GPS IN The Sugarbush

[mapleman3]

if there is an interest in GPS we can add a heading for it, for now post your questions and ideas here. I'm sure we have some here besides The Clan Deleney and I who dabble in GPS for fun and maple.

[Cardigan99]

Jim, I'm all for it. Last year I marked with my spiffy Garmin 3600 then transferred the coordinates by hand to a piece of graph paper. With that you can get a really good idea of main and lateral lengths. Unfortunately the Garmin went on the fritz in Sept. Hope it's just the battery.

[forester1]

Good idea. I used a garman 76S to follow the route of my proposed mainlines. It lays down a track on the unit and gives the total distance, then you can produce a map. Also I noticed big blank areas across hillsides that I can now look for the best route. I can get a good estimate the total line needed.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited.

[Cardigan99]

Valley View, I'd love to see one of those if you don't mind.

[Clan Delaney]

I've got overhead pics of one of Jim's sugarbushes that I made with GPS data he collected in the field. I'd like to post them, but the 'ol computer is glitching and I'm at limited capacity at the moment. I'll get them up as soon as I can. Interesting stuff. Lets you see trends that are almost impossible to see on the ground.

[adk1]

Now your speaking my language. I am a County GIS Administrator. I do all of the computer mapping/analysis. I also use GPS for some purposes, but it not a recreational GPS. It is a Trimble GeoXT that provides me with sub-meter in the field accuracy and close to sub-foot accuracy post-processed.
Anyways, many local counties have free online GIS websites that will provide you with your tax parcel and orthoimagery (digital imagery). Some sites may even allow you to input coordinates. These sites may prove to be very useful to you. You should investigate through your County or even your local Town, some more affluent Townships may have the ability to house thier own site.
If anyone would like to see the site that I am in charge of here at my county, feel free to goto this address

http://74.39.247.67/gis/

[Clan Delaney]

The Trimble GeoXT. Daaaaang! Now THAT's a handheld GPS! Hold on a sec, I'm drooling on the keyboard....

[Acer]

Used mine yesterday to get an overhead view of 120 tap woods.
First time tubing a sugar bush, so getting the overhead view helped a lot.

hard to explain but when planning the mainline, it was a great help to look at the lay of the land, and the tree locations on the gps and the mainline location became obvious.

Dean

[H. Walker]

Ok you GPS guys I'm new to this technology, is there such a thing as being able to do elevatons accurate enough to set main lines at 2 or 3%?