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Post date: Jun 23, 2016 3:49:50 PM
Exciting news!! I finally found the mysterious Stillwater depth collectors! After no luck via website and Facebook posts since March, I contacted the company rep from Navico again. Navico is the company that hosts the depth map social sharing site I posted about in earlier updates. The rep agreed to contact the data uploader on my behalf to see if he'd be willing to talk with me.
One of the collectors contacted me within a few hours of receiving the Navico rep's email. It's actually a couple collecting the data together, and their names are David Childs and Cara Curley. If you want to email them to thank them, they can be reached at the following email: MysteryDepthMappers@gmail.com
I've been trading emails with David, asking him a ton of questions about his methods compared to what I've already learned in my own research about collecting depth data properly. In my opinion, they collected data better than I ever could have. He answered all my questions in the best way I could have hoped for, and has done everything right. I have to say, they are both meticulous and tenacious in their collection methods. This is the start of their hobby, he said, and is planning to host their own website of bathymetry data for Adirondack lakes and Finger lakes, with a focus on island camping in the Adirondacks.
They have already collected another week of data on Stillwater this year over the Memorial Day holiday, and they plan to collect more in the future. This year's collection also got uploaded to the Insight Genesis Social Map site, and the tiles have updated to reflect the additional data. They have been on the water for over three weeks total, and collected nearly 200 tracks of data. They still have all the collected source data, and have already shared it with me. It's approximately 30 GB in size already!
I've also purchased the Reefmaster software and have started creating custom contour maps from the data. I will begin uploading them in MBTILE and KMZ formats in the near future. Now that I have the Reefmaster software, any data collected in the future can be rolled into the collection, and the contours will update accordingly, growing more and more accurate over time. I'm already aware of a few additional people that also have depth finders capable of collecting data on the reservoir, and are willing to contribute to the project.
Dave mentioned that he wrecked a brand new motor on Stillwater his first time out with it, which motivated him to buy his Lowrance Elite-7 depth finder, and he got hooked on the hobby. We have very similar motivations for our projects! Right after he wrecked his motor, he found this site, and when he started to collect depth data he was using my routes and hazards to safely guide him. He has a customized 16' aluminum flat-bottom/semi-V hull utility boat that has a similar draft to canoe when unloaded. In addition to his regular gas motor, he also has an electric trolling motor, so he can get into very shallow areas to collect data.
So, this was pretty much my perfect scenario. I couldn't have asked for anything more with respect to depth data for this project....the holy grail of data so to speak. It saves me all the work of collecting the data myself, and is the best possible outcome short of the USGS professionally capturing data with higher end equipment, more capable software, more time spent on the water, and more manpower than what's typically available to a normal user.
My sincere thanks to David and Cara for their efforts in collecting data on Stillwater Reservoir. You guys rock!
Example Reefmaster Depth Map of Stillwater @ 1675 Feet
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