Jim (trail-name Sagebrush) codes audio software for Windows, Linux, Android, and embedded systems. When not working at sagebrush.com, he enjoys backpacking, which this blog is about.
“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.”
— Eudora Welty
AT2012 Panorama Photos describes how to stitch photos into panoramic views. The resulting photos may have more pixels than your computer monitor, so today we show how a web viewer may allow you to scroll and zoom within the panorama. For each of these panoramas, view by clicking the full-screen control and click-drag to move around and use the mouse scroll-wheel to zoom in and out.
This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels – round and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.
— Don Draper, Mad Men: The Wheel #1:13 2007
A recent post presenting a photo slideshow for my Appalachian Trail 2012 trip inspired me to go back and do the same for my 1988 journey. I needed to add many more captions, and that involved going back to trail journals and guidebooks for research.
Finishing the Appalachian Trail in 2012 was a thrill, but what is next? If health is good, yours truly would like to begin a long thru-hike, possibly on the PCT, to celebrate my sixtieth birthday in five years. Until then I want to continue some long hikes, so I turn my attention to the Continental Divide Trail.
I have looked at the CDT before and just shake my head– I simply do not have the technical skills or physical ability for a through-hike of such a challenging trail. But recently it hit me: The CDT runs through four states, similar lengths in each state. Why not do each state in order, one per year? I could start in New Mexico the first year, the state in which I reside, so the logistics would not be too bad. Hiking the first state would give me skills and confidence to try the next state, and so on. Finally, the fourth year in Montana I would be ready to cope with grizzlies, the requirement to reserve campsites in Glacier on specific dates, using an ice axe, and a really really really remote trail far from civilization.
Splitting the trail into four sections also means I will be away from home for less than two months at a time, which is less irritating to Base Support (spousal unit).
So, time to start planning CDT2013! (Or possibly 2014.) I want to use ultra-light gear, but expect to carry several liters of water at times because water sources are scarce and unreliable in southern New Mexico, so my Murmur pack is too small. And the trail is often not well marked compared to the AT, so I need a good solution for navigation. So much to consider. Exciting!