Free GPS Maps, what’s the scoop?

I check my website stats frequently to gauge what words are typed into search engines that eventually point to my website. Consistently one of the top searches is “free gps maps”. Do these really exist? Well yes and no depending on what you’re really looking for.

First, let’s clear up a misconception that many rookie GPS owners have about the maps displayed on their GPS unit. The base map supplied by the vendors such as Garmin or Magellan are quite basic. They simply do not have as much detail in them that some may expect. This was certainly the case when I purchased my Garmin 76S about 4 years ago.

I quickly discovered the base map that was included with my GPS just didn’t cut it when it came to being out in the back country. Small lakes, roads, geographic features and even basic services such as remote gas stations were not displayed. GPS units used in larger cities have this information built in but still not to the nth degree that you may expect.

To get more detailed information into your GPS you’ll have to go about this by either purchasing the maps such as Mapsource and install them into your unit, make your own or download and install gps maps made by someone else.

So if your search for “free gps maps” is to look for a more detailed overall base map of your city or region then you’re going to have to fork out and buy Mapsource or some other similar product and upload these to your GPS. If you just want to have more detail in a very specific area then you can do a search on the net for these or create your own. Your search for specific gps maps of your interest will inevitably leave you frustrated as there simply aren’t that many of them around.

My experience in looking for these is that you may find some very dedicated individuals who have created a few maps for a specific hike in their area for instance but don’t expect to zero in on a site that contains free gps maps galore for your city.

Not long ago, creating your own gps maps and uploading them into your GPS was an arduous and nearly fruitless task. More recently, dedicated software creators have come up with some innovative tools to do just this very thing. Here is a link to a list of free gps software I use.

To create your own detailed gps maps you’ll first of all need digital topographic maps. What’s the difference? GPS base maps or maps that you create to upload to your GPS are vector based maps, that is, they’re created using numbers to represent lines and areas. Vector images have smooth edges and no matter how much you enlarge them always remain sharp. Digital topographic maps that are displayed in mapping software are raster images, that is, they’re created with pixels just like a digital photo. If you enlarge a raster image enough, you will eventually see squares of colour and it will appear to be out of focus.

Base maps in your GPS are vector images. To create a more detailed map for your GPS you will need a raster based digital topographic map brought into gps base map creation software so that you can trace the outlines of the area of your interest. The principal is the same no matter which software you use.

Once you finish tracing and adding detail to this map you’ll have to connect your GPS to your computer and upload it to your unit. Not all software is capable of this upload however and you may need yet another piece of software to do just that. Some software only allows you to create the file that must be uploaded to your GPS.

So, is this sounding a bit more cumbersome than you thought? Only the truly adventurous go down this road and the reality is that I’m one of them. I’ll be adding some “free gps maps” to our website on digital tourism in the coming months. In the meantime we do offer free downloads of gps data, that is, waypoint and track files to upload to your GPS.

Google Earth to Google Maps and back

When Google came onto the scene no one expected that this little upstart would someday take over the world. To say they’ve conquered the location data market is an understatement. Google Earth and Google Maps are the undisputed rulers of geographical data display.

So who’s not using Google Earth these days? If you’re in the minority then you may now bow your head in shame, immediately download GE and get with it. In short, and I’ve said this in other blogs, that this is the single most useful and time consuming free software you’ll ever install on your computer, Mac or PC.

GE is so mind boggling fascinating that describing it in a blog to any satisfying degree is an insult. Just get it, look up where you live, your work, fly around your city or neighborhood and get used to the controls. Go visit Area 51 or any other location in the world and do a fly through. You can get real funky with this program.

Google Maps, the baby brother of GE is simply the best direction finder on the market. By simply typing in any address it will show you were it is located in either map or topographic or even a hybrid view of both. You can get detailed driving directions from where you are to where you want to go, find the nearest pub, restaurant or any other service closest to the point you’ve chosen, or you can take any point in GM and view it in GE and vice versa.

