Maps and Trails

I received a lot of positive feedback regarding my earlier post/Union article about sharing the trail with my daughter. I suppose the timing was right with Father's Day coming up. Still, it was nice to hear that the article touched the hearts of some friends.

I am focusing on a number of extremely promising projects these days with the Land Trust and American Rivers, including:

Maps Portal - I hope to create a web-based maps portal of all trails in area served by the Bear Yuba Land Trust. This would be modeled after this Park City map. This tool allows you to draw trail routes, see elevation profiles and trail descriptions and even export tracks to take with you on your next trek. Currently, there is no such overall map service to aid us as we search for such information. No doubt local business could point visitors to this resource.

Existing Maps - Land Trust volunteers have amassed a great set of descriptions of BYLT trails which I hope to help them get online as soon as possible (this would use the existing format at least until the aforementioned portal is done).

Diamond Arrow - This long term project was skunked again (albeit briefly). We had planned to walk through the proposed alignment with the BLM on the one day in June when it could not happen: after the big hailstorm! Will schedule this again soon.

Working with the Land Trust is a bit different than mountain bike advocacy. Discussions and efforts are more project-oriented. Everyone is kind, supportive and there are more professional resources available to accomplish trail related projects. These days, my heart is really with making new trails happen close to town and I find that the BYLT the best place for me to do it.