How to plan a walk

Firstly, thank you for offering to lead a photo walk!

Here are the steps I follow (and recommend everyone else follow) when planning a walk, however if you find a better way please let me know 🙂

1. Pick an area
   Take a look at the recent walks because we want to vary the parts of the city that we visit.

2. Create a map
   I still use the “classic” Google maps because the new version has too many bells & whistles – I just want to draw some lines! (I also struggle to export KML info from the new map tool.)
   Go into “My Places” and under the big button to “create a new map” there is a little link that says “create with classic My Maps” – that’s the one you want.

3. Sketch the route
   I tend to drop a pin at each potential pub (because I find that’s the biggest challenge to planning a route – finding somewhere that’ll be able to handle 30 people for lunch) and then work back from there to the TTC (either subway station or decent bus route).
   I aim for ~3.8km (2.3 miles) in the morning and ~5.3km (3.3 miles) in the afternoon, but a couple of recent walks have gone for lunch a bit later so changed the distances accordingly.
   Use the “draw a line” tool to sketch out the route – don’t use “Draw a line along roads” because it will force you to obey one-way streets etc.

4. Review the plan
   If you add me (phenman@gmail.com) as a “collaborator” for the map, then let me know when you’re happy with it, and I’ll be able to post to the website, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and our Gmail calendar.

5. Post the details
   I aim to post the info the weekend before the walk, even if it’s just a skeleton and we add more details over the next couple of days.
   Note: I’ll need your cell phone# too, so that walkers can contact you if they’re late/lost on walk day.

6. Confirm the stops
   Call the pubs on the Wednesday to make reservations – that leaves time for replanning if they can’t fit us in.