April 2, 2009 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
Just a quick post to discuss a new project I’ve started up. I’m calling this the Ontario Trails Project.
At the heart of it is my desire to have accurate trail maps on my GPS unit. I presently wander the trails with a Garmin Colorado, which has a fantastic ability to show a ton of location data. I’ve been hiking the entire 800km-long Bruce Trail with a group of Geocachers. So far, we’re about 300km completed - we hike a couple times in the spring, and a couple times in autumn. What I have noticed along the hikes we have completed so far, is that the 4-6 year old topographical data tends to mis a lot of trail reroutes, and it quickly becomes not so useful. The other thing I noticed is that, after the hike events I have 300km of GPS tracklogs.
That’s when it hit me.
I need to get this information on my GPS somehow. Two weeks ago, I didn’t have a clue how to do this, except maybe clutter up my ‘routes’ and waypoints, not leaving room for any other information I might want. One of my twitter contacts, Moun10bike, tweeted that his North West trails project was updating and people could download maps to their GPS units with all the trails in the North West USA, BC and Alberta. A few tweets back and forth, and I had enough information to start poking around with a custom map.
After a few days of dabbling, I created my first ‘custom’ map for my Colorado. Boy was I proud of myself at the time. A few more days, and I’ve learned about merging more tracklines and I decided it was time to take this a little farther. The next step was to create a website, and invite others to share their GPS track logs - after all, I can’t hike all the trails in Ontario, and frankly I don’t need a trail map for the trails I’ve been on - I need a map for the ones I don’t know all that well.
I’ve released 4 maps so far, growing from a few scattered trails around my hometown, to now covering most of the more well known trails. The maps will load on any of the Garmin handheld units, maybe more. I’ve also released the source data so others can expand upon my work and create maps for their devices. I will eventually start categorizing the trails by usage type and trail type. If you have any GPS tracklogs for hiking or biking trails in Ontario, send them to me and I’ll be sure to include the trail on the next map release. You can find contact information on the official website:
The Ontario Trails Project
The software I’m using to make these maps?
cGPSMapper - converts the Polish format to Garmin IMG, GPSMapEdit combines my track data from Garmin GDB files, and Mapsource is where I edit specific trail trackline nodes.
November 17, 2008 - Posted by Gregory - 1 Comment
This saturday we held our annual night caching event. It’s the third year that we’ve held the gathering and the first year we centered it on Georgetown. The first two editions in 2006, 2007 were centered on Milton.
BFL Boot Camp is a twist on the traditional “pub style” event that takes place in southern Ontario. What usually happens at these events is people visit geocaches during the day and meet at a pub for dinner afterward, or the pub is the entire event (say, on a weeknight). These pub events will draw anywhere from 40-120 people, depending on the pub’s capacity. The Boot Camp starts at the pub and waits until it is good and dark outside - then we send people out to find the caches we’ve placed.
Georgetown is a fairly small community, and does not have many large pubs like the nearby major cities like Brampton or Mississauga. We asked Groundspeak and they graciously allowed us to have a little experiment this time around - rather than trying to find one massive pub (likely a good 30km away from the caches), we booked three pubs and filled them. Each pub was listed as a separate event on geocaching.com, and hosted by three different people.
I hosted the “Alpha” pub with my wife Kristen at our favourite local pub - the Shepherd’s Crook in downtown Georgetown. The pub features an Irish fare in a small (intimate) setting. Many of the attendees commented that they were happy to discover hard to find menu items like a Ploughman’s Lunch or Steak and Stout. As for me, I was happy once we found the Bailey’s and Coffee.
My friend John (Avernar) hosted the “Bravo” pub at Shoeless Joe’s, and Al (Dreadnaught) hosted the “Charlie” pub at the local Kelsey’s.
All three pubs handled the crowds admirably and the geocachers enjoyed the Santa Claus parade beforehand, even if it did make getting to the pubs a little difficult at times.
At 8:30 we handed out the “launch kits” to the attendees and 10 minutes later the pubs were completely empty, save for the organizers. Everyone was off to visit the 9 geocaches we placed for their entertainment tonight.
Another BFL Boot Camp tradition is the “command centre”. This is a central location that the event organizers go to after the pubs are completed. We put up a shelter and prepare some hot chocolate to share with everyone. We also use the location as a communication centre and provide assistance to cachers that may need some help to finish one of the caches. This can be a very welcome respite, as we had typical mid-November weather for the event, rain that turned to a snowstorm.
As for the caches, we had nine caches placed
- Team Goju’s - GC1BDT0: Creepshow, Episode 2
This cache is one I still have to visit. From what I’ve heard it’s great fun
- Crystal Dawn’s - GC1JOYD: By The Dawn’s Early Light
One of the simpler caches from the evening, and welcomed by the cachers that were visiting some of the more complex caches. This one is a straightforward follow the reflectors to the cache type of hunt
- Chris-Mouse’s - GC1HDKV: Binary Blackout
So far, this one is my favourite of the series. Kelly (Chris-Mouse) placed reflectors on trees but arranged them as a binary sequence. Very fun as a group activity - I went out to “beta test” this one with some of the BFL crew before the event day. We had people on either side of the trail calling out the numbers and I acted as a secretary recording them as I stood at the beginning.
- Res2100’s - GC16R3K: George Caceras
The photo attached to this post is from Ralph’s (Res2100’s) cache. This was a continuation of his “Pure Evil” cache and describes the story of a young OPP Officer that disappeared in, shall I say, “Unusual” circumstances. I wandered off from the BFL Command Centre for a little while to hunt this with Kristen and 15 other people. Good fun, spelunking in a snow storm at midnight!
