers add a .xml extension, delete the .xml leaving only the .gpx extension before saving)
WE kml
Slickrock gpx (Some browsers add a .xml extension, delete the .xml leaving only the .gpx extension before saving)
Slickrock kml

On June 22, 2020 I had an appointment to get my car fixed so I planned a bike ride from the garage. I wanted it to take a good portion of the day so I wouldn’t have to wait for the car to get fixed. What I ended up with is a 25.13 mile ride with 3.01 miles being on pavement, 3.36 miles on gravel rd and 18.73 miles of single track.  I was trying to do as much single track as possible but I was also trying to avoid repeating sections of trail. I didn’t work very hard to plan a route since I knew the area pretty well so I might have done a little better with more precise planning. I ended up repeating about 2.2 miles of single track (mostly the trail Lager in the Marshall Conservation Area) and .37 miles of gravel road. I worked out these stats to give you an idea of how extensive the trails are in the Mount Washington Valley. Considering this is only one side of the valley and the other side (East) has as many or more trails and is arguably more popular you can see there is a lot of riding here. There was virtually no sections that I had to hike my bike (no more than 20-50 feet) and arguably any walking I did speaks more to my skill or fatigue than the trail. I will say that the direction of travel is important as far as the amount of walking you do, particularly the climb and descent of Whitehorse and Cathedral.

Here is some of the details with a map. I broke up the trip into legs with times and other data. I also color coded the map and the data so that the black is paved, the brown is gravel, and the bright blue and light blue are single track. The color coding is both on the map and the data. I have also included a .gpx file and .kml file for you if you want to put either of them into a mapping program.

West Side Data
West Side Map (This is a Geopdf)
West Side .gpx File (Some browsers add a .xml extension, delete the .xml leaving only the .gpx extension before saving)
West Side .kml File

In the last two months I started to learn how to write Python code. For me to learn I needed to simultaneously take an online course and work on a project that motivates me. When I started working on this I figured I might get something done in 6-8 months. Fortunately I wrote a program that is very useable for me. The Python journey started because of maps and maps got started because of climbing, skiing and mountain biking.

The other day I did a fun ride over in the Black Cap area here in North Conway. The ride I did was up Hurricane Mountain Rd, onto the Black Cap Trail to the Cranmore connector, down the Hurricane Trail to the Red Tail, up the Red Tail back to the connector, down the connector to Kandagnar,  down that and back to the start. 

I ran a track while I went on my ride and when I got home I used my new program to break it up into legs. The program allows me to break it up anyway I would like and then it gives me data like speed, time, Munter pace, elevation gain and loss, along with other data. That is the function of the program is that after the fact I can get data for any section. Here is how it come out of the program .txt file . Below is a cleaned up version that took me a few minutes in Word to make it more readable.

Click here the map for a geopdf map.                                                                                                                                                     Click here for the .pdf trip plan

New Caltopo Layer Patagonia

For those that are wondering what I’ve been working on this is how you can use my maps on Caltopo now that I have a WMS server

If you want to make a .KMZ file from the layer make your base layer TF Outdoors then Stack the Custom Layer (Patagonia) at 100% over that, otherwise you’ll get an error.

Here is the link you need to paste into Caltopo that I mention in the video.

http://45.63.67.37:8080/geoserver/Patagonia/wms?SERVICE=WMS&?SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetMap&STYLES=&BBOX={left},{bottom},{right},{top}&WIDTH={tilesize}&HEIGHT={tilesize}&BGCOLOR=0xCCCCCC&FORMAT=image/png&EXCEPTIONS=application/vnd.ogc.se_inimage&SRS=EPSG:3857&LAYERS=PatagoniaforGE