Since this post has been lighting up a bit more, I thought I'd post the second draft of that map.
kleenur wrote:That map looks great! Did you use some kind of software to make it, or did you free hand it?
Both of these maps were traced in Gnu Image Manipulation Program. The first one was traced off a Google Earth screenshot, but Google Earth projects its surface in a "Perspective" view, so more distant objects are smaller and less detailed. It was a quick exercise that didn't give me the result I wanted.
The second map was based off of USGS Digital Elevation Models which I projected in an isometric view. Isometric projections have some use some geometric trickery so that while the subject appears to be viewed at an angle, there's no foreshortening. As such, the scale of Yosemite National Park in the "distance" is identical to the scale of Mt. Whitney and Sequoia National Park in the "foreground". I built the DEM and assigned false color based on elevation, overlaid the trail by hand (hence some errors) and ported the result into GIMP. I traced the mountains, drew in the trail and park boundaries, messed with the false-color elevation profile, and added text.
It's not a final draft. I'm not satisfied with the line quality in the full-res version, and there are some errors. I want to find a better way to integrate the labels. Got distracted for a long minute, but I'm getting laid off in February, so maybe it's time to pick this back up...
Ranger Austin wrote:Woah my friend, this looks very intense. Best of luck to you and I really hope that you bring video equipment so we can see your progress.
That project is on hold in favor of a much bigger Non-Tolkien Ranger project that I've been keeping a super-secret but plan to divulge by October, hopefully much sooner. I do hope to hike the JMT this summer, but with modern kit and a much more leisurely pace.
If you're interested in non-period hiking videos,
check out my youtube channel.