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The Northwest Trails Project


Moun10Bike

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Northwest Trails v1.09 has been posted. I went ahead and added the Alaska data I had to this version, which increases the download size (although most of that increase is due to the increased size of the background map). Here's the full change list:

  • Incorporated trail data for Alaska from various GIS sources:
    • Chugach National Forest trails from the Alaska State Geo-Spatial Data Clearinghouse
    • Municipality of Anchorage trails from the Municipality of Anchorage web site
    • National Parks trails from the National Park Service's Alaska Region web page:
      • Denali National Park
      • Katmai National Park and Preserve (including detailed Brooks Camp data)
      • Kenai Fjords National Park
      • Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Site (including the Chilcoot Trail)
      • Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
      • Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve

      [*]FSGeodata Clearinghouse (mostly Tongass National Forest and surrounding areas)

    [*]Expanded background map to include Alaska

    [*]Adjustments to positioning of some trails in the Snoqualmie Tree Farm

    [*]Adjusted attribution of buildings (areas) in order to improve visibility and labeling

    [*]Corrected some type attribution on trails in the Cherry Hill area (Duvall, WA)

    [*]Added trails of Bridle Trails State Park (Kirkland, WA) from map available at the Bridle Trails Park Foundation web site

    [*]Added trail in Henderson Park (Victoria, BC) from data available on GPXchange.com

    [*]Added trails in Moran State Park from paper map provided by nolenator and complemented by data from topo maps

    [*]Added GPS data:

    • Clise Park (Mercer Island, WA)
    • Lake Roesiger (WA)
    • Horse Falls Trail (Whittier, AK)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of lucyandrickie:

    • Umtanum Canyon Trails (Yakima Canyon, WA)
    • Additional refinements on Chuckanut Mountain (Oyster Trail and other intersecting trails)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of The Jester:

    • Philip Arnold Park/Towers of Power trails (Renton, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of FunnyNose:

    • Tukwila Pond (Tukwila, WA)
    • Schmitz Park (Seattle, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of dsvaughn:

    • Some trails of Lake Sammamish State Park (Issaquah, WA)
    • Additional trails in Klahanie neighborhood and around Yellow Lake (Issaquah, WA)
    • Wynn Jones Park (Port Orchard, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of MarcusArelius:

    • Upper Kelsey Creek Park (Bellevue, WA)
    • Mercer Slough (Bellevue, WA)
    • Refinement of some Marymoor Park trails (Redmond, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of popop:

    • Drift Creek Falls trails (OR)
    • Bluebill Lake Trail (Coos Bay, OR)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of LandRover:

    • Trails in Spring Lake/Lake Desire Park (Cedar Mountain, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Raman Sarin:

    • Additional refinement to some trails in Tolt-MacDonald Park (Carnation, WA)
    • Additional refinement to some of the Tokul West trails

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Lightning Jeff:

    • Road to Christmas Lake (near North Bend, WA)

Download is available from the Northwest Trails page

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Alright, you guys convinced me its time to upgrade my MeriPlat to a Garmin... Now all I need to do is convince the bank. :)

 

Can I have it??? :)

It might be a peace of junk by the time I can replace it. It did a suprise factory reset on me on the trail on Sunday.

 

What exactly did it do?

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Alright, you guys convinced me its time to upgrade my MeriPlat to a Garmin... Now all I need to do is convince the bank. :)

 

Can I have it??? :)

It might be a peace of junk by the time I can replace it. It did a suprise factory reset on me on the trail on Sunday.

 

What exactly did it do?

It did a factory reset. I had to reinitialize it right there on the trail.

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Alright, you guys convinced me its time to upgrade my MeriPlat to a Garmin... Now all I need to do is convince the bank. :)

 

Can I have it??? :)

It might be a peace of junk by the time I can replace it. It did a suprise factory reset on me on the trail on Sunday.

 

What exactly did it do?

It did a factory reset. I had to reinitialize it right there on the trail.

 

Were the batteries good? I've had my Gold do funky things when the batteries were low. Sometimes it has half the screen displayed before it switched off completely.

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Alright, you guys convinced me its time to upgrade my MeriPlat to a Garmin... Now all I need to do is convince the bank. :)

 

This thread also has me convinced to switch/upgrade to a Garmin. You all are having too much fun!

