Universal
Trail Assessment
Coordinator
Newsletter
Spring 1997
Wilderness Inquiry Advances Minnesota Trails Accessibility
A group of landscape architects learned to design, plan, and construct recreational outdoor environments that are accessible to persons of all abilities.
At a Wilderness Inquiry Short Course held at the University of Minnesota on October 1, 1996, Peter Axelson presented the Universal Trail Assessment Process, provided an orientation tour, and led attendees on a short trail assessment to practice the measurement techniques and use the assessment tools.
Wilderness Inquiry will train staff in the Universal Trail Assessment Process this summer with state funds, and will assess and map all of Minnesota's miles of portage and trails.
Yosemite's Trails Join Multimedia Revolution
Beneficial Designs has developed a comprehensive method to obtain information about park trails: an interactive computer trail guide that allows users to input a desired difficulty rating or specify access requirements, and will display the maps, images, and universal trail assessment data for all routes that meet the users' criteria.
Developed first for California's Yosemite National Park with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Guide stores data and images as well as maps and universal access information for individual hiking trails. Along with scenic images, trail maps, and trail access symbols, the program tracks overall trail difficulty, total length, elevation change, average and maximum grade and cross slope, minimum trail width, surface type, and the size of obstacles.
Beneficial Designs set up a prototype of the Guide at Yosemite's main visitor center on two sunny October days in 1996. Park visitors who evaluated the Guide were enthusiastic. Simone MacLeod is refining and reprogramming the final version based on the visitors' comments.
The Interactive Trail Guide program will be incorporated into the Yosemite Area Transportation Information (YATI) network by October 1997. YATI provides recreation, event information, accommodation, and road condition information to visitors from kiosks located within 300 miles of the park.
The CD-ROM version of the Interactive Trail Guide for Yosemite will be created and distributed to reviewers in the summer of 1997.
Trail Data Processing Software Near Completion
If you yearn to generate your own data summaries and trail profiles on the spot, trail data processing software is for you! This Excel/Visual Basic software enables users to process their own trail assessment data by entering trail data on electronic duplicates of the paper trail data forms.
The program uses the data to generate trail access information, including a grade profile and a summary sheet listing the trail length, maximum and average grade and cross slope, minimum and average width, approximate time required to hike the trail, the percentage of the trail that falls within each grade category, and the type of trail surface.
Programmed primarily by Ken Chizinsky, the software will be released in late March with the Trails Design Kit.
Bradford Woods:
Where the Wild Things Are
The October sun shone on a curious group of monsters, miners, witches and pumpkins busily conducting trails assessments during the Universal Trail Assessment Coordinator Training Workshop and Trail Access Symposium at the National Center on Accessibility training facility in Bradford Woods.
Patti Longmuir and Jon Lyksett from Beneficial Designs, and Ed Hamilton, Marcia Haag, and Kathy Mispagel from the National Center on Accessibility trained 36 Trail Assessment Coordinators in the autumn chill. The many participants who arrived without costumes were given orange garbage bags with jack o' lantern faces to wear over their clothing, lending the impression of a pumpkin patch rolling along the forest floor.
In accordance with NCA tradition, the trainees split into groups based on the pictures on their name tags. The skulls & crossbones, pumpkins, ghosts, and black cat crews were very interested in the Universal Trail Assessment Process, asked many questions, and greatly impressed the trainers with their enthusiasm.
Patti confided that "one group ended up doing an assessment on a 'trail' which wasn't really a trail. They finally realized they were in the wrong place when the 'trail' ended at the top of a 100-foot cliff. However, they said it had given them lots of chances to practice the various measurements." A stunning display of UTAP trainee grit!
Grand Canyon Greets Future
With Greenway
Don't worry; the National Park Service is not about to turn one of the natural wonders of the world into a golf course. On the contrary, the Grand Canyon's clogged roadways will be transformed into accessible scenic paths closed to private auto traffic.
The master transportation plan calls for a greenway to be built along the South Rim, connecting Desert Point with Grand Canyon Village.
Peter Axelson was a member of the design team that convened at the planning meeting on January 24-27, 1997. Peter presented the Universal Trail Assessment Process to team members, and all agreed that accessibility will be a priority in the new designs.
The greenway will complement a parking lot built outside park boundaries and a clean fuel shuttle system running from the lot to the village and along the greenway. Planned improvements will get visitors out of their cars and into nature, eliminate current parking hassles, reduce the smog threatening to diminish the views, and transform the presently inaccessible park into a space that people of all abilities can enjoy. Initial segments of the plan should be in place by July 2000.
Trails Design Kit Release
Everything you need to become an independent UTAP map and sign designer now comes in one convenient package. Trails Design Kits, scheduled for release in April, include trail access symbols, layouts for trail access infor-mation strips, maps, and signage, and trail data processing software.
Registered Trails Design Kit users will be able to download additions to the symbol collection or signage layout changes from the Beneficial Designs Website.
Wayne Wright refined the trail access symbols and developed layouts for trail access information strips and large trailhead signs in 1996. The signs use symbols to communicate trail access information useful to all hikers.
Trails Design Kits will be especially useful for land management agencies that need to produce signage for a large number of trails. For more information, or to order a Trails Design Kit, contact Beneficial Designs.
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