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Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer
Did you read the part about significant field time?
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I did. I came to the conclusion that while I was not qualified to talk about tactical considerations such as gear, since I'd been helping guys plan missions (including many forms of collection, not unlike the surveying discussed here) for several years now and have a fair amount of expertise in things like human terrain and geospatial IPB, I probably had something of value to add to the discussion.
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Originally Posted by The Reaper
Since we are talking cultural anthropology, which is a significant topic for SF, I would mark my modern topo map with the Spanish missions and other settlements and would try to route from one to the next as lay-up points, rather than relying on straight line movement. Frankly, I might be willing to temporarily convert and winter over in a mission, rather than a tent, teepee, tarp covered sod hut, etc.
TR
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In addition to obvious terrain and water data, before leaving you're going to want to consult with historians and ecologists to build geospatial data layers for your laptop's FalconView (or, if you want to go old school, plastic transparent overlays for your maps):
- Spanish missions
- French fur trapper "rendevous" locations
- Indian tribal boundaries, settlements (with notes on basic language, customs, and inter-tribe relations...each assessed for potential use as an ally, trading partner, lay-up location, etc)
- Weather patterns (to the extent that its available...if its not you can probably extrapolate backwards from existing data and almanacs)
- Animal populations and migratory patterns (when you reach the plains, you'll want to cross reference the buffalo migration patterns with Indian population data to predict your best routes for avoiding/contacting Indian hunting parties)
- Population/settlement data for areas east of the Mississippi (trading posts and frontier forts will be of particular value to assure that you're able to resupply before setting out into truly unsettled territory)
All this in addition to the obvious terrain analysis (cross referencing climate, security, availability of food and water, proximity to humans, etc) you'd do to identify and rate as many natural lilly pads as possible. This analysis will be particularly important if you are injured or fall sick and have to deviate from your primary route.
Also, if we're not worried about polluting the timeline, I'm curious if anyone would consider using superior technology to recruit (coerce?) Indian populations into assisting you? Maybe as a backup plan? (Precedent: Spanish conquistadors.) Its potentially a high-risk, high-reward tactic and maybe not in the spirit of the challenge anyway, but still an interesting option.