Coast
to Coast for Conservation
Unofficial Google Earth Companion

|
Last update:
Day 73
Atlantic Ocean
YIPPEE!!!
|
|
|
Greetings
You are most likely a follower and hopefully a supporter of
the Coast to Coast for Conservation
bike ride of Brad Edmondson and Jim and Sara Kersting
to benefit the Finger Lakes Land Trust. Now
you can re-live this magnificent adventure from your own home, in a fraction of
the time and effort, through the magic of Google Earth. Here's how:
- You
must have Google Earth installed on your computer. You can install the
free version or the $25/year "Plus" version by visiting http://earth.google.com/. Either one
should work, but you need to have a fairly strong computer and graphics
capability, and a broadband connection to the Internet.
- Start
Google Earth running on your computer and then load the following file: http://waterfeller.com/FLLT/BikeRide/Bike.kmz
using the one of these methods that works best for you:
- Simply
click on the hyperlink above. The file should open in Google Earth.
- In
Google Earth, use the File -> Open command and then cut and paste the
hyperlink above into the File name box.
- Right
click on the hyperlink above and choose the Save target as… command to
save the file on your computer. Then open the file in Google Earth.
- The
Bike Ride file will load into your "Temporary Places" folder in
the "Places" panel of the Google sidebar. (Use the View ->
Sidebar command if the sidebar is not visible.)

- If you
double-click on the main "Bike" folder, you will see many of the
places mentioned in the C2C4C Blog. If you double-click on a state name,
you will see the places mentioned in that one state. You can also see the
trip for a single day by double-clicking on the day number. If you
double-click on a place name (e.g., Canyon, WY), you will see a helicopter
tour view of that place.
- You can use the Tour feature to play a
"helicopter view" of the tour for a day, for a state, or for the
whole trip. Simply highlight the folder in the places panel and use the Tour
-> Play Tour command, or highlight the folder and then click the Play
button:

- You
can pause and resume the tour by clicking the Pause and Play buttons.
- You
may need to experiment with the settings for your tour by using the Tools
-> Options command and clicking on the Touring tab. The following
settings work OK for me; it takes about 9 minutes to go from Puget Sound to Devil's Tower.

- To reduce screen clutter, you might also want to
experiment with your Layers settings. I like the following:

- I will
try to keep the KMZ file updated as the trip progresses provided I have no
broken spokes on my computer. I recommend that you do not save the
temporary places folder when you exit from Google Earth. Then, if you
return to this page in a few days and download a fresh copy of the file,
it will not create a duplicate entry on your computer.
If you have any questions, suggestions, additions, or
corrections, please contact me
directly.
Roger Hopkins
Lansing,
NY