The ECD in NORTH CAROLINA:
Doug Adomatis has a site:
http://www.travelbygps.com/guides/ECD/ecd.php
which
continues the ECD through North Carolina. The site uses waypoint
and route data in the new universal GPS format of *.gpx. Download
(THIS)
.gpx file, which can be read and transferred to your GPS using G7ToWin
and other free GPS software.
Unlike the ECD in Georgia, the Divide in North Carolina is clearly mapped, since it is the TVA Boundary that defines all water draining into the Tennessee River basin.
The graphic below uses G7ToWin to display
the .gpx file on a Street Atlas-9 map.
The above map shows where the ECD (black)
intersects the Blue Ridge Parkway (purple) near Mt. Mitchell.
The Divide then follows the Parkway
eastward for about 40 miles to the Linville Falls area.
All the area NW of the ECD here is
the TVA watershed boundary.
Locating the ECD Along the Blue Ridge
Parkway:
In order to find the where the ECD crosses certain roads on the
ground, we used Garmin's newest Custom Maps technology to load 1:24,000
DRG maps into a Dakota 20 unit. This was done with G-Raster
to convert the DRG maps into .kmz maps which the Dakota can recognize and
another program, TVA
DRG Repair Tool, since the TVA supplies the 24K maps (without the embedded
georeferencing) in this area.
Below are some Dakota screen shots made
in the areas of interest as we used it to find the ECD road crossings.
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The Divide is represented by a black
Long-dash-short-dash line
Thumbnail
In the space of about ten miles the ECD crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway
seven times near Little Switzerland
SIGNS
About 10 miles SW of Little Switzerland
at Buck Gap is the only known sign noting the ECD on the Parkway.
The sign isn't on the Parkway itself,
but on Hwy. 80 crossing under it. There are not many signs.
HIGHLANDS
Another sign is where US 25 intersects
I-26 and where it crosses Hwy 106 one of four times SW of Highlands.
(We will report on these crossings
at a later date)
At the Little Switzerland Inn, the
ECD runs through a cemetery surrounded by buildings of the inn.
1878 Buchanan Burial Ground Plaque
In the topo maps below, the Parkway
is a solid red line, and the ECD is a long-dash-short-dash black line.
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Within walking distance of our A-Frame
at the Inn is the beautifully-restored home of Chris and Vivian Barry
-Sitting squarely on the the ECD (house
icon below) where it crosses High Ridge Rd. (They were not aware
of this) .
..
..
A topo map of the Little Switzerland
Chalet restaurant area shows the cemetery a very short distance SW of it.
And a short distance east of the (above)
restored house is a "Hump" in Blands Knob Road (an ECD crossing).
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About four miles east of Little Switzerland
is the Minerals Museum where the ECD crosses Hwy. 226A
Just under the Parkway bridge (looking
SW).
Historical marker at the Minerals Museum
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.....
Looking SE under the Parkway
° The Big Lynn Lodge on 226A is also on the ECD.
Highway 226A (parallel to the Parkway)
closely follows the ECD westward to Little Switzerland.
SEND HELP:
Don't you think some enterprising person should take up this project
and map the ECD from North Carolina and beyond! It's interesting
(at least to me) that all the water north-west of the Piedmont drains THROUGH
the Smoky Mountains although they reach 6,000 feet altitude. (One
can sit on the back decks of the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway and
see the edge of the Piedmont for many miles.)
-Happy Divide trekking. -jack
yeazel