My prediction, one day these two applications will join forces into one. In the meantime, they are only able to share map points, lines and areas. When in GM there is a “View in Google Maps” button over top of the map. Click this and GE will open and show you these. When in GE you can choose to view the information you’re seeing in GM. Doing so will open the browser window right inside GE.

Here’s a starting point for you. Open this Google Map file by clicking here. Okay, this link may be a bit of self promotion but hey, you’re getting free advice. Once you have this page loaded, click on the “View on Google Earth” button over top of the map. I’m guessing you have GE installed by now so if you do then these will be listed in the “Temporary Places” section on the left side of the screen. Click on them and you will zoom down into that area. Here is a link to all of my Google Maps.

To create your own GM you’ll need to get a Google account, log in and then visit GM “My Maps” tab. Create your own map here but keep in mind that you can’t change the order of the map items once they’re created. If it’s alphabetical you want displayed then that’s the way you’ll need to create them. Add your own photos, html code or even import GE .kml or .kmz files to it.

This last part was isn’t as easy as it should be, in fact, it’s partially broken. Alas, GM has a glitch. There is a import button available when you are editing your maps. It asks if you want to import from a file on your local machine or one already somewhere on the internet. Pointing it to a local .kml or .kmz file gives the error “We could not finish uploading your file…”. This has the GM forums all abuzz. You’ll need to have these files existing on the internet and point the import tool to be successful.

Be forewarned, importing lines or areas to GM slows it down to a crawl, and I’m using a fast computer with a good internet connection. You may get script errors when you try to view these in GM. You’re better off sticking to single points in GM and using GE for the displaying points, lines and areas.

I’m all about Digital Tourism these days. Check out our other blogs or visit our website for more information and free downloads.

Over 300 hiking trails within a day’s drive of Metro Vancouver

I’ve finally completed the 3rd of three Google Maps showing the location of the trailheads of the Hiking Trails of Southwestern British Columbia. The Challenging Hiking Trails of Southwestern British Columbia contains 120 of the most demanding hikes in the region.

I am amazed at the concentration of hikes we have in this part of the world. Within one days travel of Metro Vancouver, not including Vancouver Island, there are over 300 separate hikes. Surely this is some kind of phenomenon?

As I was researching the list of hikes in this area I found a lot of great hikes that I want to go on in 2008. As the hiking coordinator for the Inside Edge Club I found creating these maps a great exercise. The entire process took almost exactly one month to complete.

A lot of care was taken in determining exactly where these trailheads were located. Using a combination of OziExplorer mapping software, digital topographic maps in both 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 scale and Google Earth, I was able to be extremely accurate with one exception. Google Maps do not show every road that ever existed. Old backroads, logging and mining roads simply don’t make it into Google’s database. The location indicated for these hiking trails is the point where the road ends according to Google Maps. In this case I have indicated in the description that the trailhead is x kilometers down the road or something else relevant.

These trails can be broken down into Easy, Moderate or Challenging hikes. The easy hikes can be accessed either all year or most of the year depending on weather. Vancouver’s mild winters gives us access to about 80 easy local trails all year long. Many of these trails can be used for mountain biking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing or other outdoor activities as well.

The Vancouver area is well known as a haven for outdoor enthusiasts. Creating Google Maps and Google Earth files to showcase this area is something I really enjoy doing for others. It is the reason I created our website for Digital Tourism. A phrase that I adopted to explain the various digital ways in which a tourist can visit an area. This includes GPS data, Quicktime Virtual Reality tours, virtual tours links, digital guidebooks, mapping software and any other digital information that aids in the travel experience.

When venturing out into the backcountry it is imperative you have the proper guide books with you. These books will give you trailhead locations as well as detailed trail descriptions and warnings if necessary.

I will be adding other digital tourism data to our site in the future, including even more hiking trails in BC. In the meantime enjoy the 300 hikes of Southwestern British Columbia.

