Pete H

Actually the North Atlantic Tracks change daily depending on wind,
turbulence and the number of tracks needed to accommodate traffic. Since
most of them originate and terminate from an area about 50 miles north and
south and about 30 miles east of Gander what you are seeing is the traffic
routed to join the tracks. I'll wave the next time I pass overhead.

Ron Donahue


"Peter H" wrote in message
...
William R. Watt wrote:

does anybody paddle where there are no vapour trails?



Timo has the basic idea: live/paddle in an area that's not on a great
circle between popular tourist/business locations.

I have the bittersweet location of having the entire north Maine woods
as my playground, yet it's on about a dozen great circles that connect
New York, Boston, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, etc. with nearly
all of Europe. From 5-9 a.m. it's Europe headed for North America while
from 7 - 10 p.m. it's North America headed for Europe. Fun with a small
telescope to pick out the insignia (insigniae?) of various aircraft -
but inimical to the basic purpose for being in the woods to begin with.

Pete H

--
When eating an elephant
take one bite at a time.
C. Abrams

Ronald Donahue wrote:

Pete H

Actually the North Atlantic Tracks change daily depending on wind,
turbulence and the number of tracks needed to accommodate traffic. Since
most of them originate and terminate from an area about 50 miles north and
south and about 30 miles east of Gander what you are seeing is the traffic
routed to join the tracks. I'll wave the next time I pass overhead.

Ron Donahue



Ron,

Some flights are nearly NE-SW but the majority appear to be very close
to true E-W as they fly over. I'll have the coffee pot on, roughly from
last of April till end of November. I'm lucky enough to average 45-50
nights a year in the Maine woods. If I can retire @ 62.5, in 2005, I'll
be in there guiding folks & having a great time much more often.

Pete H

--
When eating an elephant
take one bite at a time.
C. Abrams

Why do we have so many spectacular sunsets? I do not remember pretty
sunsets happening with much frequency 30 or 35 years ago.

Polution, I supose.

-Dan
(Who needs a spell checker)

On 11 Jan 2004 23:46:42 GMT, (William R.
Watt) wrote:

does anybody paddle where there are no vapour trails?

I was born before there were any jet aircraft. I never used to see vapour
trails. Now I see them everywhere I go. It just doesn't seem like
wilderness when I look up and see vapour trails.


--
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Dan Valleskey wrote:

Why do we have so many spectacular sunsets? I do not remember pretty
sunsets happening with much frequency 30 or 35 years ago.

Polution, I supose.



After Krakatoa exploded in the 1880's the entire world saw a dramatic
increase in the number of "spectacular sunsets" and this lasted for
several years - just from a single event. We haven't had any major
erruptions for a bit, so there's likely a broad interplay of factors
starting with your location & the prevailing winds.

Pete H

--
When eating an elephant
take one bite at a time.
C. Abrams

Another angle: Jet scouting.

Been to the UK twice in the last two months - just got back again yesterday.
This last trip was a real window gazer. First trips went over Maine and then
over St. Johns to the London. But the return on this one was the one I was
waiting for: The London to Minneapolis great circle route. It took us over
NE Scotland, the tip of Greenland, over Northern Labrador, across the James
Bay and then Northern Ontario. The weather was gorgeous - clear and sunny.

I sat glued to the window mumbling about the rivers and interesting spots and
scribbling rough drawings to look up later of places I would like to visit.

Coming in from James Bay, you suddenly hit the northern most edge of the areas
of clear cutting. The East side of Nippigon is essentially all whacked down, and
many many areas there are lakes surrounded by just a "clown fringe" of trees with
the entire forest around it totally cut down.

But the rivers were spectacular. The snow really highlighted the surface features,
making the elevation and terrain differences stand out. It was awesome.

Someone should make arrangements to strap video cameras to the underside of planes
and sell the reconnaissance data. I would be a buyer in a heartbeat. And if one knew the
weather conditions were going to be good and the route known, I would buy a cheapie
ticket just to do it all over again

Blakely


Ronald Donahue wrote:

Pete H

Actually the North Atlantic Tracks change daily depending on wind,
turbulence and the number of tracks needed to accommodate traffic. Since
most of them originate and terminate from an area about 50 miles north and
south and about 30 miles east of Gander what you are seeing is the traffic
routed to join the tracks. I'll wave the next time I pass overhead.

