I uploaded my GPS Track from Friday to Crankfire.com, the only GPS website that I know that allows you to see multiple tracks over a given map, and also has a good base map of the local trail system. Friday's puts things in perspective for me because it shows just how close we were to Gay City State Park, a location that I ride at least once a year. And just think what you could do riding out of Gay City? The possibilities are endless!
Forgot to include this in a previous post. This route basically follows the marked trail for the intermediate ride at the Happening at Huntington this past Sunday. Did one little outtake and rode into the section of the Chimney Trail to the overlook for the group picture, and of course spent a lot of time at the Big Burn hitting rollers and drops.
Here is Wednesday's ride in 3D compared to the official State Map. Of course what I need to do now is to use TopoFusion's map overlay feature and put the state map over the contour map. I have been trying to do that with Photoshop with very little success. Wednesday's ride was 4.5 miles and I think if you were to hit everything and do all the trails in reverse then you could easily get 10 miles + out of this place.
I was reading on Charlie Rides a Bike about is little ice-less adventure down at Rocky Neck State Park and I know there are a lot of riders out there that have GPSs and ride with them but I don't see many post ride maps on blogs. Therefore I thought I would throw together a little tutorial. Also, this is good for riders who want to make a map of an area that they are new to, assuming of course you can read a map.
There are quite a few programs that you can use, and some with some insane detail, especially using satellite imagery, however for this tutorial I am going to show you an online web utility called GPS Visualizer that takes a lot of the guess work out of the other applications. Some apps don't let you export the images to a graphic file in which you can print from but GPS Visualizer does and that is one of the reasons I like it.
Download GPS data. The best format to use and the one that is most portable is a file with the GPX extension. For more info on this format look at this wiki on GPX. If you use a Garmin Unit, like one of the Edge series, the format is proprietary, but you can use other applications EasyGPX or Topofusion to download the data right to the gpx format. You can also convert what you already have stored on your machine using a website called GPSies. Just click on the Convert Tab and look for the format you want to convert from and to. GPSies will even import directly from your Garmin unit.
Edit your data. If you are going to publish your maps to a blog or a website, you might not want to include extraneous routing information like to where you live or if you had to park a ways off and shamelessly put those knobbies on the hardball. TopoFusion let's you edit tracks but I have never been successful using it. I prefer using Garmin's MapSource. MapSource also will pull from your Edge. One thing to remember about using MapSource is that it saves files in it's proprietary format (*.gdb v3) so if you want a GPX file (which it will read) you have to do a Save As.
Preparing your data. I find using GPS Visualizer the easiest to use, or maybe it's just that I have been using it so long that I am just accustomed to using it. One caution, however, if your track is really, really big (covers a huge area) then you may want to consider using something else that will give you the scale you need and the level of detail you want. If I needed to do something along those lines then I would find a site that uses Google Maps with the terrain option. The only drawback is I haven't found anything along these lines that lets you use multiple files so you would have to merge all your GPS Data. Best tool for that would be TopoFusion's make network feature.
Uploading your data. From the main screen, select the type of map you want to work with and it will open up to a features page where you can select specific settings for you map. I tend to go right for JPEGoption of the JPEG/PNG/SVG maps selection everytime.
The Profiles option is another one that I have started to use more. If you are in the US, the one feature you want to ensure is that you select the U.S. in the units dropdown.
This is why I like GPS Visualizer so much because you can upload multiple files. If you had a collection of track files from a particular area, you can upload all of them here and make a network map.
Draw the map. In either option, once you have your settings configured and the files selected, hit the draw the map button. Here is Charlie's ride at Rocky Neck State Park done with GPS Visualizer. He uploaded his track file to Motionbased.com where I was able to export out to a GPX file. His track included a road ride from his parents house that I didn't want to include in this map, so I took it out using MapSource. You can tell the thicker lines are where he looped the trail. Here is what his profile looks like:
If you want to try making a map sometime, you can scour the interwebs for GPX data on a particular area, download it, and make a map of it for your next adventure. One word of note, GPS Visualizer is only for US and Canada. If you are not in North America then you are probably going to have to find some sort of Google Supported site and in order to create a static map, you will need to take a print screen of it and save it in a image format. TopoFusion, has this feature built in but if you are using the freeware version the map download is a little wonky and has DEMO on each of the tiles.
As far as the other sites go, especially those that use Google Maps, they won't let you make a map of a networked file using TopoFusion. I tried this on MTBGuru and Motionbased. If there is a site out there that you have seen that lets you do multiple tracks on a Google type map, let me know!
I found this interesting website called WhereWeRide and what I really like about it is how it lays out the ride locations for a particular area, which has re-awakened my desire to create my own local Dirt Guide.
I started poking around Google Apps and after a few hours of playing around or you might say coding I created this. I haven't figured out how to make it interactive and to imbed it into a blog post but I will get there eventually. The other thing I want to start doing is adding my ride tracks as an interactive map rather than a static map. Now that would be awesome!
What I am aiming for is to create a map for CT with all the legal places to ride and they will be numbered like the WhereWeRide map and when you click on the number, you will get a pop up window that name the location and provide links to various websites that have information on the particular place. One stop shopping for all the websites with riding information.
