|
Flowpage, Forum and Gage Project
Firefox 3 Mozilla users
CLICK HERE
Special
thanks to
Mark "D" D' Agostino
and Barry
Hart of
AlabamaWhiteWater.com for
helping in the
Ver.1 of the flowpage project. Without their
help we would have gotten nowhere fast.With
their help we got to know if the original set
points were even valid (and the drought made it
rough) .The Ver. 1 page made it possible
for real time showings via our smartphones while
checking gauges, while others posted and sent us
e-mails. Thank you Mark and Barry!
Now we are on to
Version 2.0 beta and with the help of Chris
Bell of
BoatingBeta.com and Bill "Fish" Herring
of the
OzarkWhitewaterPages, writer of the original
code, which Chris has heavily modified and made
his own.
Chris has granted
us permission to share his server and code and
is teaching us "to fish". As it stands we can
now change set points on the fly. So send us
those visuals via e-mail and please use the
forum to post those levels. We aren't the only
one looking at it. Once the training wheels are
off, the Walden's Ridge flowpage may reside here
on this site. But to be honest, it's nice having
Chris in the Journeyman role teaching the
novice, and it it's a nice warm fuzzy feeling
knowing Chris is there, when we tear up the
bowling ball. It's a big learning curve for a
Windows guy learning Linux and PERL at the same
time. To me a lot of this is magic on how it all
works. THANK YOU CHRIS!
Now about that new flowpage:
Searchable : You can do query's ...a
killer feature on it's own. Check out the top of
the page. Click on "rating" for example. This is
just one of the features.
Set points...are listed on the flowpage.
Now you know what those trigger points are.
gage notes...now you know what is going
on with the data. From the Excellent to Poor
ratings you will have a flavor of the readings
to help you make an informed decision.
Multiple gauges: We are still showing
that, we want to have the most information you
can before starting your car with boats on top.
Also we list the different gauges to gather more
set-points...which leads to
Virtual Gauges: This is a heavy duty
concept. You can have two gauge readings make
one gauge reading.
Example...only for an example: If the Daddy's
Creek gauge is 500 cfs and the Tellico gauge is
350 cfs = Hoot Owl Creek at 2.5 ft...now you see
the opportunity of needing more visuals
and gauge postings. This is where we want to
head to simply the flowpage.
Watershed Listings: The flowpage takes it
a step further and now shows a watershed filter.
You can use the filter to make a grouping of
runs ,just click on the "watershed
column" as listed on the flowpage.
Rain gages: Are slowly be added to the
page. WE NEED YOUR INPUT!
More gauges and streams added: This
alone has proven a paddlers need for more
accurate information. We have been getting
emails to add new creeks outside the Walden's
Ridge and Sequatchie Valley area. As long as
they are Tennessee Runs we will add them for
you. We all want to boat more!
To get to the new flowpage
CLICK HERE
gage Reading
Contest:
Okay now here is
the fun part. If you use the forum we have here
, sign up and post your visuals, the one with
the most postings will win first place. We will
have a First, Second and Third slot for the
winners. The forum will keep everyone honest by
posting publically. E-mails will NOT count. We
want transparency for the contest. Rock Creek
was kind enough to donate the prizes!
Length of the contest: Nov 2008-July 4th
2009.
We will have 1st, 2nd and
3rd place prizes. The prizes are nice! PFD’s ,throwbags,
airbags and more AND gift cards from
RockCreek Outfitters!
Special thank you to Jamie Casson and
Chris Bingham of Rock Creek for making the
contest come true.
Also
for the first place winner is a 1 hour flight
donated by Brandon Hughett from the
Smokey Mountain Flight Center.
The flight
includes leaving
from Knoxville's McGhee-Tyson Airport in a
Cessna 172 to fly over the Smokies. The
destination will be the winners choice with a
friend of the Raven's Fork Gorge and West Prong
area or the Tellico, Santeelah, and Snowbird
area. Special thanks to Brandon Hughett for
donating this special prize.
And
a very special thank you to Chris Bell of
BoatingBeta.com for helping us beyond belief
on the new flowpage.
How to boat more:
Want
to get real good at knowing what's running? I
still use the rain gages
first, then I look at the
watershed map, to see where the rain hit,
then I use the
flowpage. By doing this I have increased my
boating by 15% not bad for a weekend warrior
during a drought :) Imagine if it ever started
really raining again like it use too.
Fair Warning:
Here is a little
insight on how the Flowpage works the best after
a normal rain event. ie. cold front coming
through.
Here is the perfect
example of when it shows something running and
when it is not really running ...bear with me.
Richland ran for a
couple of days after a rain event on 16 Feb
08..the flowpage worked....worked so good in
fact the Huntsville boys got a run on it, and
didn't need to guess or waste gas
The catch:
On 20 Feb 08
Richland showed to be running again. Was it?
NO! It didn't rain in between those days.
So why did it run?
Daddy's had a surge
due to snow and then dropped back to Richland's
trigger point to show it was low.
Richland is tied
into the Daddy's creek gauge and not the North
Chick. Daddy's has proven to predict when in is
running better over the historical data we have
kept although is a loooong way away.
Remember most of
these runs are steep and run off fairly quick.
Use the flowpage, and also click on the
precipitation page here at our site, it
sends you to local rain gauges after an event
and doesn't store data; unlike the USGS gages.
But between the two resources you will get
more boating time in!
Here is the link to the
flowpage
CLICK HERE
Remember we need your help to help tweak the
set-points read those gauges!
Here is something else you need to know...it's
Rob Maxwell's gage project.
Please click on the picture below for the
download
.
Photo courtesy of
AutoBoof
Productions
Rob is busting his #$%^& to gather set
points and it was his inspiration for this
flowpage. Please post those levels. Also enjoy
his downloadable xls sheet. With his sheet I got
a lot of runs on Johnnies Creek in Alabama ,
when everyone said we would get skunked. Thank
you Rob!
Please post you
river levels in our
forum section, Rob uses the readings to help
us figure out what is running. His
workbook is a great addition for a Smartphone
with Office apps also. By posting in the forum
section you help keep the flowpage accurate and
Rob's project gets even more deadly and river
level predictions become more science and less
black art.
| 