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Alright, you guys convinced me its time to upgrade my MeriPlat to a Garmin... Now all I need to do is convince the bank. :)

 

This thread also has me convinced to switch/upgrade to a Garmin. You all are having too much fun!

 

No wonder I had to help you find caches! :)

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Alright, you guys convinced me its time to upgrade my MeriPlat to a Garmin... Now all I need to do is convince the bank. :)

 

Can I have it??? :)

It might be a peace of junk by the time I can replace it. It did a suprise factory reset on me on the trail on Sunday.

 

What exactly did it do?

It did a factory reset. I had to reinitialize it right there on the trail.

 

Were the batteries good? I've had my Gold do funky things when the batteries were low. Sometimes it has half the screen displayed before it switched off completely.

Yah I've seen the half screen issue. The batteries were good. I appreciate the troubleshoot help, but this bad boy has gone through and into rivers with me. I'm suspecting corrosion is finally getting the better end of it.

 

btw, if we continue this although I don't see the need, let's take it off line and not hijaak the thread. Sorry guys!

Edited by TotemLake
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Alright, you guys convinced me its time to upgrade my MeriPlat to a Garmin... Now all I need to do is convince the bank. :)

 

Can I have it??? :)

It might be a peace of junk by the time I can replace it. It did a suprise factory reset on me on the trail on Sunday.

 

What exactly did it do?

It did a factory reset. I had to reinitialize it right there on the trail.

 

Were the batteries good? I've had my Gold do funky things when the batteries were low. Sometimes it has half the screen displayed before it switched off completely.

Yah I've seen the half screen issue. The batteries were good. I appreciate the troubleshoot help, but this bad boy has gone through and into rivers with me. I'm suspecting corrosion is finally getting the better end of it.

 

btw, if we continue this although I don't see the need, let's take it off line and not hijaak the thread. Sorry guys!

Email sent. This thread has me somewhat thinking about switching too, but I like my Magellans better, plus I couldn't afford to make the change.

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I was happy to see the inclusion of the Alaskan Trail system. I will load them up into my GPS and watch for any missing trails as I do some serious hiking the summer with the newest addition to the mouse clan (MicroMouse). I was surprised that I haven't seen NorthWes or Lady Bug Kids posting about Alaska trails, since they seem to do lots of serious hiking adventures. I will send them a note and have them read this forum.

 

MamaMouse

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After updating my Vista HCx to 2.60/2.60 back in Feb (?) I starting seeing an issue where my accuracy would go off 100+ ft and the only way to fix the issue would be to power the unit on/off. Sometimes its much more drastic, putting me off over 200ft. This happens often while on longer hikes, such as on Sunday when I experienced this around 10 times.

 

Apparently there are a number of Vista HCx users experiencing this after updating and it sounds like some Colorado users are also experiencing this, although I'm not sure on the firmware/software version this is suppose to happen with on those units.

 

In another thread over in GPS Units and Software, someone who has been in contact with Garmin has found that support there are caught up on the fact that this particular person is using a custom map. If anyone here is experiencing this perhaps you'd like to chime in over on this thread.

 

While I'm fairly certain that I experienced this prior to using NW Trails, my kid likes to point out that I'm often wrong, so who knows. I point to the above thread as to not derail this one, simply hoping that as all the users here are likely using a custom map they might be in a position to help provide info to determine if there is an issue using custom maps... in general, not just NW Trails... please no one take this as I'm pointing a finger to this great project. I'm not :laughing: .

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I have had no such problems with my 60cx. The 60cx has a Sirf chip in it the etrex HCX series uses a MediaTek chip. Different manufacturers. The MediaTek chip seems to have had more bugs in it than the Sirf chip. I would be more likely to blame the buggy chipset than the maps. One thing I always do when updating the software/firmware is pull the sd card out first. Seems to avoid all the problems with updates.

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I have had no such problems with my 60cx. The 60cx has a Sirf chip in it the etrex HCX series uses a MediaTek chip. Different manufacturers. The MediaTek chip seems to have had more bugs in it than the Sirf chip. I would be more likely to blame the buggy chipset than the maps. One thing I always do when updating the software/firmware is pull the sd card out first. Seems to avoid all the problems with updates.

