GPS Data

This page contains Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) tracks and waypoints for most of the trips in the book. Use at your own risk. Always rely on your own judgment rather than simply trusting a machine.

To download the data, right click on the desired format below and choose Save Link As...

GPX GPS Exchange Format (generic)
GDB For Garmin GPS units
TPO National Geographic TOPO! Software
KMZ Google Earth
Last updated 4 June 2009.

GPS Resources

  • Google Earth: amazing free 3D flythrough of the trips
  • gpsvisualizer.com: free utilities to plot GPS data and convert file formats
  • TOPO!: National Geographic's commercial software to display GPS tracks on topographic maps
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    Technical Notes

    This data uses the WGS 84 datum.

    This data was collected by hiking the trails while carrying a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx or a Garmin Foretrex 201 GPS receiver. A few trips are missing data, either because they were scouted without the GPS unit or because the data is incomplete. The 60CSx has dramatically better reception under trees and in canyons, so the quality of this data is higher.

    The raw trip logs were sanitized to remove bad data (e.g. poor reception or tracks exploring a side trail). They were then sliced into sections for trails, dirt roads, and cross country hikes to generate the maps included in the book. These sections were subsequently reassembled to produce the track files listed above. The data was not rechecked after assembly, so there may be discrepancies where trip segments were pasted together.

    The GDB file contains the master data. Other files were derived from this data. The Google Earth data has not been updated since March 2009 because my Google Earth Plus subscription expired.