- Avernar’s - GC1HF85: Sunglasses At Night
John used polarizing film/gel to a great effect on this cache, and it was clearly one of the more popular caches of the night. He used the polarizing film in a way that some things would ‘disappear’ when viewed using polarized sunglasses. People don’t normally take sunglasses on a night time hike which made this one most unusual indeed.
- Kitten on the Hunt’s - GC1HCFF: LOLCAT
Great fun on this one. Kristen pulled out all the creativity she had and “littered” the woods with cats and fish. The listing was written up in LOLSpeak, an homage to the icanhazcheesburger site. People found it fun, and people found it frustrating. What can I say? This was a cache that gave me the opportunity to explain to Halton Regional Police just what we were doing in the woods, at midnight, with an 8 foot step ladder. Good fun, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of our local officers running around with a GPS next weekend.
- HikerT’s - GC18XHJ: Deja Vu
Tanya placed a count the reflectors type night cache. Lots of people hit this one and from what I hear, it is another one that was great fun as a group. I still need to visit this one.
- Mine - BFLiGo (Episode 1)
This one is an interactive cartridge that can be played on the devices that support it (Garmin Colorado/Oregon, PocketPC). I spent a good 20 hours programming this one, and while it can be frustrating it is also very rewarding. It’s the first night cache themed Wherigo that I’m aware of. It’s also a bit longish so it hasn’t had the visits the other caches of the night had.
- The Series Final - The Tree (Of Light)
This cache is a follow the reflectors cache - with a twist. You need to get the co-ordinates written on each reflector to find the final.
We wrapped up at the command centre at 4:00 AM and went home a little colder, and a little wetter than we started. Everyone was smiling at the end of the night (morning?) and we’re already planning BFL Boot Camp 4 for sometime in October next year. With 25 active night caches in the area, I’m quite sure North Halton is now the night caching capitol of Canada.
October 14, 2008 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
Well, it’s that time of the year again. The days are getting longer, the leaves are falling from the trees. In a few weeks, we’re setting the clocks back to make for some really long nights, and that can only mean one thing:
It’s time for the third annual BFL Boot Camp geocaching event!
We’ve been hard at work all summer long planning up our night caching event, which is taking place on November 15 this year. The caches are being put together, locations chosen. Three pubs are booked to accomodate 120 cachers that are planning to attend, including 15 volunteers.
It’s going to be a real challenge to top last year’s event but I’m confident we’re up to the task. Until the event, I expect most of my free time is going to be spent placing, and testing the various caches we are placing.
I’m eager to post about the cool ideas we have for this year’s event - but I’d rather see your faces when we show you on the 15th. Like usual, there will be a series of permanent night caches left after the event - adding to the 18 caches that are already in the area.
June 24, 2008 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
Now that I’ve finished reading Joe McNally’s book, The Moment it Clicks, I’m really eager to play around with more off camera flash than ever.
This photo is a copy of the popular “Strobist and his laptop” by David Hobby. I’m trying to play a bit more with softening the light, and I’m using an umbrella to throw the ‘ambient’ lighting on the flash to the right, and a piece of paper looped over the flash on the laptop.
Here’s the setup shot:
Today I recevied my Honl Speedgrids. These grids are essentially closely packed tubes which are mounted on the end of my flash unit to direct the light in a more direct pattern. This allows me to control light spill and use my speedlights in a more controlled manner. More on this once I get to actually use one of them. In the photo above, I’d probably use one to highlight the back of the laptop with a bit of light.
June 21, 2008 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
Friday night is night caching night, we hooked up with some of the other members of the Order of the BFL and, after marking a birthday at Tuckers, we went night caching in Brampton.
I’d already been to this cache, so instead of sporting the GPS, I zipped ahead to stage two of the multi and setup two flash units to capture the bird house in a different way from the daytime visit I had here a month ago.
The rest of the night I wandered around trying out various manual exposure and flash exposure combinations - both handheld. I’ve also grown a bit more comfortable shooting at ISO 400 knowing I can get a good exposure when I add a bit more available light.
A great resource for off camera lighting is strobist.com, and I recommend reading “The Moment it Clicks” by Joe McNally once you’ve finished the Lighting 101 and On Assignment sections.
June 20, 2008 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
Last night was the meetup for Flickerites in and around Halton Hills. Four of us showed up at the Ivy Arms pub in Milton and shared conversation before heading around the Mill Pond park nearby.
The lighting was rather ‘meh’, but every once in a while something poked through so I setup for a reflection shot over the pond, with my 10mm. HDR is used to bring out all the subtleties in the sky.
What was really cool, was that four of us went to this park, and everyone had a different idea what they wanted to shoot. I went right for the water’s edge with my ultrawide, another member only cared about the floral arrangements, while another wanted to get more of the Gazebo with a telephoto.
Next month’s meetup is on July 17th. More information at http://www.flickr.com/groups/haltonhills
June 12, 2007 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
Getting closer to the big photography day here. Going to be shooting a wedding this upcoming weekend, and I’m hoping this goes well. Normally, I shoot nature and landscape type photos, but I’m always eager for growth in my hobbies.
The photo attached to this blog entry is of two doors near my wife’s office. I really enjoy finding random subjects while I’m out and about.
We’ve been out modelling for each other in different environments to prepare for the wedding shoot. Watch for more photos from these places soon
June 10, 2007 - Posted by Gregory - 1 Comment
A fun little friend to be made (last week) when I was out Geocaching Solo.
June 10, 2007 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
Found one of those Geocaching Gems out there - a place full of solitude and tranquility, right in Downtown Burlington
June 10, 2007 - Posted by Gregory - 0 Comments
New outing, first outing with some *real* long exposures on the D200.