 

That's correct, this appears to be an issue limited to units using MediaTek chips, presumably why it is affecting also some Colorado users (I haven't read the various threads regarding the Colorado issues, just know that at least *some* Colorado's use MediaTek and those reporting this issue report having a MediaTek chip).

 

Garmin seems to be having a lot of issues with these chips, fixing one issue only to create another, with the issue I'm referring to appearing in the latest firmware/software for the HCx. Not sure the firmware/software on the Colorado.

 

I absolutely agree that its not NW Trails (or other custom maps) causing the issue, but rather the software/firmware/chipset (even if it ends up being that those aren't playing nice with custom maps) :laughing:

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Sorry for the long post but someone asked me how you go about mapping hiking trails for the NW trails project so I thought I’d take a few minutes to write it down. Now, I’m not the expert, so comment’s and corrections are welcome.

 

First off you need to configure the track settings on your GPSr. Of course the specifics of how to do this will vary by model. Since the Garmin 60 series is one of the more popular models I will use it as a reference (and that’s the one I’m looking at while writing this). Other models should have similar features but the options may be named differently.

 

From the main menu of the Garmin 60 select “Tracks” and then select “Setup”. For the recording method you can select “Time”, “Distance”, or ‘Auto”. Distance is more useful for driving than hiking. Automatic is too vague for me. I like the Time method. The interval increment options will differ depending of the method that you chose. In order to accurately map the turns in the trail (especially switchbacks) it is important to record as many points as possible. You could set the interval to one second but that’s a bit of overkill.

 

To determine an optimal interval you must first know how many track points your GPSr can store before filling up and wrapping, or stopping (depending on your setup choice). Most Garmins can store 10,000 track points. Therefore, if you set a time interval of 1 second the memory would fill up in 2.7 hours which is shorter than most hikes (for me anyway). Two seconds will give you 5.5 hours. However, I find a 3 second time interval optimal. That results in 8.3 hours of track time and that produces a point every 8 feet at 2mph, 14 feet at 3mph, 19 feet at 4mph, or 23 feet at 5mph.

 

Another useful option on models with the micro data card (i.e. 60c) is the ability to automatically store track as .gpx files on the data card. Select “Data Card Setup” from the same page as the other track settings and check “Log Track To Data Card”. In addition to the normal track log it will create one .gpx file for each day and I’d be surprised to see more than 2-3 percent of the SD card consumed with track data. I haven’t played with this feature much but you can store more than 10,000 points in multiple tracks for a day. I just not sure if you can store more than 10,000 points per track. Anyway, if you forget to download your track after the hike with this option enabled you can always go back and find it (the regular track clear doesn’t delete the .gpx files)

 

However, you should make it a habit to clear the track memory before you start your hike. This is especially important if you choose not to “Wrap when Full” and don’t have the log to SD card feature. Otherwise, your drive to the trailhead may waste some of the track memory. Also make sure to waypoint the trailhead before you start hiking.

 

While hiking the GPSr should be oriented so that it maintains a satellite lock. For Garmins with an “x” in the model number (Sirf star III chip) this isn’t hard, but for units with patch antennas you may need to hold the unit flat, for a helix antenna upright is the best position, or use an external antenna. I just use the belt clip to attach my 60Cx to the chest strap of my pack. I also like to waypoint all the trail intersections that I pass by. Sometimes I will walk a short way down the side trail to make it stand out in the track log. If possible try to take a different return route back to the car to map more trails. Turn the GPSr off when you get back to the trailhead. You can turn it back on for the drive home but this will create separate tracks for the hike and the drive home.

 

When you get home upload the track data to your PC. I use Garmin’s MapSource to upload and visualize the track data (Transfer, Receive from Device, Track/Waypoints). If it’s not visible then click on the “Tracks” tab then right click the track and select “Show Selected On Map”. Hopefully, you will see a single continuous track. You should have NW Trails installed so select it from the drop-down list or use “View”, “Switch To Product” to select it. If the trail is already shown in NW Trails it may be from old GIS data, your track data is still useful for validation purposes. That’s how I discovered that West Tiger 3 had been re-routed.

