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 🙂
- Pick an area
Take a look at the recent walks because we want to vary the parts of the city that we visit. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - Confirm the stops
Call the pubs on the Wednesday to make reservations – that leaves time for replanning if they can’t fit us in.
2 thoughts on “How to plan a walk”