[at-l] Virtual Run/Hike of the Appalachian Trail

[Sloetoe]

### Hey, I'm way behind on email and such, but here's
a DANDY site, put together by one of my favorite ultra
persons, Sue Norwood (who will tell her own story...)


Date:    Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:18:33 EDT
From:    Sue Norwood <Runtrails at AOL.COM>
Subject: Virtual Run/Hike of the Appalachian Trail

For all of those who have hiked or run part or all of
the Appalachian Trail and want to reminisce . . .
 
For all of those who DREAM of hiking or running part
or all of the Appalachian Trail and want to see what
it looks like . . .
 
For all of those who simply enjoy beautiful mountain
scenery and a variety of nature photos . . . 
 
For all of those who want to be transported mentally
to the  mountains whenever you feel the need to escape
but can't actually GO there at the time (including you
guys in the cubes at work who are  itching to be
ANYWHERE else but there right now) . . .
 
Here's one way to do it and it's FREE -- no video or
book to  buy.
 
I have *finally* finished uploading 13 Picasa photo
albums of my 2005 Appalachian Trail Adventure Run
(with a lot of walking thanks to all the  #%&@!!
rocks) from Georgia to Maine, a 2,175-mile virtual
trek of the AT.
  This isn't something you want to do in one sitting
-- there are 2,125 photos and I wish now that I had
even more from which to choose. 
 
When I was on the Trail two years ago and writing my
web journal each evening after running all day I
didn't have time to include very many photos in the
entries. The later "photo essays" include many more of
the pictures I took, but they are in various
categories like "favorite  places" and "cool cairns"
and I'm not even done with THAT project yet.
 
It's always been my goal to put our AT photos in
chronological order just the way we took them going
northbound (mostly) but other adventures and projects
have taken precedence until now. I've never found a
virtual trek of the AT -- in photos -- on the
internet,  so my hope is that these albums will be
helpful to other trail users and a  pleasant respite
for anyon who loves the outdoors. 
 
In recent weeks I've re-read my journal entries and 
consulted my AT maps and guides so I could identify
most of the mountains,  lakes, etc. in the photos. 
They are sorted by state and day on the trail, with 
information about how far I went and which trail heads
I used (Jim crewed for me  -- I slept in our camper at
night). If you want to connect the photos with the
journal entries, the journal link is also included
below.
 
There are various ways to enjoy the photos. Choose an
album first. You can start at the southern terminus
and "run" through all 14 states or pick whichever
album you're most interested in seeing first. Since
Picasa displays albums in chronological order, most
recent date first, you'll need to scroll down to the
bottom to get to the "prep" album or Georgia, where my
journey began. Then just follow the numbered days.
 
Once you choose an album, there are several ways to
view it. You can put the cursor over the little
thumbnail pictures and read each caption, click on 
individual photos to see them larger (a slow process),
or -- the best way -- sit back and watch the
slideshow. 
 
You can set the slideshow for the number of seconds
you want each photo to display (longer than four
seconds, the default setting, if you want to read all
the captions). You can turn off the captions if they
annoy you or leave them on if you want to identify
locations and hikers. I think the photos look best in
the slideshow (black background, varying sizes).
 
Ignore the underscores and parentheses the listserve
puts in AOL links: 
_http://picasaweb.google.com/runtrails.net_ 
(http://picasaweb.google.com/runtrails.net) 
 
Enjoy!
Sue Norwood (and Jim O'Neil)
Roanoke, VA
_www.runtrails.net_ (http://www.runtrails.net)
(2005 AT journal, 2006-7 Colorado Trail and Rocky Mtn. journals)