 

Now the track data needs some clean up. Delete any cache waypoints and any tracks that were not from you hike. If you forgot to clear the track log before the hike or you left the GPSr on while you drove home then the points before and/or after the hike need to be deleted. Here is a neat MapSource trick. Zoom all the way in to the trailhead then click “Tools” and “Selection” (or click the arrow in the toolbar). Now right-click on one of the track segments from the parking lot to the trail head and select “Track Properties” from the pop-up menu. This will open the list of track points with that particular segment highlighted in the list. Scroll up or down depending if you are trying to remove the drive to or from the trailhead then hold down the shift key and click the first or last point. The selected points should now be highlighted on the map. If the right segments are selected press the delete key, otherwise start over. You have to press the OK key after each edit.

 

Track points continued to be produced when you stop for a breather (or to hunt a cache) so those points should be removed also. While zoomed in use the “Hand” tool to scroll along the trail. The area to be removed will look like a big splotch from the GPSr wandering while you are still. Use the same technique as above to highlight a track segment outside of the splotch area. Now use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to highlight the segment just before the splotch. Next use the shift-click method to highlight all the segments in the splotch. You may need to select several pages of points to get the whole splotch. Don’t worry if you over select, just shift-click again on some previous point. Press the OK button. When you are done editing save the file and e-mail it to Moun10bike.

 

Lastly, if you accidentally cleared the track data you can recover it from the .gpx files on the SD card if you had previously enabled “Log Track To Data Card”. From the Main menu select “Setup” and then “Interface”. Select "USB Mass Storage" and the GPSr basically becomes a thumb drive attached to you PC. You can access it like any other removable media by double-clicking the “My Computer” icon on your desktop. Just drag and drop the files wherever you want. When you disconnect the GPSr if will revert to normal operation.

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Another useful option on models with the micro data card (i.e. 60c) is the ability to automatically store track as .gpx files on the data card. Select “Data Card Setup” from the same page as the other track settings and check “Log Track To Data Card”. In addition to the normal track log it will create one .gpx file for each day and I’d be surprised to see more than 2-3 percent of the SD card consumed with track data. I haven’t played with this feature much but you can store more than 10,000 points in multiple tracks for a day. I just not sure if you can store more than 10,000 points per track. Anyway, if you forget to download your track after the hike with this option enabled you can always go back and find it (the regular track clear doesn’t delete the .gpx files)

 

However, you should make it a habit to clear the track memory before you start your hike. This is especially important if you choose not to “Wrap when Full” and don’t have the log to SD card feature. Otherwise, your drive to the trailhead may waste some of the track memory. Also make sure to waypoint the trailhead before you start hiking.

 

If your Garmin X series is set to save tracks to the data card your track log size is only limited by the amout of free space on the card.

One trick I try to do is turn my GPS off and an just before and after my hikes, this creates a new track log to the memory card and I dont have to worry about the before and after track points.

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Is it possible to use GPSBabel to translate them to Magellan Mapsend format?

 

I think that you are asking if GPSBabel can translate .gpx files to mapsend files. Although I am not a maggie user a quick internet search indicates that it is possible.

 

If your Garmin X series is set to save tracks to the data card your track log size is only limited by the amout of free space on the card.

One trick I try to do is turn my GPS off and an just before and after my hikes, this creates a new track log to the memory card and I dont have to worry about the before and after track points.

 

Thanks for the info, I haven't played with the SD card much yet. I should have clarified that when you enable “Log Track To Data Card” that the track points are actually stored in two places at the same time. In the track log and in the .gpx file on the SD card. Both can store multiple tracks but the log is limited to 10,000 points

 

I did mention to clear the track log before the hike and to turn the unit off afterwards. If you only turn it off and on before the hike you don't clear the track log memory and that is all that some people have. But if you forget....

 

Update: I just did a test and confirmed that individual tracks in the .gpx file on the SD card can indeed hold more than 10,000 points. So if you have a unit with a SD card you can create a VERY large track, if you have a Vista or something else your stuck with 10K. One interesting point is that since I have the wrapping feature enabled the log maxed out at 10K and was eating away at the oldest data points. However, all the data was in the track stored in the gpx file on the SD card. In other words the wrap feature only affects the log and not the .gpx file.

