Google Earth & Site Searching

[Team Microbe]

Greetings Outdoor Growers -

I wanted to create a thread that discusses all of the wonderful advantages that Google Earth gives the grower during the search for new grow sites, because there are many hidden tricks to this program that when used as a whole, can really narrow down potential locations that will be ideal for growing plants.


*Note that I chose to use New York State as an example for this thread to protect my location, that's why you'll find the longitude and latitude showing on these screen shots I take. This was intentional, as these examples are not actual grow sites.

Finding remote areas is easy, as well as dirt roads leading into the wilderness that can be used to haul payloads/supplies in and out. It's often that well-placed grows out in the sticks go unnoticed. There's simply too much terrain for a heli to cover every mile of Wild Forest out there, that's why this is where most big grows are located.

Here you can see some potentially good locations. Old logging roads are sometimes out of commission and great routes into the forest. Personally, I would go for something like the upland of one of these swamps.

Here's a street view of a large parcel of wetland that has potential for some set & forget patches

Wait a second... is that a school I see off the right hand side of the screen? This just went from a potential go to a definite no-go. Sentences are dramatically increased for grows popped near schools, I highly suggest looking into the laws for your state and where the lines are that you should never cross. It could be the difference between a misdemeanor and a prison sentence in some states.
It's all about taking advantage of technology, and working smarter - not harder. When the boots hit the ground come spring time, it's best to know exactly where the best potential lies for grow locations within your designated area. Sometimes there are great patches right in your backyard even, but we just don't know they're until we utilize some aerial points of view.




I'm also curious how everyone else is using Google Earth, what add ons you may have found and any other tips/tricks that could benefit the rest of us... please contribute your 2 cents!

 

[Team Microbe]

Quick Run-down of the basics

Quick Run-down of the basics

(For those that have used Google Earth before, skip this post and scroll down to the next)

The main layout

You'll notice some important guidelines right off the bat here if you haven't used this program before - like the compass in the upper right corner (cut off in this shot actually) for navigating or depicting where southern facing hillsides are. Also check out the date in the bottom center of the screen... this can be helpful in seeing what native foliage looks like at certain times. Especially shots of terrain during planting and harvesting times. It's almost cheating, but being able to see if that patch of brush will remain green during harvest time is key for avoiding aerial detection. I've written spots off before because everything looks straight dead come September. Other places will remain green according to Google Earth, so these locations will remain in the list of places I'll plan on exploring by foot when the snow melts. The elevation can also be utilized in finding streams since water travels to the lowest elevation in every area, wherever you hover the curser it tells you exactly how many feet above sea level it is. Very helpful, and just one of the few tools the grower can use in aiding site searching.

For those that don't know - The yellow pin-point marker can be used to save locations you find. Simply click it and it'll open a window for you to type in the name for your pin-point location, then place the marker where ever you want it. Easy as pie.

Off to the left of the main screen is the "Places" column. This is where add-ons are stored, and anything you mark on the map with your yellow pin-point marker. This is where I keep any potential patch locations that I find.
*Always remember to save your "places" before exiting G.E.

In the "Layers" column, we can check or uncheck a number of different features we want to see on the map. From here I've found so many little things that add up to be very useful when used as a whole. I'll touch more on the details later...

 

[Team Microbe]

Exploring the "Layers" column

Exploring the "Layers" column

As mentioned above, the "Layers" column can be extremely useful for hunting sites down.

The "Photos" feature is great because it tells you where hikers have been for the most part. It also gives you some detailed insight on what certain terrains look like at ground level, which can be helpful depending on the photo you find

Notice where the majority of traffic resides in this area. I would plant nowhere near these photos since these places are higher risk than say... the land in the bottom half of the screen.

If the area isn't littered with photo icons, you can plant there for the most part (use your best judgement as every location is different). The thing about these shots are they reveal things like feeder streams that aren't visible from the aerial POV. This combined with the elevation reading at the bottom center of the screen can be used to see where these streams lead to and where they come from in the first place. Using more than 1 feature at once can be useful, huh?

Here's a random one that's in the middle of a remote valley....

Look at that! A means of transportation in across the creek in the middle of nowhere. This can be used to simply cut across this valley easier, or to open up potential for a site that would not have been accessible before finding this photo. If I had a patch on the other side of this valley I'd use this bridge to haul my cuttings and supplies across under the cover of darkness

 

[Team Microbe]

The "More" folder

The "More" folder

This is where the goodies are I've learned...