More Hiking Trails of Southwestern BC – Moderately Easy Hikes

This is the second of three Google Maps showing all of the hiking trails in Southwestern British Columbia. Moderately Easy Hiking Trails of SW BC is now available on Google Maps. Here is the link.

There are 81 hikes in this map including the Metro Vancouver area, going east to include trails in Manning Park, west to the Sunshine Coast and north to Whistler, Pemberton and Lytton.

Included in the maps are the parking area closest to the trail head, distance, length of hike, elevation gain, best time of year to travel and a rating system. The rating system gives a better indication of the degree of difficulty apart from the overall rating of moderately easy. What is easy to some isn’t necessarily easy to others.

I’ve organized and led many hikes with groups of people and everyone’s interpretation of easy, moderate or challenging hikes are dramatically different. A rating system is based on distance, time and types of elevation gains over smaller distances. The best indicator of difficulty always comes from reading the local books and doing some research on the net. Searching on hiking trails in your local area or the specific name of the hike will result in a surprising amount of information that one could apply their own interpretation of how difficult the trail may be.

When venturing out on any trail, backroad or anywhere off the beaten path for that matter, I’ve found that there is no substitute for using a combination of mapping software and Google Earth to do a virtual tour of the area before heading out. Often I will map the route I’ve chosen in my mapping software and digital topographic map, transfer that route to Google Earth and do a virtual fly-through of the area. When you’re guiding a group of people into unknown territory, this gives you a far better sense of what to expect than just doing some research alone can on the internet.

I’m currently working on the Google Maps for the Challenging Hikes of Southwestern British Columbia. This should be released in the coming weeks. Check out our website for free GPS files, samples, Digital Tourism information and more.

Easy Hiking Trails of Southwestern British Columbia

After months of talking about it I’ve finally gotten a chance to complete the first of three Google Maps showing all of the hiking trails in Southwestern British Columbia. Easy Hiking Trails of SW BC is now available on Google Maps. Here is the link.

There are 84 hikes in this map including the Metro Vancouver area, going east to include trails in the Fraser Valley and Chilliwack Valley as well as going north to Whistler and Pemberton.

Included in the maps are the parking area closest to the trail head, distance, length of hike, elevation gain, best time of year to travel and a rating system. The rating system gives a better indication of the degree of difficulty apart from the overall rating of Easy. What is easy to some isn’t necessarily easy to others.

I’ve organized and led many hikes with groups of people and everyone’s interpretation of easy, moderate or challenging hikes are dramatically different. A rating system is based on distance, time and types of elevation gains over smaller distances. The best indicator of difficulty always comes from reading the local books and doing some research on the net. Searching on hiking trails in your local area or the specific name of the hike will result in a surprising amount of information that one could apply their own interpretation of how difficult the trail may be.

When venturing out on any trail, backroad or anywhere off the beaten path for that matter, I’ve found that there is no substitute for using a combination of mapping software and Google Earth to do a virtual tour of the area before heading out. Often I will map the route I’ve chosen in my mapping software and digital topographic map, transfer that route to Google Earth and do a virtual fly-through of the area. When you’re guiding a group of people into unknown territory, this gives you a far better sense of what to expect than just doing some research alone can on the internet.

I’m currently working on the Google Maps for the Moderate and Challenging Hikes of Southwestern British Columbia. These should be released in the coming weeks. Check out our website for free GPS files, samples, Digital Tourism information and more.

Cariboo Gold Rush Backroad

I have finally gathered all of the data and map images for the backroad from Likely, British Columbia to the historic mining town of Barkerville. This 150 kilometer backroad leads through the history rich Cariboo Gold Rush area. This easy backroad can be done in any vehicle including motorhomes and trailers. We travelled this road in the summer of 2006 and it took us about 5 hours to complete including several stops.

One memorable stop was at the Comet Creek Resort, a place that you don’t expect on these types of roads. The unique round cabins are made of local stone and lumber hewn from the surrounding forest. Home made pizza is always being made in the large stone oven of the main lodge. Bring your gold pan as most of the creeks in this area are gold bearing.