Edited by MarcusArelius
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Waypoints are maps are two very different items. A GPX file is simply a grouping of waypoints. GPSBabel was created to manipulate waypoints, not maps. Per the GPSBabel home page:

 

"It does not convert, transfer, send, or manipulate maps. We process data that may (or may not be) placed on a map, such as waypoints, tracks, and routes."

 

Garmin and Magellan are competitors and have different proprietary map formats so I don't think that they are going to help and provide any conversion tools. Some smart programmer out there may have a third party tool but I don't know of it. This guy below seems to know something though :ph34r:

 

Just a note for Magellan users, I've found a way to make custom maps, but I've had some problems with an trial map, so stay tuned. I found out how to combine saved tracks, but haven't been able to get them to show up on the GPS.

Edited by MarcusArelius
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You can, but do not have to turn the gps off and back on to begin a new track. You can go to "track" in the menu and select the "off" (stop recording track) radio button there, and then select "on" again and that will start a new track record in both the gps and the card. (of coarse this does not clear the tracks already recorded; you need to do that seperately)

 

I'll add that this is the world according to the 60cx at least.

Edited by EraSeek
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Possible useful info from another topic:

Well, on March 31st, the US Census Department released all kinds of fancy new data on to their website, including features like rivers, lakes, streams, roads (with names and address information), power lines, some trail information, etc.

 

Thank you! I generally ignored TIGER data since it was so often WAY off, and trails were few and far between, but I decided to take a look at this release. While some of it is still of questionable quality, some of the counties have some useful data. I'll start working on integrating the better data.

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Northwest Trails v1.10 is now available. The full list of changes is available below.

 

The biggest addition to this release is arguably the trail data from the Census Bureau's newly-released 2007 TIGER shapefiles. I've always more or less ignored TIGER data in the past because of its inaccuracy, but when I looked at this data I saw some useful trail information. I started extracting trail data from the more populous counties and then began working my way down to smaller counties. By the time I was just partway through Washington I saw that there was little useful data in some whole states (e.g. Wyoming) and most counties, so I will not try extracting any additional TIGER data unless someone indicates that they need/want it. What is in there now has the potential to be like the FSGeodata Clearinghouse data in that it could be highly inaccurate (most of the TIGER data has never been confirmed in the field), but I tried to weed out the obviously erroneous data and stick with data that looked reasonably accurate or at least gave a reasonable reference point.

  • Corrected some errors in the Spring Lake/Lake Desire Park trails (Cedar Mountain, WA) pointed out by LandRover
  • Corrected the intersection of Dwight's Trail and the Lingering Loop Trail on Tiger Mountain (WA) thanks to info from AndrewRJ
  • Removed some trails in the Priest Lake, ID area from FSGeodatabase Clearinghouse that were confirmed as no longer in existence
  • Removed some trails in the Coos Bay, OR area from FSGeodatabase Clearinghouse that were confirmed by popop as no longer in existence
  • Changed line style on some paved roads in the database to make them appear thinner and less like arterials
  • Added trail data obtained from City of Portland (OR) Corporate GIS
  • Added trail data extracted from 2007 TIGER/Line Shapefiles from the U.S. Census Bureau:
    • Idaho:
      • Ada County
      • Clearwater County
      • Kootenai County
      • Latah County
      • Shoshone County

      [*]Montana:

      • Missoula County

      [*]Oregon:

      • Clackamas County
      • Multnomah County

      [*]Washington:

      • Adams County
      • Asotin County
      • Chelan County
      • Clallam County
      • Clark County
      • Cowlitz County
      • Jefferson County
      • King County
      • Kittitas County
      • Pierce County
      • San Juan County
      • Skagit County
      • Snohomish County
      • Spokane County
      • Thurston County
      • Whatcom County
      • Whitman County
      • Yakima County

    [*]Added GPS data:

    • Jonathan Hartman Park (Redmond, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of luckykoi:

    • Cape Flattery Trail (Olympic Peninsula, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of dsvaughn:

    • Additional Snoqualmie Ridge trails (Snoqualmie, WA)
    • Trail connecting Artifacts Trail to Karl's Gap on Tiger Mountain (WA)
    • Trail leading up to Karl's Peak on Tiger Mountain (WA)
    • Short trails in Redmond Watershed (WA) connecting the parking lot to the trail system near the bathrooms
    • Sammamish Commons (Sammamish, WA)
    • Pine Lake Park (Sammamish, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of B+L and hydnsek:

