Local trail maps

[+user13371]

Over the weekend, my wife and I decided to go hiking in a local park. I went to Portland's Parks & Recreatiuon website, downloaded a PDF, and managed to trace a few trails in Google Earth to put on my GPS.

 

This morning, I emailed the Parks & Recreation Department and asked if they had trail maps in either GPX or KMZ format available for download from their website. A few hours later I got back a reply basically sayin "Not on the website, yet, but we'll look into doing that. But in the meantime, attached is a KMZ file of all the official trails..."

 

How cool is that?!?

 

In the meantime, if you live in Portland Oregon and want these, go to their website http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/ and hit the "Contact Us" link. Ask nicely -- I imagine if they get a flurry of requests it might grease the wheels a bit to get them posted online. But if they get overwhelemd or folks are too demanding, they might just say "Sorry, no..."

[jholly]

Over the weekend, my wife and I decided to go hiking in a local park. I went to Portland's Parks & Recreatiuon website, downloaded a PDF, and managed to trace a few trails in Google Earth to put on my GPS.

 

This morning, I emailed the Parks & Recreation Department and asked if they had trail maps in either GPX or KMZ format available for download from their website. A few hours later I got back a reply basically sayin "Not on the website, yet, but we'll look into doing that. But in the meantime, attached is a KMZ file of all the official trails..."

 

How cool is that?!?

 

In the meantime, if you live in Portland Oregon and want these, go to their website http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/ and hit the "Contact Us" link. Ask nicely -- I imagine if they get a flurry of requests it might grease the wheels a bit to get them posted online. But if they get overwhelemd or folks are too demanding, they might just say "Sorry, no..."

 

Aren't most of the trails in Northwest Trails? Granted the Switchback.com website is Garmin centric but TotemLake does the Delorme version and posts them on his website. Of course there is a whole lot more than just Oregon available.

 

Jim

[+user13371]

Switchback/Northwest Trails does have some of Portland's trails, what the city sent me has a lot more.

Edited January 21, 2010 by lee_rimar

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

I agree. Land managers often have files they haven't shared, though they may be in .shp format. The more people ask, the more that land managers will understand they should post these files. If enough people ask, it will become common practice.

[+TotemLake]

M10B's outstanding effort on the NWTP is only one of many resources. I think it's good Lee brings up a reminder there are other resources out there.

[+bittsen]

Over the weekend, my wife and I decided to go hiking in a local park. I went to Portland's Parks & Recreatiuon website, downloaded a PDF, and managed to trace a few trails in Google Earth to put on my GPS.

 

This morning, I emailed the Parks & Recreation Department and asked if they had trail maps in either GPX or KMZ format available for download from their website. A few hours later I got back a reply basically sayin "Not on the website, yet, but we'll look into doing that. But in the meantime, attached is a KMZ file of all the official trails..."

 

How cool is that?!?

 

In the meantime, if you live in Portland Oregon and want these, go to their website http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/ and hit the "Contact Us" link. Ask nicely -- I imagine if they get a flurry of requests it might grease the wheels a bit to get them posted online. But if they get overwhelemd or folks are too demanding, they might just say "Sorry, no..."

 

Is there some reason that you aren't allowed to share the KMZ file? If they are Portland Parks files then they should be public property, right?