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.