More FRN

[jbeegoode]

 I'm mentioning topic drift off out into politics! I'll just say, that I don't agree with Bob...but then we often don't agree politically, nothing new, that's not what makes us friends anyway.

This doesn't make me like some kind of politically corrector, does it? 
Uh oh....
Jbee

[eyesup]

Well to drag us back to topic, I will mention that on our last hike on Sunday in the Prescott National Forest, we finally found a suitable spot to hike. We couldn't get a good line on the highway we were looking for so we got close and called it good.

Upon exiting the car we wandered down to the creek/river and right there at the point we needed to descend was a fence with a gate (wide open) and a sign attached to a large tree.    See below.

FRN is great, but care should always be exercised. 

Duane

[jbeegoode]

Yea, we didn't come to entertain the owner with a gunfight. I don't like to hike with a gun belt on anyway. It blows the naked feeling and who's gonna argue that you are not unarmed and harmless.

"Signs signs everywhere there's signs!" We kept coming across these mining mineral claim signs around there. They use them to claim land in the National Forest to build cabins on, but also for mineral rights according to the gold panner that we befriended. The other direction, here in the middle of the relatively remote forest, the other direction was a private property sign. It was hard to ascertain where public and private land boundaries ended. Then, with an overkill urban interface camping spot strategy, the Forest Service had "no Camping" signs in numerous fun places and numbered "camping site" signs everywhere.

On the other hand, the signs that we would welcome, the street road signs, were placed in crappy nearly hidden spots, off the highway and even back in the forest things were not clearly marked. We weren't the only ones that didn't know where we were going.

[eyesup]

I always know where I'm going!  "That'a'way"!

. . . and the sign says, "One Way!"  Well, I am only going one way!

. . . and the sign says, "No! U Turn!", so I did!

There is always room for a little Hi Larity!

 
Duane

[Davie]

One huge advantage of England and Wales are the public rights of way. They criss-cross the country and are now supplemented by concessionary access paths and open access land. It's really wonderful to be able to say, "I have a legal right to be here."

These are all marked on our Ordnance Survey maps and each dot or dash of the path symbol is actually a defined distance. (See the 30 50 70 90 rule See here  ..stop - this is getting into anorak territory!

Davie 

[eyesup]

Another cross the pond translation?

An individual dash plus its following space on a public footpath represents 30 metres on an Explorer and 50 metres on a Landranger.
I guess I'm missing something. How can a measurement scale on a map vary?
Are Explorer and Landranger vehicles of some sort?

This is known as the 30-50-70-90 rule.
Couldn't find anything on this other than the same forum you linked to.

Duane

[Davie]

Some more anorak map facts

Different maps. Landranger Maps are 1:50,000 and Explorer 1:25,000. The measurement will be very very slightly inaccurate, but only by a small amount if the rise and fall of hills is considered. You can look at ground length and map length on googe earth. It's not worth bothering with unless you're walking and then the change of elevation most certainly matters.

A map scale can vary as a map is a flat surface representing a curved surface. The "Mercator" (a famous Belgian!) projection shows Greenland to be larger than Australia which is absurd. For our purposes using a local map this will not be a problem. In the UK magnetic and true north are getting every closer and is within the margin of error. As a lad it was eight degrees, now its less than two. You did need to take that into account when navigating. In a few years time we'll have to start re-teaching how to manage it in the UK

Davie 

[Peter S]

Paper distances and real life can make quite a difference. On my rambles I use a GPS rather than a paper map; having planned the walk 'flat' the real event works out about ten per cent further. This is down to the extra distance of up and down, and because the walk is planned as a series of straight lines which in real life tend to curve a bit - each section might only change by a few feet, but over the full distance it adds up.

When I came across this 'feature' after using a GPS for a while, I realised that all my years of paper-planned walks had probably taken me further than I'd realised

Peter

[eyesup]

Ok, so Explorer and Landranger are maps!

Ohhh! That's different! (Emily Litella) 
 
Duane