Roll Your Own Trail Mapping Website

In a number of previous posts, I've highlighted some of my favorite GPS track uploading websites, such as Everytrail and others, that let you share your GPS tracks and photos in a web-based mapping environment.


Well, now there's a site that lets you create your own, personalized version of these types of track-sharing tools, called Trail Charts, by TripGeo.


Using a spreadsheet as the main data source, Trail Charts is a mapping API which can be used on your website to display a large number of separate KML feeds (trails) on a map. You can customize how data fields from your spreadsheet are displayed on the map. A great example of Trail Charts in action can be found at MrHollister.com. Mr. Hollister shares his amazing photos and GPS tracks from numerous hikes in around the Yosemite area using this service. 

If you keep copies of your GPS tracks, this could be a great way to share your geocaching adventures with others.

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mygeocachingprofile Master Lists Available

One of my favorite sites, mygeocachingprofile.com, has made their "master" lists of Jasmer, Fizzy, and DeLorme challenge caches available on geocaching.com. Since most states have at least one, or more, of these challenge caches, it's nice to be able to quickly see where they are, or to check out some of the different variations of these challenge caches. Following are links to the saved lists:

• Fizzy Well-Rounded Cahcer Challenges
• Jasmer Challenge Caches
• DeLorme Challenge Caches

Following is an interactive map showing all the Fizzy Challenge Caches in the Master List:



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Access KML's on Your Mobile Device

Google announced this week that you can now access custom Google Earth content (KML files) on your mobile device. Previously, this was only possible from a desktop or laptop machine running Google Earth. This could come in handy when you've converted your cache waypoints file from GPX to KML format and you want to see your data in a Google Earth environment on your mobile device. The 6.2 release of Google Earth for Android and iOS also includes improvements in navigation, which make it even easier to fly to your favorite spots on the globe. As would be expected, the Android version is available now in "Google Play". The iOS version will be available in the App store "soon". 



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More On Maps

You’ve probably noticed by now, or at least heard, that Groundspeak has changed the background basemap they use on the geocaching.com website, from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap. They cite cost as the main reason for doing so in this brief Latitude 47 blog post. This sparked off a lively debate, as seen in that same blog post’s comment section.

For those not familiar with OpenStreetMap, or OSM, it is often referred to as the Wikipedia of geography, because all of the mapping is done, and updated, by the user community; a method known as crowd-sourcing. The maps are then made available for free.

One of the main complaints reiterated in the Latitude 47 blog’s comments was that the OSM maps are not nearly as accurate as Google Maps. While this is probably a legitimate concern in certain parts of the country, especially in some of the more rural areas, I don’t think this is true overall. Not only are the OSM maps in my neck of the woods just as accurate as Google and Bing Maps are, they are also more detailed in many respects (similar to the example shown in the Latitude 47 post). For example, the OSM maps of the parks and open spaces here in the San Francisco Bay Area contain far more trail detail (with labels) than Google maps does.

OSM View of Redwood Regional Park

The same view in Google Maps. Where'd all the trails go?

Of course, I am fortunate enough to live in an area with a very active OSM community that is constantly updating and adding features to the maps. I realize that’s not the case everywhere.

My two main complaints, however, with the new map interface vs. the old is that the satellite imagery is poorer than Google’s, and the rendering speed is much slower than before. I understand that Groundspeak is addressing the drawing speed issue, but I think we’re stuck with the imagery resolution problem for now. Oh well, we can always copy and paste a cache’s coordinates into Google Maps and open up street view; as long as it’s still free for us to do so. ;)

You may be interested to learn that there has been a concerted effort underway for some time now, advocating that people, and companies, switch to OSM as their online mapping provider. And it’s not just Groundspeak that realized that the “free” online mapping services that Google offers isn’t really free at all. Just this week, Foursquare announced that they too are switching from Google to OSM, for mainly the same reason that Groundspeak did.

OSM has been very popular in Europe for years, and just seems to be starting to gain momentum here in the U.S. It’s likely that OSM’s popularity will continue to grow as the maps continue to improve in quality and more companies begin to dump their pay-for-geography services for the OSM alternative. And the growing interest in OSM isn’t limited to just online mapping: NavFree touts itself as "The world's first free professional GPS navigation software for the iPhone and iPad, for free." How can it be free, you ask? Because it uses OpenStreetMap.

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Corrected Coordinates

Does your heart sink every time you open a new cache page and the first thing you see in the cache description is this?:

"Cache is not Located at the Posted Coordinates"

One of my favorite features of GSAK is the ability to change the lat/long coordinates of any cache contained in your database. This comes in real handy after you've solved a puzzle, or partially completed a multi-cache, and you have an updated set of coordinates you want to associate with a cache. You can do this using the "Corrected Coordinates" feature for any cache. After you solve that puzzle cache, just update the lat/longs in your GSAK database, and the next time you transfer your waypoints to your GPS device, the updated coordinates will be retained. 

But what if you don't have GSAK? Well now you can do basically the same thing with a relatively new feature on the geocaching.com website. Let's say you've solved a puzzle cache and gotten the final coordinates. Just click on the little yellow pencil icon next to the listed coordinates on the cache's geocaching.com web page, and a dialog box opens up waiting for you to type in the new coordinates. Don't worry; these changes will only be available to you and are saved into your account. When you download the cache's LOC or GPX file, or save the cache to your GPS device or phone from the web page, the new coordinates you provided will be saved along with the waypoint.

This is one very handy feature.


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Garmin Base Camp Video Tutorials

One of my favorite blog sites, GPS Tracklog, listed all of the Garmin Base Camp Video Tutorials in a recent post. If you are as flummoxed over Base Camp as I am, these videos are a godsend. Below is the first video to give you a taste. If you like it, check out the rest at this GPS Tracklog post.



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GPS News

Lots of GPS items in the news this week:

• You can add the airline industry to the growing list of various agencies concerned about potential GPS interference from the proposed LightSquared 4G LTE Network.
• The US Supreme Court ruled that a warrant is required to place a GPS device on the car of a criminal suspect, but didn't address the larger issue of police tracking using mobile phones.
• For you GIS Users, DNRGPS is great for transferring data between your Garmin GPS device and your GIS software. The new release of the application will be Open Source software.
• Buy a new Nüvi 2000/3000 and get free map upgrades for life.
• Waze lets you report traffic with the wave of your hand:

That's all for now.
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