Fun with Google Earth

[Tampico]

I have put together a KMZ file for Google Earth featuring places and other features around the island for you to explore.

I chose to use Google Earth rather than Google Maps because you can toggle the layers, and Google Earth runs faster for me. There is some excellent, recent imagery of the island available now and you should be able to explore this KMZ down to around 500' in high-resolution.

There are nine layers in the KMZ:

Anchorages
Selected anchorages from Bonnie Dahl's Lake Superior Way 3rd edition (June 1, 2001; ISBN-13: 978-0942235494) are marked.

Campgrounds
All Campgrounds on the island are marked. Some locations are approximate, particularly backcountry sites.

Docks
Most docks around the island are marked. Fishermans Home Cove and Wright Island are not included because I don't know the status of these docks. Private docks belonging to life-lease holders are not marked.

Geographic Names
Geographic names not available in Google Earth are marked. This includes, but is not limited to, lakes, bays, coves and terrain features. For best results, make sure you have the "Borders and Labels" layer selected under the standard Google Earth layers.

Lighthouses
Lights are marked and annotated with their descriptions from NOAA chart 14976. For example, Rock of Ages Light is described as Fl 10s 130ft 12 St M, which means:

Flashing (white) light, every 10 seconds; the light is 130ft above the ground and is visible for 12 statute miles.

The Rock Harbor light is no longer an ATON (Aid TO Navigation).

Nautical Chart Anomalies
This layer depicts features not charted on NOAA 14976. Some are a little obscure and off the beaten path, but considering other obscure features that are charted, I consider them discrepancies. Some are a bit more serious, e.g. the giant submerged rock at the end of Moskey Basin is not charted. This isn't intended to be all inclusive; only a few of the things I could find or I have actually encountered in my boat.

Points of Interest
Fire towers and other interesting features, natural and man-made are marked.

Ranger Stations
Self-explanatory.

Shipwrecks
Various shipwrecks around the island are marked. The wreck of the America is particularly spooky.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

Enjoy.

ETA: You can download Google Earth here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/earth/index.html
It is available for Mac, PC and Linux.

[fonixmunkee]

Tampico,

Simply amazing. This is probably the most complete waypoint file I've seen for Isle Royale...bar none. Excellent, excellent, work. How much of this is your own work...such as actually marking the way point your self, and how much of it is research?

Either way, I'm singularly impressed. This is something I always wanted to do myself, but could never find the organizational skills or time to do. Thank you very much for sharing.

[michigandave]

Thank you for putting together such a complete guide to the Island. Google earth never ceases to amaze me! I'm looking forward to spending some time with it in planning out my 2011 trip to ISRO.

[Tampico]

I guess all of this is "research."

I've been to each of the public docks and many of the campgrounds personally, but I didn't actually use my own waypoints to record the locations. They're easy enough to find and mark by just using the imagery available in GE.

Backcountry sites and some of the more obscure features (mines, for example) I took from various topo maps using a plotter called a Waypointer (http://www.maps4u.com/products/GPS/UTM_ ... inter.html).

Geographic features and names were also taken from various maps and charts.

[moss13]

Wow, well done! I use GE a lot. This will be very helpful in planning my next trip to the island. Thanks.

[Tampico]

I thought I'd bump this for the folks that missed it the first time.

Enjoy.

[Backpacker534]

Tampico, this is a very nice reference to have. Wow! Thanks for posting it. My son and I are doing the Feldtmann Loop at the end of August, so this will be nice to play around with before the trip. Thanks for all your work.

[fonixmunkee]

I converted this file from Google Earth into a GPX file and loaded it onto my Garmin GPS. I used it at the start of June to navigate and plan route, and can validate that most of the points on the Greenstone and Indian Portage trails are correct. I say "most" because I didn't visit/navigate to a lot of them.

Tampico: Can I give you some coordinates of a few things and have you update your map?

[Tampico]

Tampico: Can I give you some coordinates of a few things and have you update your map?

Certainly.

[Jelf]

Hello all,

Minnesota native here but living near Seattle for many years. Alas, I never made it out to IR.

While searching for something else this morning, I happened to find this tread that Tampico started in order to share that great KMZ file. I'm certain that many hours of work went into assembling that data. I'm writing to share my own small contribution to that work.

The following link displays Tampico's KMZ file on detailed topographic maps. Keep zooming in for more topographic detail.
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... php?id=437

The map is displayed by Gmap4 which is an enhanced Google map viewer I wrote.

Joseph Elfelt, the Gmap4 guy
Redmond, WA

[Nacraman]

Fonixmunkee,

Can you post the GPX file as an attachment here. I would find it very useful.

Thanks.

Nacraman

[upnorthjeeper]

Can this be made available again please?