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cainmark's Diary

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Added the L&N Line that went through Huntsville, Alabama as a proposed Rails with trails (RWT) line. Part of it's abandoned, but it looks like some of it might still be used though I personally have never seen a train on it in the past 23 years.

Rails with trails (RWT) go alongside a railroad track instead of replacing it. I think for historical value that would be the best option for this old railroad even if completely abandoned.

Location: Mayfair, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35804, United States

biked a lot last weekend

Posted by cainmark on 13 October 2010 in English.

I GPS traced most of it and added regional bicycle routes.

Last Thursday I bicycled to Athens,Alabama then to Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (not too close), then to Madison and back home to Huntsville, Alabama.

Last Friday I bicycled to Guntersville down 431, then back by 69 to Union grove road to 231. The Nina and Pinta replicas were in Guntersville. We had just seen them at Ditto landing a couple of weeks ago.

Location: Echols Hill, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35801, United States

bicycle shop loop

Posted by cainmark on 24 September 2010 in English.

Added a bicycle shop loop through the Lincoln and Five Points Area of Huntsville, Alabama.

Started at Outdoor Omnibus, my favorite shop with my favorite repairman James, then to Lifecycles, the charity co-op run by Jim, then to Trailhead, Inc., the best place for some acccesorizing, then to Bicycles, etc., the 2nd oldest shop after Outdoor Omnibus. I did this before going to work, so I didn't have time to go all the way down to Bicycle Works on Cecil Ashburn, nor to Madison cycles in Madison. It's a nice little 9.5K loop as it is, though.

Location: Lincoln, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35804, United States

Added the long bike trek I took the other day. Going there over Monte Sano was difficult. Coming back over Four Mile Post road and Cecil Ashburn Drive was insanely difficult. Up-the-hill, pedal-by-pedal, inch-by-inch. Whew!

Also added the part of the Tourist "Trolley" loop I took by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (Hi Space Camp!) and the Huntsville Botanical Gardens.

I think I've added the bus and bicycle relation right. I pretty much have the bicycling stuff down now, but the buses are still on a learning curve for me. If it's way wrong someone who know more than me about local bus routes can fix it.

Location: Sherwood Park, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35893, United States

proposed regional bicycle route

Posted by cainmark on 9 August 2010 in English.

I think I've done this right. Relations are still a little confusing.

I used this tag: rcn=proposed and wrote in "proposed" as the route I took my bicycle from Huntsville, Alabama to Fayetteville, TN is not an official regional route, so no number to log. But from Hazel Green, AL on to Fayetteville, TN it's a fantastic bicycle route, so I logged in the route I figured out from OSM before I left. I had some GPS tracks, but my battery was mostly dying on my droid phone for me to keep it on for too long. I now have an extra battery to help with long bicycling trips now.

Location: Valley View Estates, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35762, United States

Added about half of Bus Route 10 Southwest Huntsville. Ways and relations for Buses are even more confusing to me than the bicycle relations.

I finally had to make a template for myself to follow, and hope that others who know more about Bus routes can cleanup my work after me.

My template for my local Bus relations:

type=route
route=bus
ref=# (number 10 in this case)
operator=Huntsville Shuttle Bus
name= (Southwest Huntsville in this case.)
wheelchair=yes
colour= (e.g. red/#FFEEDD) It's a light blue for this route but I haven't put it in yet. (would the American spelling of "color" work as well for this?)

and I added this:

bike_rack=yes

as all the buses now have racks on their front that can hold 2 bicycles. I wasn't sure how to do that number

Location: Huntsville Hills, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35802, United States

From Downtown Huntsville, I went down Meridian, then down Winchester, crossed down Colemont, Then Chase road, then right on Moore's Mill to Jordan Road to the weird intersection where I turn right to stay on Jordan road until I turn left on Ryland Pike,Then Right onto Dug Hill Road to turn right onto Highway 431, which became Governor's drive, then Right on Franklin right back to downtown Huntsville. It took me from 11:00 till 17:30. I had a 30 minute lunch, and stopped for about 20 minutes later that day. 5 hours and 20 minutes on a Raleigh Venture with slicks, loaded down with my regular gear, up and down some difficult hills. This bike is great for almost everything but going fast. But I'm not a speed demon, and I enjoy driving my bike. The biggest problem I had was that my sweat headband was saturated at the Dug Hill Road and 431 point, and I was producing so much sweat after that hill climb it kept getting in my eyes. Next time I take a bike drive longer than 25 miles at once I'm bringing a spare sweatband.

Location: Dug Hill, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35741, United States

Bicycled around Monte Santo Mountain in Huntsville, Alabama

Posted by cainmark on 7 July 2010 in English. Last updated on 13 October 2010.

From Downtown Huntsville, I went down Meridian, then down Winchester, crossed down Colemont, Then Chase road, then right on Moore's Mill to Jordan Road to the weird intersection where I turn right to stay on Jordan road until I turn left on Ryland Pike,Then Right onto Dug Hill Road to turn right onto Highway 431, which became Governor's drive, then Right on Franklin right back to downtown Huntsville. It took me from 11:00 till 17:30. I had a 30 minute lunch, and stopped for about 20 minutes later that day. 5 hours and 20 minutes on a Raleigh Venture with slicks, loaded down with my regular gear, up and down some difficult hills. This bike is great for almost everything but going fast. But I'm not a speed demon, and I enjoy driving my bike. The biggest problem I had was that my sweat headband was saturated at the Dug Hill Road and 431 point, and I was producing so much sweat after that hill climb it kept getting in my eyes. Next time I take a bike drive longer than 25 miles at once I'm bringing aspare sweatband.

Location: Dug Hill, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35741, United States

An unintended consequence of my adding data to the great OpenCycleMap:

http://www.opencyclemap.org/

and the I just today discovered public transportation map:

http://latlon.org/pt

is that I've been GPS tracking sidewalks, pedestrian routes.

Is there something similar for pedestrian routes as the OpenCycleMap and the latlon.ort/pt map?

And if there isn't, where do I start in finding out where to start learning how to create one? (I don't really want to do it, just really, really hoping someone else has).

Thanks for any help!

Location: Terry Heights, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, 35804, United States