    • Additional trail and trailhead in the Vashon Island Central Forest

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Kent Okeson, Allanon, EraSeek and lucyandrickie:

    • Centennial Trail in Snohomish County (WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of AndrewRJ:

    • Additional trails in the Trilogy area (Redmond, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of The Jester:

    • Corrections and additional data in Spring Lake/Lake Desire Park (Cedar Mountain, WA)
    • Additional Cedar River trails (Maple Valley, WA)
    • Corrections and additional data on Taylor Mountain (WA)
    • Corrections and additional data on Mima Mounds (WA)
    • Some small adjustments to Fauntleroy Park (Seattle, WA)
    • Additional data for Salmon Creek Ravine (Seattle, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Lightning Jeff:

    • O'Grady Park (Green River, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Forty-n-Eight and OldBaldEagle:

    • Additional roads and trails in the Wallace Falls area (WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of woodman5898:

    • Portion of the Pacific Crest Trail near Stabler, WA

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Bob Cromwell:

    • Refinement of the Elwha River Trail (WA)
    • Refinement of the Mount Townsend Trail (WA)
    • Private roads and trails on Blakely Island (San Juans, WA)
    • Rock Meadows trails (Sammamish, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of MarcusArelius:

    • Timberline Park (Bellevue, WA)

Download is available from the Northwest Trails page.

Edited by Moun10Bike
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Win a Garmin Colorado 300!

 

(I hope that doesn't come across as spam-like...)

 

Garmin recently contacted me asking to use the trail data compiled in Northwest Trails for an upcoming product. In exchange, I asked for and was granted some swag that I want to give out to those who contribute to the project.

 

I thought about the best way to give out the limited supply of goodies and decided that, for a big-ticket item like the Colorado 300, I would hold a "sweepstakes." I ran this idea past Groundspeak and got their blessing to post about it here.

 

So, here goes: in order to keep up the flow of great data that has been submitted so far to the Northwest Trails Project, I am going to give everyone who submits usable trail data to the project in the month of June an entry in a drawing for this brand-new, still-in-the-box Garmin Colorado 300. The brief rules are:

  • Only submissions received between midnight the morning of June 1st and midnight the evening of June 30th are eligible
  • Only data in the Northwest Trails coverage area counts (WA, ID, OR, MT, WY, BC and AK)
  • Each user will receive one (1) entry in the drawing for every 0.1 mile of usable GPS trail data that he or she contributes to the project. "Usable GPS trail data" means:
    • The tracks (and associated waypoints) are recorded using the methods described in the "Data Contribution" section of the Northwest Trails web page and further described in posts above from MarcusArelius and EraSeek.
    • Only tracks representing trails (dirt, paved or other) will count; roads will not UNLESS the roads are an integral part of a trail network AND do not appear in Garmin's City Navigator 2008 software
    • Trails that already exist in the latest version of Northwest Trails do not count UNLESS the submitted trail is a GPS recording of a currently non-GPS-verified trail

That's it (unless someone points out holes in these rules)! I hope that this sounds like fun for everyone and I look forward to your submissions. Remember, Northwest Trails is a community project that directly benefits everyone, so in truth we all win when data is submitted.

 

Thanks!

 

Jon

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Neat incentive - thanks!

Trails that already exist in the latest version of Northwest Trails do not count UNLESS the submitted trail is a GPS recording of a currently non-GPS-verified trail

Is there a way to discern the source (GPS track or not) of a particular trail from "our" end?

 

Not really. If there is a significant variance between your track and the track on the map, then it likely was never recorded by GPS. By significant, I mean the kind of thing that makes you say, "that is WAY off!" Some of the government-created GIS data is like this; I can only assume that at some point someone traced such data off of a low-detail map.

 

Overall, I don't think that there is much worry about duplication at this point. Check the revision history if you aren't sure something has been recorded yet. Basically I included this rule to prevent some yahoo from running the same small circle of trail next to his house again and again and submitting it each time for additional mileage! :anibad:

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I have heard about the issues on some mapping DLs on which I am a member. I have been checking out the MapSource beta for the last couple of days (not using it fully due to other bugs) and have seen no issues with Northwest Trails - everything works fine. Some of the other custom maps I had installed though, like Oregon Topos, I had to uninstall to get the beta to work.