The historic town of Barkerville is a gem, expect to spend at least a half a day here. The world famous Bowron Lakes canoe and kayak circuit is just down the road. There is a lot of wildlife in this area so be sure to bring your camera and binoculars.

The supplied GPS data files include track and waypoint information that can be loaded into most if not all topographic and GIS mapping software. Included are ESRI shape files, OziExplorer and Google Earth files. The supplied text files can be uploaded by most other mapping software.

Also included are topo map images with the track and waypoints overlayed. An elevation profile is also included showing the height over distance.

This is the type of information that we include in our two electronic guidebooks on backroad travel in British Columbia. The “Exploring the Backroads of BC” series currently has two volumes. Volume 1 are backroads from Squamish (just north of Vancouver) to Lillooet and volume 2 are the backroads from Vancouver, east to Hope.

As we travel throughout the province we are continually gathering data for future volumes. As some of our trips do not concentrate on all of the backroads of one area we are releasing our GPS data for free until we have enough gathered for another guidebook.

You can download it from here at www.geopath.ca/downloads

We hope you enjoy using the data files we provide. Our only wish is that if you travel in the British Columbia backcountry you treat it with respect.

Google Mobile Maps and Flickr for your cellphone

I’ve been in a lot of meetings lately to discuss how our company should be moving forward on developing some very cool websites. We hired a great consulting team to help us understand new ways to do business on the net and we discussed not only the new types of technologies but how they can interact with one another and how people use the net.

Out of this I discovered some really cool technologies that I just had to play with in my spare time. There’s nothing like hands on and getting all the components working yourself to really understand what is going on under the hood. I just got my cellphone hooked up to the internet the other day, a Nokia 6265i, the one with the 2 megapixel camera. I thought it was a great phone before I started messing around with this new web stuff but now with all this new technology I thought I could make my phone sing and dance.

Google Mobile Maps was first on my list to try. I’ve been using Google Maps on the web since the beginning and now that I have a phone capable of handling it I thought it was something worth checking out. The Google Mobile Maps site has all the details including how to get this to work on your compatible phone including the URL to point your phone to and download the software. Unfortunately when I tried the download I got a “403 Forbidden Access” error every time. Bugger. I called Telus to help sort it out and hopefully within 4 days, so they say, I’ll have it working. I’m not going to hold my breath. On to the next bit of technology.

Flickr, the image sharing site, has software for your phone called Shozu that allows you to upload your images directly to your Flickr page or your blog. I discover that my phone isn’t yet compatible and their website allows you to send them your phone type and they’ll add it to their list for consideration. Never one to say die I select a phone type similar to mine and try to download the software. I receive a text message on my phone with the URL to point my phones browser to and try to connect. Same “403 Forbidden Access” message. You’d think someone would have written about this somewhere. Google, Technorati, Telus and Nokia websites have little to say if anything on the subject. I’ll guess I’ll have to wait for Telus to get back to me. Sigh.

While I was on a role trying to figure a way to upload my phone images to the internet I discovered I could send a multimedia message with an image attachment from my phone. Great, let’s see how far I can go with this I thought. If you’ve ever sent a text message from a phone you can appreciate that this isn’t as easy as typing a regular email on your PC and attaching something then sending it off. It takes the phone about a minute to send a 150k image file and that’s after 5 minutes getting the message ready to send. I sent the image to my regular email account and lo and behold I get a generic email from Telus saying that this is an MMS type email and to click here to download it. Following the link I get a message saying that “An internal error has occurred, the operation could not be completed” and a link that says “Click here to return to the application”. Following the link I get a Telus log in window asking me for my cell number and password. Password? What password? The window says “If you don’t know your password click here”. I click on the link and it now just asks me for my phone number. I type it in and it says it will send me a text message with my password. Two hours later I’m typing this and still no password. I guess I’ll get it in 4 days as well.

