July 4, 2016 - Added Rangers' Routes

Post date: Jul 05, 2016 8:1:2 PM

An anonymous camper emailed me over the weekend with digital route data that they claimed was provided to them a while back by a DEC Forest Ranger at Stillwater. I knew the Rangers had their own routes they utilize, but they normally don't give them out to the public due to liability. I was denied access to them when I asked for a copy of them over a year ago. The anonymous camper said the Ranger had taken pity on them because they had wrecked their boat on a rock shoal.

These routes were collected and used on Hummingbird depth finders, which is what the Rangers utilize on their boats. I have a request put in to the Rangers, asking for help collecting depth data on the reservoir, but have not heard back from them with their decision. Their Hummingbird units could collect sonar depth data whenever they go out on the water, which I could then utilize in the Reefmaster software to make the depth layers more accurate and complete. Hopefully they will be willing to help collect data, as it benefits their own employees' safety, and would require little to no financial or time investment on their part.

I sanitized the KMZ file of all date, time, and personal information, so as not to link them back to anyone in particular. I will not go into any comparisons between my routes and the Rangers' routes, but you can see for yourself in Google Earth. The most telling way to do this is to load up both sets of routes. Then for underlying imagery, either load up the "Image Overlays -> Satellite Imagery -> 2001 Draw Down -> Drawdown 1" layer, or the "Partridge Composite" layer that is found on the "Available Imagery" page.

There are a couple campsite locations that the Rangers' routes lead to from a different direction than mine, and make it seem like maybe I have misinterpreted the exact location of the campsite. The only location information I had for the campsites was the assorted paper maps and a best guess on location. I haven't gone out myself to verify with a GPS receiver, so I could very well be wrong on their exact location, or which direction they face, etc. That being said, the Rangers' alternate approaches could still be improved with respect to safety. I will probably improve upon their routes where I can, and add the alternate approach to my routes. Maybe I can get some help from a few locals to do some recon for me on which approach is correct with respect to the campsite's true location.

The KMZ file can be downloaded here. The routes can also be seen in the Google maps link on the main page.