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Northwest Trails v1.11 has been posted to the Northwest Trails page.

 

If you live in or near Bellevue, you might be as happy as I am - Abby (hydnsek) sent me a link to the City of Bellevue web pages and upon digging around I discovered that they had just posted their latest GIS data at the end of May. I was able to find trails hiding in the "rec.zip" file and it turned out to be a gold mine - trails with excellent detail and accuracy for all of the parks in the city. I wish other cities would do the same!

 

Here's the full change list:

  • Added parking lot waypoint for Sammamish Commons
  • Added GPS data for an unnamed trail near Pe Ell, WA
  • Small additions, deletions and edits of roads and trails on and near Taylor Mountain (near Issaquah, WA)
  • Refined the Puget Power Trail from the Sammamish River Trail to Avondale using aerial imagery (Redmond, WA)
  • Integrated trail data obtained from the City of Bellevue's (WA) GIS site (thanks to hydnsek for directing me to this site)
  • Added GPS data courtesy of EraSeek:
    • Pine Ridge Park (Edmonds, WA)
    • Edmonds Community College trails (Edmonds, WA)
    • Interurban Trail section (Mill Creek, WA)
    • Arlington Airport trails (Arlington, WA)
    • Skagit County Airport trails (Mount Vernon, WA)
    • Yost Park (Edmonds, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of TrekkingTurtles:

    • Oak Bottom Trail (Portland, OR)
    • Powell Butte Nature Area (Portland, OR)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of bazzle:

    • Verification of the Esplanade Trail along with associated waypoints (Portland, OR)
    • Munra Point Trail (Bonneville, OR)
    • Cannon Trail (Forest Park in Portland, OR)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of oleruns:

    • Davis Trail (Anchorage, AK)
    • Muldoon Park (Anchorage, AK)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Prying Pandora:

    • Green River Community College trails (Auburn, WA)
    • Trail off of SE 288th St. in Maple Valley, WA

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Raman Sarin:

    • Additional trails in Griffin Creek area (Fall City, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of dsvaughn:

    • Tuscany trails (Redmond, WA)
    • Some additional detail and adjustments for Sammamish Commons (Sammamish, WA)
    • Plateau Club trail (Sammamish, WA)
    • Nike Park (Redmond, WA)
    • Paved neighborhood trail connecting Audubon Ridge to 228th Ave. SE (Sammamish, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Allanon:

    • Al Borlin Park (Monroe, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Bob Cromwell:

    • Grand Ridge entrance trail and spur off of 284th Ave. SE (Issaquah, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of ruck:

    • Banner Forest trails (Banner, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of MarcusArelius:

    • Around Lake Washington Loop - I-90 Trail, Elliott Bay Trail, Burke Gilman Trail, Sammamish River Trail (Seattle and the Eastside, WA)
    • Around Lake Sammamish Loop - 520 Trail, I-90 Trail, East Lake Sammamish Trail, Marymoor Park trails, Redmond Town Center trails (Bellevue, Redmond, Sammamish and Issaquah, WA)
    • Gated logging road and minor trail near the Green River (WA)
    • Several roads and waypoints in the Snoqualmie Pass area (WA)
    • Timberlake Park (Bellevue, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of Forty-n-Eight:

    • Afterglow Vista Mausoleum Trail (Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of monkey360:

    • Trails and road near Christmas Lake (near North Bend, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of hydnsek:

    • Far Country Falls Trail on Cougar Mountain (Bellevue, WA)
    • Doughty Falls Trail on Cougar Mountain (Bellevue, WA)
    • Updates to Coal Creek Trail (Bellevue and Newcastle, WA)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of bigeddy:

    • Phil's Trail and Kent's Trail (near Bend, OR)

    [*]Added GPS data courtesy of The Jester:

    • Additional data for Taylor Mountain (near Issaquah, WA)
    • North Meridian Park trails (Kent, WA)

Download is available from the Northwest Trails page

Edited by Moun10Bike
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This whole project is nice and all but living in New York it doesn't help me very much. (Don't hold it against me too much).

