The Ruhestein hill, used for skiing during the winter months
In the late morning hours the temperature in Karlsruhe was about 18°C. Usually the Ruhestein is about 6°C less, but surprisingly its webcam displayed 18° as well, so I immediately grabbed the bike and went to the station, heading towards Baiersbronn, Black Forest (about 500m).
Due to the rainy August, it’s fungi time. Here is yesterday’s catch. All pictures have been taken using the Nokia N900 mobile computer. The quality is not comparable to pictures taken with a dedicated camera, but frankly I’m quite impressed of what one can achieve with the N900. I hope you enjoy.
Caterpillars
Gudereit LCR Trekking Series bicyle
During the last four years my biking trips almost completely took place in the upper Rhine plane, occasionally touching the borders of the Vosges Mountains or the Palatinate Forest. I tried to avoid inclines, as my bike with an 8 gear Shimano hub was not the best companion for such trips.
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Landscape near Baiersbronn, Black Forest
The »Tour de Murg« is a biking trip from Freudenstadt, Black Forest, to Rastatt. It’s about 70km downhill – a great trip for lazy bikers like me :) . I did this trip four years ago including a lot of initial mapping. What surprised me most was the fact that lots of mapping details still are missing, are not up-to-date or are even totally wrong (see Gausbach).
Heavy Weather brewing near Wissembourg
Since it was obvious that I need a more reliable bike, I’m looking for the right device. A friend once sent me a PDF of a very attractive gadget. I also considered other options, but the more I was looking for alternatives, the more I wanted exactly this one.
Back Side of Rastatt Castle
Today’s trip led from Karlsruhe to Rastatt, an ancient german town with several baroque buildings. I decided not to make it a grand mapping trip, but to use openrouteservice.org to find the way. This means I expected not to find new ways because the route was calculated based on existing ones.
The way led through the woods and fields between the two towns. Many of the ways originally have been mapped by me several years ago and needed maintenance. Tracktypes for example didn’t exist in those days yet. Surprisingly I found some new ways anyway while others meanwhile have been paved.
Unfortunately my bike caused some trouble again. I’ve been at the shop three times, but they just don’t manage to get their stuff done. I’m already looking for another dealer and a new bike. I wanted to avoid spending the money, but today it broke my neck. It’s just no fun when your vehicle of choice doesn’t do its job.
La Maison du Sel en Wissembourg
Finally the rainy days are over. The warm and sunny weather conditions allowed for the first mapping trip to Wissembourg by bike – the biking season finally has started.
I mapped a lot of details along the way. Some short breaks every now and then and finally a nice supper at the destination took time. Luckily »Deutsche Bahn« (a german railway company) provided public transport back home.
The location services of the N900 are pretty good, but there are also some weak points:
Here’s how the tracklog recorded in the train looks like. Note that it should follow the rails precisely:
The device is an almost perfect gadget anyway. All I want to say is: If you reliably want to collect the tracklogs of your trips, just get an additional logger. The N900 is an exccellent general purpose device. It is not a specialized GPS receiver and logger.
Ottenhöfen, Black Forest
Around Ottenhöfen, a Black Forest town, some ancient watermills have been restored. A hiking trail connects all of them. Today’s weather was not that great, e.g. too cold for May, and it was a cloudy and windy day. We grabbed the occasion anyway, stuffed eleven people into two cars and entered the black forest, leaving the cars at Ottenhöfen station. Here’s one of the watermills:
Watermill near Ottenhöfen (wikimedia commons, Andreas Frick, public domain)
Meanwhile I know why I’ve been elected to book and drive a van of the local car sharing provider. Along the trail, a lot of fountains are sited, and some of them act as a very special selling point (called »Schnapsbrunnen«). The black forest aborigines place bottles of schnapps in the water, add some drinking glasses and an offertory box. Hikers just serve themselves and leave some money. Needless to say that some of us served themselves very well :) .
Of course I used the occasion for some mapping. Most tracks and ways already have been mapped, but not very well. I added some ways, details along them and fixed some broken crossings. I’ve also modelled the water mill trail for appearance in the hiking and bridle map, but it will take some time until it gets rendered.
Finally we had some coffee at a local restaurant, enjoying local cake. This is a typical black forest cherry cake (»Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte«):
Black Forest cherry cake (»Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte«)
A great trip, and it begun raining just as we returned to the cars. An excellent timing :) .
Lœwenstein Castle
As the weather is fine at the moment (and my bike is broken again), it is hiking time. Slowly it becomes difficult to find unmapped terrain, as openstreetmap.org meanwhile does not only attract car drivers but also hikers and (mountain) bikers. In the region where I grew up a lot of medieval castles can be found, and I visited them all. Time to resurrect the hobby of my youth as long there are still trails missing in the woods.
Lizard on the Loewenstein
When I took the above picture, I missed the zoom lens of a dedicated camera. It was not possible to get closer to the lizard, as it otherwise would have escaped. Of course noone would ever request a cell phone to provide an objective slot :) .
Photo with Geotags
I’m still impressed by the features, the versatility and the usability of the N900. I’m also still impressed by the quality of the built-in camera. It does not beat my Canon A650, but it gets close enough to leave the Canon at home when riding the bike. Plus the 5MP images are more handy than the quite huge 12MP images of the Canon.
Quelques Guis
Aujourd’hui j’ai éte en Alsace, pour cartographier quelques chemins au bord du Rhin.
The Heilbach meanders the Bienwald
I grabbed the occasion of today’s excellent weather conditions for my first mapping tour with the N900. I used it for my continued effort to map the Heilbach for openstreetmap:
I left all the other gadgets I used until now (mp3 player, Canon camera, external bluetooth GPSr, N810) at home and only grabbed the N900 to check if it really can replace the previously used armada. To anticipate the result: yes it can. I’m quite impressed and really content with the device. It’s a great digital companion. You should read on, though, to learn more about some pitfalls and shortcomings to avoid frustration.
This winter was a cold one, and there was enough (though not much) snow for winter sport activities at the black forest. Currently it’s melting, which is due to spring, not global warming :) .
Daylight saving time starts next sunday, so I hope I can reopen the biking season. There are two obstacles, though: the weather forecast and the fact that my office hours tend to regularly extend beyond 7PM.
Frozen Tarn
Every now and then, a mapping trip is not as successful as intended. And so was today’s. Here’s some C code describing my feelings :) :
Some code
Hiking Trail in the Bienwald
As Daisy had even reached the Upper Rhine Plain, we had some snow for a couple of days. I used the occasion for three nice hiking trips in the Bienwald, mapping grade 4 and 5 tracks, hiking paths and, last but not least, the stream Heilbach and some drains alimenting it:
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Ottertal Fungi
Due to the annual Xmas family meeting I had the occasion to do some further mapping of the lovely Ottertal. Unfortunately my camera failed after I had taken four pictures, but that’s better than nothing :) .
Brown and brown
Though it was a cloudy (and rainy) day, I needed some compensation for the many extra office hours of the last week. During the winter months, I try to map hiking paths and rivers in the Bienwald, which I cannot map by bike during summer:
Some Lichen
No posting for more than one week? Isn’t there anything interesting to write about? There is, but the release of interiorcad keeps me busy.
Due to the lack of daylight in my spare time, I decided for a short hiking trip last sunday, though it was a rather rainy day. I had good luck: The rain stopped as I reached on-site and it began raining again just as I reached the car after the trip.
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