 NCT / Manistee River Trail Loop |
from Matt Rowbottham, NCTA GIS Coordinator
The NCTA is hoping to use Google Maps to inventory the North Country Trail. It would be an immense task, as is nearly everything associated with this trail. But Matt Rowbottham has high hopes.
This example is a combination of the North Country Trail and the Manistee River Trail in the Manistee National Forest near Mesick, Michigan. This is a highly popular weekend backpacking destination loop. The NCT (west) side of the loop is maintained by the Spirit of the Woods Chapter. The east side is in need of a great deal of work, but a recently formed group, the Manistee River Trail Association, hopes to begin improvements.
Matt says that he's already been sharing data with agencies and volunteers this way. To inventory this 4600 mile trail will be a lot of data. "Maybe we can crash the Google server," Matt joked.
See Spirit of the Woods Chapter
See Manistee River Trail Association
See NCT-MRT Loop on Google Maps
See Cayuga Trails Club Builds Inventory Map with Google
7 comments:
That looks good from a glitz standpoint but I want an actual topo map that I can take along in my pack. I do not want a gee whiz picture that only looks good on my computer.
Gordon
Hi Gordon- (my favorite Grumpy Gord?- it is you?) These maps are not so much for hiking, but for storing the kind of inventory data that trails increasingly need. Scroll down or search for the story a few days ago about the Cayuga Trails Club inventory map for more explanation.
But thanks for leaving a comment! I'm all for having more discussion here.
Yup. GrumpyGord here.
My preference for this would be GPS points which can be loaded into something like National Geographic TOPO so that I can print out trail sections as I need them. I would have no problem with paying a reasonable subscription fee for access to this information. I have talked to Matt about this.
GrumpyGord
Well, maybe that is in the future. But everyone has had trouble following through on completing any one project as regards this trail. It's SO big.
I know this is an old post. Has there been any progress on this? I'd love to contribute to such a project. I save my gps tracks from all my hikes. I've posted a few on everytrail.
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