Old Map Georeferenced

          Just wanted to share my georeferenced map of the Danville Pottsville rail road.  The railroad was a railroad that just never happened.  Today there are railroad lines that follow similar routes as the old proposed line but they were put in at different times and connected different segments of existing railroad.  The Dansville Pottsville both east and west ends were started but never finished.  The living legacy of this railroad that never existed was and is the Mahoney Plane.  This plane was an engineering feature designed for non-steam powered rail.
           It was interesting and time consuming georeferencing such an old map.  I used stream intersections mostly as reference points.  The actual line seems fairly close to where the actual railroad would have been.

Original Map: Plane and Profile Map by

Kennedy's and Lucca's Lithography, N 3rd Street Philadelphia, 1831

         My georeferenced map of the original map.  One of the streets really makes sense here.  Just above Pottsville in between the light blue line (georeferenced railroad) and the red line (current PA inactive railroad) is a vehicle road.  It is called "railroad street" and is to the left of route 61.  Most likely this is where the short stretch of rail leaving Pottsville was.  Really close for 13 referenced points on a map from 1830!

Georeferencing is an interesting tool!

Hike: Nearby Dehart Dam

          Last hike was an interesting one, one that I had never done before.  When going on a day hike you've never been on you're taking a little chance with your day.  It could be a bit of a let down depending on what you're expecting during the short excursion.  Not every hike has a wonderful view or a waterfall at the end.
          The hike "Victoria's Run" did have a nice south west view and a nice steep climb through a conifer zone towards the top.  It's not far from Harrisburg about half an hour or less. heading north on 22/322 and taking Clarks Valley Rd.  Here are the coordinates 40.4218, -76.8618 to the trail head.  I've found using coordinates in Google maps to get to directions to somewhere other than a street address works quite well.

Overhead view

Looking north

Greater area including Harrisburg

          The red line is the AT center line extending from Maine to Georgia.  The blue line is the path I followed with the GPS unit tracking me.  Round trip it was less than four miles and took a little less than two hours with lots of stop time.  The climb was 730 feet.  Hope you get a chance to take the hike!

Helpful GPS Tool

          We all may have noticed the shortcut "DNR Garmin" on our computer screens in the computer lab.  This application was created by the Minnesota DCNR.  In my hiking blogs I've been using Google Earth and just been wondering how I may get my hiking tracks into ArcMap.  DNR Garmin will allow me to do this and more it seems.  Opening a .gpx (GPS file extension name) with "DNR Garmin" made visible information I knew had to be there such as latitude, longitude, projection, time and altitude.

I'm still very new to this program but it seems it was not really created simply for the task I wanted it to do.  It can upload tracks and waypoint from ArcMap to the GPS unit.  Very interesting.  As I explore a little more with it I will share the information here.

Dasymetric Map

          There are many different ways of mapping data.  One way of particular interest to me is the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.  If you've ever been around gardeners talking gardening from different states one of the first things brought up in discussion is "what zone are you?"  They talk of their favorite plants specimen and like to know if the plants are hardy in the other gardeners zone.  This USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is a dasymetric map.  This is a map where the zones are chosen because what is occurring within these zones are similar.  This is different than using existing boundaries like in choropleth mapping.   
          In this map zones refer to the average minimum temperature over a ten year period.  Their are 11 zones separated by a ten degrees Fahrenheit.  The first map put out was in 1960 then 1965 and most currently a 1990 version which breaks the zones into two five degree subcategories.  The USDA has set the standard for this map globally.  There are problems with this map such as they don't take into account summer heat and snow cover which acts as insulation to hibernating roots allowing some plants to survive in colder zones.  Sunset Garden web site attempts to take into account many other environmental factors such as these.  In our area we are generally zones 6a or 6b.  The United States National Arboretum has "clickable" map to see different zones around the United States.

HIke: Hemlocks Natural Area

         The last hike I went on was to an area called Hemlocks Natural Area in Tuscarora State Park.  This hike is further south and west than Flat Rock in Colonel Denning State Park and not to far from where the TurnPike passes through the first tunnel traveling west.  The hike is unique, it takes you through a never logged, virgin tract of Hemlock pine.  Hard to see but between the two yellow points are this hike and Flat Rock.

          After the hike I discovered a little more about the Garmin unit that I'm using.  It logs elevation data and more in the .gpx file when running the unit application "tracks".  While in Google Earth I realized this information can be displayed in a convenient chart including your elevation along with other data.  A nice little arrow trails along the track you traveled displaying the information gathered on the Garmin GPS unit.
 

 

         This was a truly unique hike.  I did not capture the drive to the spot on Hemlock Road with the GPS unit.  The drive was one of the most interesting segments of this adventure.  At the height of altitude on Hemlock Road (2200ft) you can see Flat Rock (~2100ft) looking (NE) in the distance.  Explore this area ~40°14'06.96, 77°38'39.80.  I did find a shapefile and Google kmz file for the Appalachian Trail which will I will likely include in my future hiking posts.

Appalachian Trail in PA

          The Appalachian Trail, which is approximately 2,179 miles long is located in the eastern United States  and stretches between Springer Mountain in Georgia  and Mount Katahdin in Maine.  I have always had an interest in exploring different sections of this trail within PA. The trail enters the state at the Delaware Water Gap before crossing Cumberland Valley and exiting in Maryland. Compared to other portions of the trail, PA is known to be somewhat rocky.

          I wanted to include this because many of my hikes I've included in my blogs are on the Appalachian trail or off shoots related to the main trail.  This site is interesting and contains more information on the Appalachian trail.

Marcellus Shale and You?

          Marcellus Shale is having a large financial affect on many people and their lives in Pennsylvania.  The natural gas extracted from the shale is mostly affecting people in northern parts of Pennsylvania and southern parts of New York.

          It is affecting me in an indirect way.  For me it has to do with a family owned cabin in Wayne county.  Recently, we were notified that gas drilling companies would be using our land in return for royalties to drill for natural gas.
          Marcellus shale is a black carbonaceous (organic rich), low density shale that can be found throughout much of the Appalachian Basin.  The shale was named after an outcropping in Marcellus New York.  I find it interesting that the outcrop is nowhere near current production areas.

 

 

          The formation can be found beneath about 60 percent of Pennsylvania’s total land mass (as the map above depicts) and the depth ranges between 5,000 and 8,000 feet.  Currently the production is occurring in areas where it can be most easily extracted.  Horizontal drilling is the most common drilling practice used in extraction.  I found a video here that demonstrates the current drilling and extracting process if your interested.