For those growing in a more urban setting "under their noses", this feature is nice to see where golf courses are located in your state. Often the land next to these country clubs is untouched, unused, or simply inhabitable (swamps, wetlands). What great territory to call your own, eh? Again, judgement calls are always necessary as this isn't a "tell all" guide by any means

This feature tells us where all of the main water sources are. Often there are streams that come and go from these places, so using that curser to depict elevation comes into play again here. Any one of these streams that trail off into some dense brush can be an absolute gold mine for the outdoor grower, they just take a little research and some motivation to find.

My favorite feature of all - the RailRoad feature. This can be used to find every rail system that travels through your state. Railroads are great corridors into the wilderness I've found. When there aren't any hiking trails around, you know you're bound to find a nice remote location off some of these rails.

Some are active rails (use at own risk with a clear head), some are rails for sight seeing (these have scheduled times of operation which is beautiful for timing out payload hauls), and some are simply broken down and not in use anymore.

These broken down rails are sometimes turned into hiking trails too. There's a website called Rails-to-Trails that can be useful in tracking these trails down.

If you find a rail with a road running through it, try dragging the little guy under your compass (in the upper right hand corner) over the street you want to Street View. If it's viewable, the street will become highlighted and a Street View like this will be possible to see the tracks from. This is helpful in other places as well, not just railroad grows. I've noticed that remote areas aren't driven by the camera car as often though, so finding Street Views in these places isn't very likely unfortunately.

I like to see if the tracks have a wide enough path on the side of them to drive a car down, half of the time there is one for rail workers to drive work vehicles down. These are to be used once and only once - for hauling big supply loads into the area. They're risky because if you're spotted leaving or entering them it's sketch since you're not a worker... and especially since it's 1 a.m. in the morning.

 

[Team Microbe]

Railroad carts

Railroad carts

I want to briefly show you what I made to make RailRoad growing a little easier... I call this the Rail Cart:

Something like this can easily be built to haul supplies and payloads in and out of railroad corridors without having to break your back. Little ideas like these can really put the grower at an advantage when faced with long hauls. Think outside the box, and use tools to your advantage when growing outdoors - always.



Anyways, back to Google Earth....

Does anyone else use this program to find sites?

 

[Boyd Crowder]

very interesting
and.... subbed

 

[Cannabis]

The slanted or multiple angle view

The slanted or multiple angle view

I planted some clones in a marsh that was in an old mine because I could see it on Google Maps.

It was the first year I moved here and I was afraid to fence so I put out 15 and animals or root borers got most of them but I pulled a seven footer out of it.

I had a couple of small plants at home too and it all helped.

The capacity of google maps to show me the

(1)north shore facing a

(2)sea of cattails on the south

(3) how far I had to walk around,

(4)where the vegetation was

made it a snap.

The slanted view option that Google Maps gives you, helps figure out how things look from various angles.

A pair of marsh walkers helped my marsh grow. I made a couple with bucket lids. Chunks of 2X4 about the width of a 5 gallon lid. I screwed the 2X4 to the bottom side of the

bucket lid, in line with the direction of my foot sitting on top of the lid.

I left a couple of screws sticking out about 3/4 of an inch on the ends of the 2X4 to give it some cleating power on logs or rocks, trash, etc in the mud.

Each one just needs two bungies to fit them on TIGHT.

Hook into a hole in rim about an inch beside toe, pull tight and wrap around ankle of boot. Come around, out, and go back behind heel, and hook it into similar hole drilled in rim, beside the heel about an inch to the side there.

You do it again and you have two bungies serving as four straps pulling your boot down onto the top of the lid.

I drilled holes JUST off to the side of each toe and heel about an INCH to take those hooks and the metal hooks going into the holes make them JUST contact the boot sole so it keeps it from moving.

I went from conditions where I would have sunk every step four, six, eight inches to it being like walking on a carpet.

The down facing rim of the bucket lid with the 2X4 on the bottom of it sunk in till there was little water running in over the top of the bucket lid onto my boot soles.

I had to rasp off and gouge out the corners and straight edges on the 2X4 and cut chunks out of the outer flap of rim on the lid or the lines stood out on the mud.

The tracks are plain from it if you aren't kinda careful.

They work, freakin GREAT.
Long live Google Maps, north-side marsh pond shores, and seas of cattails, and those bucket lid marsh walkers

 

[Team Microbe]

Good points made here Cannabis -

That slanted view can really point out things the aerial view can't, huh? I like to use this to see how steep terrain is sometimes... and to judge if I can hike up/down it or not. I've also noticed if you pull the little guy into an area like you're viewing a Street View, it'll still bring you down to that area whether or not the street is highlighted. I do this in the mountains to see topography... it's pretty cool how you can tell exactly where hills dip and valleys meet with this feature.

I love that bucket idea too, kind of like swamp snow shoes eh? Wise invention indeed! You don't have any pictures of them do you?

