Spring? Already? Bring on Digital Winter!
Not everyone will understand why I dread the onset of spring. It is not the work in the backyard, but when it comes to tracking old roads the reasons are related.
Spring growth.
Winter, if that's what we had, opens up the woods and clears out the undergrowth. The leaves leave. Not only is it easier to find ruts, it is easier to navigate through the woods to get there. Once the vines and thorns and tangles and jumble of fresh green leaves take over, it is back to the satellite images.
Thankfully, there is progress being made on that front as well. As a result of some networking with a fellow rut nut, we are exploring the availability of existing LIDAR images along some of the route of Trammel's Trace. Digital genius and Texas Archaeological Steward, Bob Vernon, is on the case. In case you missed the post, LIDAR is essentially a penetrating radar imaging technique that can show depressions in the ground beneath trees or even beneath fill.
LIDAR image from Jeff Williams, SFASU