Posted on 08/30/2015 10:20:12 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Hikers in Big Basin Redwoods State Park are sharing the trails this week with volunteers wearing 40 pounds of Google mapping equipment on their backs.
With 15 cameras fitted on a metal sphere reaching above their heads, a team from Sempervirens Fund, a nonprofit land-preservation group based in Los Altos, is traversing the park while capturing 360-degree panoramas stitched together.
And in a few months, you will be able to explore Big Basin from the comfort of your own browser on Google Map’s Street View feature. The high-tech imagery is part of an effort by Sempervirens Fund to draw more people to the park and to explore new opportunities technology can offer in the fields of nature education and land management.
More information is key for those less familiar with parks so that they can better prepare for trips, said Mike Kahn, outreach manager of the Sempervirens Fund.
“People can check out trails beforehand if they’re going on a hike or a backpack trip — Is it steep? How many miles is it?” Kahn said. “They can look for shady or sunny campgrounds and at other facilities too.”
He also wants to bring the imagery into classrooms not only to teach students about the environment but to encourage them to visit parks as well. The maps also show potential use for helping land managers check on trails needing repairs and monitor the forest overall.
Taking its name from the Latin word for evergreen, Sempervirens Fund has preserved more than 53 square miles of redwood land in the Santa Cruz Mountains since its founding in 1900. That’s when initial members first came together to protect the largest remaining area of old growth forest, which became Big Basin Redwoods State Park.
(Excerpt) Read more at santacruzsentinel.com ...
GAAHHH!!! No!
People can check out trails beforehand if they’re going on a hike or a backpack trip — Is it steep? How many miles is it? They can look for shady or sunny campgrounds.
Thank God for Google! None, NONE, of those things were possible before. People headed out on those great trails not knowing what was out there. They probably thought they were going to fall off the far edge of the flat earth. Few ever returned to tell the tale.
Seeing the Redwoods was the only thing on my bucket list for years. The older I get though, going to Israel is on it, too.
Glad they didn’t do that 30 years ago ... EX Wife and I went on our Honeymoon there ... we did that trail in 30 ft segments
Which trail? Berry Creek Waterfalls? Skyline to the Sea? Buzzard’s Roust?
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