 

[Team Microbe]

Add-Ons

Add-Ons

Sometimes states will have environmental programs that protect State Land, you can look up trail systems for these forests easily by searching Google for "*enter your state's name* Google Earth trail maps download"

I was able to find something called the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for NY's forests. This is the page it brought me to. As you can see, there are a number of different maps available here to use to our advantage in narrowing down potential site locations. Every should have an environmental department I would imagine, my state has one even and we're small compared to NY.

One of the maps I found lists all of the hiking trails in and out of forests and even labels the trails... gold mine!

What once seemed like no man's land now is looking more like a hiker's paradise. This opens up all sorts of new doors and entry ways into the remote patches we see here

Here's a trail head that leads right up into the valley between two mountains. Water is more than likely to flow down the middle of this, so finding a south facing side in the valley that isn't near the path of least resistance would work out great for a potential site. Water access, a remote location, and a trail head is all we need to pull off a nice bumper crop.

Of course, it's not as simple as that and we must prepare for encountering other hikers on this trail. Which is why establishing an alibi (depending on what fits your criteria) is important to cover your ass incase someone raises an eyebrow as to what the hell you're doing out there. I bring a tripod and my camera along with a bird watching hat and book to blend in. One could scour these mountains and litter plants however they please if they have the right alibi - if you're caught red handed on the patch you can simply say you walked up onto the plants and thought they looked cool or something simple as that. As long as you're not watering or harvesting, you cannot be linked to your patch.

I repeat - As long as you're not caught in the act of watering or harvesting, you will not be convicted of cultivation

 

[Team Microbe]

Quick Tip

Quick Tip

I've been doing some site searching myself in my state, and decided to print out a bunch of screen shots that I took of my potential locations. I typed the imagery date on the front of the packet to remind me when those pictures were taken... Bear Country and Terrapin have early May images while Buttermilk Falls has a September-based images. This can be helpful in finding areas that stay green all season long, so you know where to plant in order to remain clandestine from the air.

I feel like having a map to look at will give me more confidence to travel deeper into these forests without the fear of getting turned around and (worse case scenario) having to buckle down and stay the night. I had to do it once last year, and it was no picnic since I was in the area I dubbed Bear Country...

A GPS is also a wise idea to take with you, I'm going to finally invest in one this year I think. There have been so many places that I was hesitant to venture into due to my bad sense of direction (I'm sure some can relate), and there probably was a place or two that would've made a really great site.

 

[Cannabis]

Yeah Team Microbe it's actually called

''Tilt The View.''

The way to access the ''Tilt-The-View'' function is to :

(1) First, get to the Google Maps page. Wherever you're gonna be gazing down on.

(2) This is sorta just lines, blue for water, a kinda gray one-color scheme, for the whole thing, colored lines or something for a major highway etc.

(3) In this mode, bottom, left on your map there's a link, to making the thing photographic.

It's called Earth View I think.

LoL

(4) When you arrive at the first google maps page,
over on the right you have links, the well-known + sign, with the - sign,
and if you hover over it, it says ''Zoom''

and attached to that, is that round dot - kinda like a target, or 'pinpoint something' and then when you hover over it, it says ''Pinpoint My Location.''

When you hit the EARTH view though and make it a PHOTOGRAPHIC map,

you get a new icon with 'zoom' and 'pinpoint my location

his link icon is four, apparent squares - that sorta remind you of that four-squares icon on a keyboard, that indicates 'Windows.'

But what it actually is,

is the symbol representing seeing something, from a tilted view - as though from two or three angles:

(A) pointed directly down, which is default, when you click "Earth View",

(B) tilted a few degrees, as though the satellite is photographing out to the side when it goes by,

and I think in some instances (sorry I was too lazy to sort this out for sure, I don't know how it's invoked, or if it's artificial, a glitch)

(C) another tilt-view that seems like the satellite was photographing at yet more shallow angle.

The next technique I know of
to use the Tilt The View function

is to get over an area, and poise the mouse, over one of those

"circular-motion" indicator arrows, on the Compass.

The circular-motion indicators are active directional-rotation links you can keep clicking;

they're really small so at least on my machine,

I have to carefully hover the mouse.

Center the grow site you wanna look at - then spin it around a couple of times.

You can then, spin that same section, a few rounds then the other way -

and I find spinning it one way vs the other, I will get a sense I'm perceiving the grade accurately.

When I tried it again this time

I found after not doing it for a good while, my sense of reading grade from doing that wasn't good;

and it took me a good fifteeny minutes to get where I could settle in on any place and see distinctly, the grade in accurate perspective, rotating the view like that.

regarding marsh walkers, I only grew outside the one year here
and now I have a big well fenced yard.