 

Would there be any objection to start a project like this in my area and utilize the general data than can be shared between the two? Don't want to step on any toes or violate copyright laws.

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This whole project is nice and all but living in New York it doesn't help me very much. (Don't hold it against me too much).

 

Would there be any objection to start a project like this in my area and utilize the general data than can be shared between the two? Don't want to step on any toes or violate copyright laws.

 

Definitely no problem - there's no monopoly on the creation of maps! I doubt that there's any general data that can be shared between the two areas, though. New York is completely disconnected from the Northwest and thus there will be no sources serving both.

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This is great data. Is there any possibility of getting it as a shapefile, so that I could add it into my own transparent contour maps?

 

The data is prohibitively large for me to post as a shapefile. However, if you are already making maps, you will find it is easy to extract the trails from the .IMG files. You will be missing all of my attributions, but you will have the trail name, line type and of course the geometry.

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This whole project is nice and all but living in New York it doesn't help me very much. (Don't hold it against me too much).

 

Would there be any objection to start a project like this in my area and utilize the general data than can be shared between the two? Don't want to step on any toes or violate copyright laws.

 

Definitely no problem - there's no monopoly on the creation of maps! I doubt that there's any general data that can be shared between the two areas, though. New York is completely disconnected from the Northwest and thus there will be no sources serving both.

 

The bottom of the page: http://www.switchbacks.com/maps/NW_Trails.html

has this on it "Copyright © 2008 Jon F. Stanley" so I feel the need to ask. I would like to copy what you have written for my own page too (with a couple additions giving you credit, and changing the areas in which will be covered). I suck at writting content, and this would save me at least that step.

 

I will start with what I can get from GIS, but unmarked trails I will need some help from fellow hikers/bikers by having them submit their tracks. So this I would like to copy your web page basically. I'll give credit even close with the copyright if you want, just whatever is neccessary to avoid p****** off a moderator and founder of my new favorite hobby.

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I am definately gonna have to figure out how to contribute to this wunnerful project. The other day I found myself out on the Boulder River trail (which is not my favorite place to be) and we nearly went all the way to the end. Had I known we were going that far into a trail that I don't even like I mighta made sure and stop/start my track. Alas, we didn't go all the way so I didn't feel too guilty about not getting new info.

 

However, zip forward to yesterday and we were carousing near Mukilteo and we happened upon the famous Japanese Gulch. We had stopped because I noticed cars parked alongside the road and that's a sure sign that something is up, right? So we followed the trail down towards the water and at the bottom of the trail is the Japanese Gulch sign - had I but known where we were I could have done the stop/start on the track. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'll be going back there - maybe by then I'll have gotten the hang of contributing and not just mooching.

 

Thanks! Thanks! And thanks again!!

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I would like to copy what you have written for my own page too (with a couple additions giving you credit, and changing the areas in which will be covered). I suck at writting content, and this would save me at least that step.

 

No problem - my site is cobbled together from many other sites as well!

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I would like to copy what you have written for my own page too (with a couple additions giving you credit, and changing the areas in which will be covered). I suck at writting content, and this would save me at least that step.

 

No problem - my site is cobbled together from many other sites as well!

 

Awsome! Now I just have some work cut out for me.

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I just keep my track log recording 24/7 - you never know when you are going to stumble upon something you wish you were recording!

 

Ditto, I never start down a trail without the GPS on.

 

And as long as your GPS is on, even if you don't stop/start the track, you can always edit out the extraneous points after the fact as outlined in a previous post.

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This is great data. Is there any possibility of getting it as a shapefile, so that I could add it into my own transparent contour maps?

 

The data is prohibitively large for me to post as a shapefile. However, if you are already making maps, you will find it is easy to extract the trails from the .IMG files. You will be missing all of my attributions, but you will have the trail name, line type and of course the geometry.

 

I was able to save Washington State to an .mp using unregistered MapEdit. I was examining the Norway Pass trail at Mt. St. Helens. When I import it into GM9, I see what appear to be multiple jagged tracklogs rather than the single smooth trail shapes I see in MapSource. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Also, does this project, or one you are aware of extend to Utah? I've got some tracklogs for Canyonlands, Arches, and Escalante Grand Staircase.

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