Despite the frustrations I’m sure the technology will be easier to use one day. One thing is for sure, your cell phone will become your digital assistant of the future. In the meantime I wait for my password.

High Time for GPS Accuracy

Reminiscing about one of my recent backroad trips I recall the frustration of trying to accurately determine just exactly where the 49th parallel was while driving over the Canadian border. I have an external antennae attached to the roof of my truck and running down to my Garmin Map76S so I should have pretty good signal strength and accuracy.

This particular backroad in SW British Columbia actually crosses the border with no official border crossing station. Would-be smugglers take note; the bushes in this area are heavily fortified with surveillance equipment. Some DEA officer somewhere would have seen me inching my truck back and forth along this dirt road for about 15 minutes while I tried to pinpoint exactly where it was. Had I done this just a little longer I would have expected to see an Apache helicopter hovering overhead. I could then have easily backed up a few feet and ignore it but with my luck I would have still been 20 feet inside US territory and gotten nailed.

At no time in my comings and goings along this road did my GPS display that magical 49 00 00 number. It wasn’t until I parked the truck, on the Canadian side, and walked to the rocky shore of the lake beside the road that I achieved success. Even this feat left me with doubt. As the GPS was lying on the ground the readings would wander a bit. I concluded the border actually moves and is the reason why there is a 10 metre wide swath through the bush indicating where the border is. I always assumed the border was a razor thin line but apparently not.

Yes, I am aware of how GPS works and why civilian GPS accuracy is different than military GPS but that gives little comfort. It’s high time the US military gives us the same pinpoint accuracy as they have and not just because I want to take a picture of my GPS screen at exactly the 49th parallel. You too can calculate your GPS units accuracy by applying quantum physics and adjusting it’s high compression foo foo valves but we should no longer have to. In case you’re wondering, exactly how to do this can easily be found on the net.

An incoming tourism technology you’ll soon be hearing more about is Location Based Services. This technology will rely heavily on pinpointing exactly where you are. Early adopters will no doubt be applauded however this could be short lived if the GPS accuracy required on your GPS enabled cell phone is displaying the menu of the Starbucks two doors down from where you are and you’re standing at a bus stop expecting to see when the next bus will arrive.

New technologies on the horizon should increase GPS accuracy but these are ground based add-ons to enhance the local system. The US military I believe has no intention of ever letting us have 100% accuracy. I give them credit for allowing us the system in the first place but if this were any other technology in today’s world and it gave us this level of service it surely wouldn’t be around for too long.

Hiking Trails of the Chilliwack Valley

I’ve just posted the first of many free hiking trails in GPS format to my downloads page. The 20 hikes of the Chilliwack Valley in southwestern BC, just 90 minutes east of Vancouver are located in an easily accessible and spectacular area. Some of the trailheads are on logging roads that are accessible to most vehicle types.

You can view the GPS data in Google Earth, your mapping software or upload it to your GPS unit.
I’m now working on the hiking trails of the Fraser Valley just east of Vancouver. Hopefully they’ll be ready by the spring of 2007 with more to follow. Creating these are massively time consuming, I hope you find them useful.

Exploring the Backroads of BC

Exploring the Backroads of BC guidebooks

Find your way outdoors to the beautiful British Columbia backcountry with Exploring the Backroads of BC guidebooks. These documented trips along scenic BC Forest Service, logging and mining roads makes BC Backroad travel easy for everyone, with or without a 4×4. More than half the roads in these guides can be travelled by your average family car or minivan! Unlike paper maps or other mapbooks, these ebook guides actually show you which roads are safe for your vehicle to travel on. No other guidebooks shows as much detailed information. These are the definitive guides to back country travel along BC Forest Service and mining roads. Exploring the Backroads of BC guides are designed to be easily viewed on your computer screen or printed on any printer using the free Adobe Reader software. Download the samples to view what’s inside these feature packed guides.

Check out the guidebooks here.