Above is a map of today's ride after holding a Trail Maintenance Session on the Upper Gussy Trail. Before starting off some horseback riders came buy and the lead horse was ridden by Cindy, who is working with me to build the Upper Gussy Trail.
We rode up the Brody Road and before we headed down the white trail, Rich had to check his voice mail before we rode into the no cell area of Upper Paugussett. Rich was on call for work. There were quite a few walkers in the forest today, too. As we were taking this break, three popped out from the white trail. Not very well dressed for the occasion for a hike - Upper Paugussett has a lot of ticks and you should be dressed accordingly, otherwise you will get them on you.
Except for the downed tree in the swampy area, the white trail is fun to ride, there are two stone walls to ride through, and a mean little uphill climb that looks like a no brainer but unless you are in the right gear for it at the onset, you'll choke. I did, at least. Rich made it look easy. The white trail ends at the intersection with the Newtown Trailway, or Al's Trail.
This is a multi-use trail that parallels Lake Lillilohnah through most of Upper Paugussett State Forest, only at this point it cuts inland to this point that is called Kissing Oaks. There are two oak trees that grew side-by-side and have grown together at points that make them look like they are kissing. There is a little box with a log that you can sign saying that you have been there.
Then we headed north down the trailway. It's a fast down hill that snakes in and around trees, almost like a pump track and then ends at some really gnarly, technical rock gardens. There is one section that is almost unrideable due to the steepness of the trail, that is unless you want ruin it by skidding down the dirt just so that you can stay on the bike. This steep section ends at a stream crossing and then the trail descends through another gnarly, technical rock garden.
At the bottom, the trail swings west, and follows the shore of Lake Lillilohnah. All along this part of the trail it flows through sweet singletrack with more and more rock gardens to sharpen your skills and harden your wits. There was once section that I fell on two years ago and ended up cracking a rib, and since then have walked it every time. This time, however, I didn't think twice and cleaned it's clock.
The trail intersects with the lower section of the Gussy Trail, which is more of a connector trail between Pond Brook and Brody Road (fire road that cuts the park in half). It's a nice little climb, to say the least. Once you are on the Brody Road, the real fun begins with a fun, warm up climb past the old Jalopy to get the blood pumping, in case the climb up the connector trail didn't do it for you. Then there is the long climb that starts where the blue trail intersects with the forest road, passes the intersection with the connector trail for the Mulikin Trail, climbs past the intersection with the yellow trail and then flattens out at the base before steepest section.
The last climb must ascend at a pitch of 20 to 25 percent and on a bike, that is pretty steep. after the steepest section, you are not done because this portion of the climb doesn't stop until you are at the intersection with the Gussy Trail. As usual, In the video below Rich is shown ascending the second climb. He got up most of third climb, too. I did all three climbs without asking Granny for assistance, but keep in mind, I do this route a lot, on my single speeds.
All that work pays off once you hit the Gussy Trail because it flows so nicely, even through the rock gardens and up and overs (thanks trail gnomes!). We stopped off at the Three Sisters and rolled them, then rode through the new benched section. I thought we would be the first through, but there were a fresh set of waffles already in the dirt!
At Via Roma we ran into Tom Ramsdell who, like I said, was engaged in his own version of trail maintenance. We chatted for a bit and then headed off up the trail from here. He said that he smoothed out the Wet Spot and I was afraid to see what that meant. It turns out, he cut this part of the trail in half, putting all the rocks on one side for the bikes to ride atop and leaving the other side soft.
I had to adjust a few of the rocks so it was more like an armored crossing and I might have to do a little more work on it later this week. Still it rides nicely. I for one like to ride rocks but I bet as time goes on, and the Wet Spot gets some moisture in the fall, winter, and spring, the section Tom opened up is going to turn into another mud wallow. At that point, we are going to have to haul some gravel in.
The rest of the trail was business as usual. We rolled the roller at the blue trail crossing and then hammered home.
Below is my composite map of North Newtown Trails. I can't decide what I like better, though, the lighter opacity topo or no opacity. With no opacity, you need to increase the track saturation on GSP Visualizer to 100% to make it really stand out. The question is, how will it look printed out. I think for the map to be really useful, some landmarks need to be called out especially if you are not familiar with the area.
This map won't be complete until I have ridden the Dinglebrook Trails. I think it's time to take the 'Horse to Dinglebrook! Here is map of the trail system I mad a long time ago and had published Bikerag.com. It will give you some landmarks and directions on how to find this place. Newtown Bridle Lands Association has taken a greater interest in this area and apparently one there has been some blow downs in the area that some believe was the result of a micro-burst.
and it will open up to a features page where you can select specific settings for you map. I tend to go right for JPEG option of the JPEG/PNG/SVG maps selection everytime. 
The Profiles option is another one that I have started to use more. If you are in the US, the one feature you want to ensure is that you select the U.S. in the units dropdown.
He uploaded his track file to Motionbased.com where I was able to export out to a GPX file. His track included a road ride from his parents house that I didn't want to include in this map, so I took it out using MapSource. You can tell the thicker lines are where he looped the trail. Here is what his profile looks like:
I started poking around Google Apps and after a few hours of playing around or you might say coding I created this. I haven't figured out how to make it interactive and to imbed it into a blog post but I will get there eventually. The other thing I want to start doing is adding my ride tracks as an interactive map rather than a static map. Now that would be awesome!
