I was just talking about some mapping programs in the GPS 101 topic. It got me to wondering what other mapping programs everyone else is using.

I've mostly stuck to all Topo Maps, since I am using them to see how the trails I ride lay out through the mountains.

I have the National Geographic TOPO! series, Maptech Terrain Navigator Kentucky series, and of course the Garmin Mapsource program.


What other programs is everyone else using?

Well, I'm actually going to be applying Black Mountain ATV Park tracks to Google Earth maps. Seeing the trails in 3D on a map that you can rotate, zoom, and tilt is simply too cool. If I can figure out how to posty images here, I'll put up a couple sample pics.

OK...I think I figured out how to link some of my Google Earth sample maps to a forum post. If this works right, below should be a picture of the Putney KY side view of the Black Mtn. ATV park showing the "10 Mile Trail" zig-zagging to the right of the map.



And below should be a picture from a differnet abgle of the "10 Mile Trail"



And finally a link to the 3D kmz file that you can use in Google Earth. If you have Google Earth loaded, simply save the kmz file to your computer and then double click it. You should be able to see the ATV trails in glorious 3D!

http://thecupps.homeip.net/3-31-07%20ride.kmz

Radar, What program are you using to Map the maps and what file format is it?
I have Google earth map (Free addition)
Mapsource 6.12

I'm simply using Garmin MapSource software to extract the tracks to a .gpx file that I import into Google Earth (free version too).

Here is a link that can explain it pretty well. Ultimately, I'd like to do the entire Black Mountain ATV Park in 3D...complete with pictures like this link describes.
!http://hikesandbikes.blogspot.com/2006/10/life-of-geolocated-blog-post.html


Did you try downloading that file at the end of my previous post and then double clicking it. You'll be impressed

Thanks Radar, Opened the file and printed it out. Google has a good looking topo map. Trying to find the Harlan overlook on the map where the Wedding took place.

Sorry, didn't get to make it to the wedding. If someone could take me to the spot though, I could show it very quickly on a map!

Google Earth is kind of like the forgotten little free miracle for me. I have it on here, and just look at stuff on it from time to time just because I think it's neat. I've made a couple tracks and overlayed them on google earth, but never did play around with them much.

Seeing the pictures you have here, it makes me want to go back and play around with google earth a little more.

Archer & Radar, How do You put the tracks and overlayed them on google earth?
I know that You save the Tracks in the GPS, download them to the computer and save them.
Can't figure out how You Edit them & put them on the Google or National Geographic Maps.
I took the Waypoints off the Park map and saved them, then added them
to the map in Mapsource, but didn't have anyway of putting the trails ( tracks) on to the map.

Well here is a link that explains how to do this and more:
http://hikesandbikes.blogspot.com/2006/10/life-of-geolocated-blog-post.html
As the people are doing in that link, having the Black Mountain maps in Google Earth 3d with pictures of key interest spots is my ultimate goal. I'm going to take the camera and GPS to Black Mountain this Saturday and hopefully get some 'finished product' for the simpler green/blue trails. The hardest part of GPS'ing the park is that when you're there....you just want to turn on the GPS and ride, and ride, and ride, and etc...i.e. the GPS gets forgotten about and all you end up with is a bunch of GPS lines that don't have a start and end point. Keep watch in these GPS forums next week and you should see some of the finished product!

I downloaded a free trial of the ExpertGPS program I mentioned.

It is pretty neat. Don't know if I will pay for it once the free trial is up.

You can put tracks on either a topo map, or aerial flyover photographs. The flyover pics are a little dated though.

Yeah, that's the problem with Google Earth or Microsoft's Virtual Earth.....they both use commonly available aerial/satellite photos. Said photos sometimes have great detail for some areas and poor detail for other areas. But bottom line, they're almost always quite dated.

For example, I can put my daughters Corryton TN street address into Google Earth. Google Earth will show my the neighborhood she lives in and you can practically see every mailbox, bush and stone......everything except for her house. Where her house should be is a graded lot ready to be built on.......and her house is several years old! That's a good example of how old some of the stuff can be.

Our company developed and sold school bus routing software for a few years. Believe me, when you start routeing buses, you have to have good digital maps. Some parts of the country would have EXCELLENT maps...primarily because of committed efforts by the local 911 agency's interaction with other state/county agencies. Other areas had worse than crappy map data.....especially in regards to road address numbering! Argh!

I remember one time a school official was complaining about the software and how poor their map data was. He said, why can't it be fast and accurate like Google maps. Weeeeeelllllllll...... I did a quick comparison for him....we looked up the address of his bus garage in our software program...according to him it was close to accurate but still appeared to be 'off' by about a block......when we looked the same address up in Google maps, it was off literally by over a mile. He never mentioned Google Maps again! True story.

hey radar, is the 10mile trail the one that comes off of 45. ITs not on the map but a good trail. one of the best there from what ive seen of it.

Yes, it starts in a sharp turn on trail 45. The entrance off of 45 is pretty wooded over. It's a long 2 track trail. About halfway back you can go up the mountain to 25A or continue on down and go up to 35 near Copperhead Campground. Note: Both trails branching off of the 10 mile trail to 25A and 35 are pretty challenging trails. Although they aren't on the current map, I'd have to rate the two offshoot trails between blue and red.

ive got some POI's and track logs stored in my GPS of some bell county trails...

i guess now I have to buy that mapsource software in order to convert them to a file to be able to apply to a map? is that pretty much the gist of it?

Pretty much. It's pretty decent software to have anyway. Especially because you can then load the Topo Maps directly on to your GPS and look at exactly were you are on the map while out on the trail.

It came in handy plenty of times while we were doing some of this Knott county trail discovering. There were times we thought we were hopelessly lost, but the GPS came in handy with the maps on it to help us find our way back to civilization.

Well, I think I just told you wrong. You have a Magellan, so you wouldn't need the Mapsource program, you'd need the Magellan version of the program. I think Magellan's program is called MapSEND instead. But the rest of the post still applies, about being able to load all the topo maps straight to your GPS. I've actually heard that Magellan may have better maps than Garmin does anyway, so you may luck out in that department.

10-4 yeah im going to break down and buy the mapsend software so i can put my waypoints and stuff on maps onto my PC.

I think those programs are definitely worth the money. I use mine all the time marking out interesting places. I have all the trails in my little neck of the woods all marked out, with waypoints for interesting overlooks and locations.

Garmin GPS units come with the MapSource software as part of the normal software packeage.

Just for clarification....you can load POI/WayPoints onot the Gramin gps units...but you can't load maps onto them unless they're specifically purchased from Garmin. In otherwords, regardless of how good of topo/city maps you find on the internet, you can't upload them to the Garmin units.

As far as exporting data though.....you can use the MapSource program to receive GPS data from the Garmin unit and then save it to a .gpx file which MANY map programs can use.....

Again, my favorite software to import a .gpx file from is Google Earth 3D...