A Pain in the Map: Kettle Trails

Hey Candice, the trail, it's somewhere down here....

Sometimes mapping trails can be a real drag.  In my experience this happens when you have, oh, a MILLION, QUAZILLION, BAJILLION 1/10 mile trails in a small area of land.  Every time you get to an intersection, you must stop and put data in the GPS.  Imagine stopping every 1/10 to 3/10 mile to do that for... 13 miles!

The idea sounded good enough, go to the Kettle trails with James on my long run day and put in a good 20-30 miles in 4-6 hours.  Oh, and good idea James, you can map the trails for Greentrails while we run it.  We were able to get through most of the trails on the Eastside of the Kettle system, but it took us 4.5 hours for 13 miles, that is painfully slow, especially for a chilly morning.  We ran every little trail in the section and put every intersection in the GPS.  After 4.5 hours we were ready to call it quits and have a late lunch.

Luckily the GPS knows where to go, otherwise I'd start making a salal hut and try to find the way out in the morning.

I really like this photo: Confusion, like as to why one would make so many tiny little trails in a small area of land.  Perhaps they enjoy getting dizzy or feeling like they are in a giant labyrinth.

James takes a picture of the Kettle Trails map