Ron Donahue

"Peter H" wrote in message
...
William R. Watt wrote:

does anybody paddle where there are no vapour trails?



Timo has the basic idea: live/paddle in an area that's not on a great
circle between popular tourist/business locations.

I have the bittersweet location of having the entire north Maine woods
as my playground, yet it's on about a dozen great circles that connect
New York, Boston, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, etc. with nearly
all of Europe. From 5-9 a.m. it's Europe headed for North America while
from 7 - 10 p.m. it's North America headed for Europe. Fun with a small
telescope to pick out the insignia (insigniae?) of various aircraft -
but inimical to the basic purpose for being in the woods to begin with.

Pete H

--
When eating an elephant
take one bite at a time.
C. Abrams

Someone should make arrangements to strap video cameras to the underside of planes
and sell the reconnaissance data. I would be a buyer in a heartbeat.


How much you willing to pay? We have a video camera under our C130.....

--Chris

First choice of course would be to ride along, depending upon route.

As a reasonably talented engineer with a background in R&D instrument
design, I would offer my services in exchange for a ride along and a
copy of the tapes.

Blakely

Chris Webster wrote:


Someone should make arrangements to strap video cameras to the underside of planes
and sell the reconnaissance data. I would be a buyer in a heartbeat.

How much you willing to pay? We have a video camera under our C130.....

--Chris

Blakely LaCroix wrote:
First choice of course would be to ride along, depending upon route.


Tropics in the summer and the poles in the winter....


As a reasonably talented engineer with a background in R&D instrument
design, I would offer my services in exchange for a ride along and a
copy of the tapes.


Darn, we just had a job opening a year ago. New cameras will be jpg @ 1
frame per second, you can just ftp them....

--Chris

Chris;

Any of this data externally accessible to interested civilian parties?

Blakely

Chris Webster wrote:

Blakely LaCroix wrote:
First choice of course would be to ride along, depending upon route.

Tropics in the summer and the poles in the winter....

As a reasonably talented engineer with a background in R&D instrument
design, I would offer my services in exchange for a ride along and a
copy of the tapes.

Darn, we just had a job opening a year ago. New cameras will be jpg @ 1
frame per second, you can just ftp them....

--Chris

William R. Watt wrote:
: does anybody paddle where there are no vapour trails?

: I was born before there were any jet aircraft. I never used to see vapour
: trails. Now I see them everywhere I go. It just doesn't seem like
: wilderness when I look up and see vapour trails.

Well, here's my contribution (http://www.chicagopaddling.org);

No, it's not a fast-moving river, it's not even a natural stream, but the
Hennepin Canal offers something that most waterways in Illinois can't, quiet.
This canal runs across Illinois from Bureau, IL (where the Illinois River
turns south) to the Rock River (near Moline,IL). There is also a feeder canal
that offers 30+ miles of no portage travel between Rock Falls,IL and the
Hennepin Visitors center.

The Hennepin canal is slow moving brown water. The sections near the locks
have a little bit of current, farther away from the locks there is not really
any current at all. The water is covered with swirls of algae. Birds are
everywhere. Great Blue Herons are quite common. There are so many waterbugs
on the water, that it almost looks like rain as they dance from spot to spot,
searching for food on the water.

Portage at the locks is a bit tricky as they don't have sand or dirt beaches
and you have to guess where the tall grass ends and the water begins, but you
know real quick if you made a mistake.

The state maintains the canal at about 5 feet deep. Every once in a while
you'll see a small concrete structure near the edge of the canal. These are
siphons that drain off the water from the canal to keep it from overflowing.
Many creeks are in the area, and the water is siphoned off into them to help
keep the canal within its banks. Completed too late to become a major canal,
the canal was too shallow and too narrow for the larger barges that now
travel the Illinois River thanks to Chicago's Ship and Sanitary Canal. Unlike
the I&M Canal, this was never a sanitary canal!

Some sections of the canal are excavated, but most have levies on each side.
The ground is sometimes overgrown on the edges so that the edges are hard to
see (when biking with my scout group earlier this year, my son rode off the
edge, when the scout behind him saw him disappear, he tried to stop, but
ended up in a thorn bush at the bottom of the 6-8 foot drop, my son managed
to stay on his bike and rode back up the hill about 30 feet away).

In some places, the canal is close enough to I-80 to hear cars, but in most
places, all you hear is wind.

--
John Nelson
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