Free Topographic Maps - Addition to Offroading Home Files

I mentioned it in the last webcast, but for those who haven't seen it yet you need to know about a new addition to all the master maps found over on the Offroading Home web site - FREE TOPO MAPS.

Trundle on over to the web site and select any of the master maps. You will notice that a new file for download has been added to all of the states indexes: "Find A … TOPO map."

If you download and open it in Google Earth you will see that the whole state is laid out in it's USGS 1:24,000 TOPO Quads and you simply choose one to download. That's it.

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Doing GPS: 103 - "From the Moon to the Earth"

It's been quite awhile since the last episode of my screencast series "Doing Google Earth" so here is another piece of the puzzle.

I do have to apologize in advance for the length - there has been so much happen since last I "casted" that it was hard to fit it all in. But, even if you have to stop and take a potty break it may explain a lot that you were wondering about.

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Deceitful Dirt

Who would have thought that an eighteen inch wide piece of dirt could be so ornery and downright deceitful, even if it was 45 feet long!

It began several years ago when the neighbor poured cement next to the fence and it oozed under. Tired of looking at the eye-sore, dad decided to simply put a length of "pressure treated" along it and plant something.

The good news was that the edging went in alright, the bad news was - that's where the sprinklers had been placed. We dutifully dug them up and re-routed them to the front of the boards.

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Map Update: California Trails - South Coast

Like a cave dwelling recluse I've been pouring through California ATV maps and programming code trying to catch up with some of the things I've been putting off for months. [For a free Google Earth file of this state see: California Trails]

There were so many trails in the California areas that I sorta just "worried about the trails" and nothing else in order to get them posted. Now I've been going back and completing all the descriptions and organizing waypoints.

The California Trails: South Coast Region looks really good now with lots of descriptions and a few more hand drawn spur trails that I missed the first time around.

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New Look for an Old Site

Although I kinda liked the look of the "Offroading Home" web site, it's hard to ignore the nagging forever. I've been told that the pages looked sorta… spartan, and needed a bit more… oomph. Enter graphics and color and animation.

Most of you know, I just dabble at web programming. So, for me, it's been a bit daunting but an opportunity to learn something new.

And, it didn't turn out too bad. See the new look for yourself — Offroading Home (version 2). Lots more color and a bit more "offroadsey" look. Whadaya think? Please leave a comment.

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Map Update: California Trails - Desert Region

Quite some time ago I ran across quite a few California offroad tracks on the web. They were in a format which was completely new to me and I sort of got hung up on trying to understand and convert the trails to something usable in Google Earth. [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Offroading Home: California Trails]

I succeeded, then found that there were other GPS tracks available for Utah, Colorado and Arizona as well. I was able to convert them to .kml format much more easily and thus was born some of the offroad trail maps which I was able to make available. Of course, much has been added since then.

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New Trail Map: Utah's Paiute ATV Trail System

After I developed the Utah Arapeen Trail System Map people began requesting that the Paiute Trail System get equal time. With all the updates recently I'm starting to feel a bit "time shared"; but, here it is — at least the beginnings. [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Utah Paiute ATV Trail System]

I have to tell you that this effort has been quite an experience, and it isn't over yet. Unlike the Utah Arapeen ATV Trail, this trail is a bit massive — and quite disjointed (as far as obtaining and plotting maps are concerned.)

The internet-available map is NOT anywhere as accurate as the one I found for Arapeen and there are quite a few trail/number variations/differences between them.

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