I threw them away because...well, - marsh walkers? LoL I'm 54. Okay I was 52 when I built em.

But it REALLY works well especially if you're light. Properly used, you need to work em to avoid leaving prints. They're not completely magic but for a skinny guy like me
where you can hide the faint prints you DO have to make, where people don't come in much, or where grass is covering the mud,

they are way cool there is no doubt
and they can be scaled to your weight..

People sometimes make them taking old snowshoes and covering the bottom with metal, sometimes wire,
and often webbing for lawn chairs, with rivets cause of the weight.

But they're bulky, most people don't have a pair, and it's specialty work to put it together for some people; and they might not be built for the roughest handling. They're harder to hide in the woods.

If you're a heavier man you can lengthen the wood beneath them so it's longer, and bears you on more surface. I believe one could be made as good or better than what I made, by taking a piece of that 4-inch wide redwood fence plank so it's not so heavy. I sorta punted with the 2X4. I had it, I used it.

And you can leave a foot out ahead, and behind, and even use two planks side by side - for 8 inch wide distribution of the weight,

retaining the mega-slick bungee binding and lid in distributing your weight.

I'll find a bucket lid and some chunks of 2X4
and throw another one together so you can see, it's just simplicity and cheapness of parts
to the max;

a sorta Kalashnikov of swamp stealth because the best ones, are the cheapest that you can put together out of even old cracked lids or whatever, and old boards not good for anything else. Full of nail holes and termites ate into it? Great. Lid all cracked? Fantastic. I mean - to a point, ya know..

I'll see what I can do, I don't know if I can take them out to walk on the marsh but I'll try to get something going and make a thread.

Good points made here Cannabis -

That slanted view can really point out things the aerial view can't, huh? I like to use this to see how steep terrain is sometimes... and to judge if I can hike up/down it or not.

I love that bucket idea too, kind of like swamp snow shoes eh? You don't have any pictures of them do you?

LoL - I just went and downloaded Google Earth again to see what kind of features I can access. I never used it except the online google maps earth version you don't have to download. Duh!

LoL.

 

[Cannabis]

I checked out putting the Streetview guy down on a point to look around at the surrounding elevations too. I only used the really limited Google Maps/Earth online before.

When it first came out I downloaded it but never used it, it got deleted somewhere along the way. Prety able program once you know what you're doing this is interesting.

 

[jackel]

Here in norcal I like to use google earth to see how well all my neighbors gardens did. Which means every other house heh.

 

[Team Microbe]

Here in norcal I like to use google earth to see how well all my neighbors gardens did. Which means every other house heh.

 

[Swamp Thang]

This is a fantastic thread, Team Microbe. Goodle Earth is truly a god-send for the weed growing man.

To imagine that not many years ago satellite imagery was only available to the military, and now is there for the taking free of charge, is testimony to the speed at which technological advancements that once seemed almost magical, are becoming commonplace.

I have book-marked this highly informative thread, and will be tagging along for the ride here.

 

[Team Microbe]

This is a fantastic thread, Team Microbe. Goodle Earth is truly a god-send for the weed growing man.

To imagine that not many years ago satellite imagery was only available to the military, and now is there for the taking free of charge, is testimony to the speed at which technological advancements that once seemed almost magical, are becoming commonplace.

I have book-marked this highly informative thread, and will be tagging along for the ride here.

Glad to have you man

It's so true, isn't it?! I go back to 1995 and the images are barely visible... then fast forward to present time and it's a night and day difference. I was actually day dreaming this week about having a drone and a go pro that I could use to find great locations - somewhere that had enough sun but wasn't visible from above type of thing. I bet that won't be a ridiculous idea in a few years from now...

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

So I was looking at this one area on Google Earth for plots and I noticed that within the past 5 years or so all of the houses in this little area along this street DISAPPEARED. Not like abandoned, like demolished and cleaned up. As if Josef Stalin erased them from history.

Should this spook me? The houses a mile away are fine.

 

[Team Microbe]

Damn, yeah that's the only thing - it doesn't post present photos so you don't know what's there until you explore on foot. WEre you planning on growing there?

 

[MrBelvedere]

You can also buy a used small kayak or mountain bike and keep it hidden in the brush. Once you get somewhat close to your kayak, park your car and walk to the hidden kayak and get in the water and get quickly to your spot... Super easy to get a kayak in and out of water. Great tips on EARTH layers thanks!

 

[MrBelvedere]

It may be Google earth reverted to the old images before the houses were built? Are trees showing now? Or cleared land before they built the houses? I seen that happen sometimes.