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.
