Re: GPX files for trails in NJ???

X_HOBBES wrote:

Does anyone know of any site that might have a collection of GPX files for
trails in NJ (or other GPS-compatible files)?  There are tons of
hiking/moutain biking trails in NJ but most are poorly mapped.  It would be
nice to have GPS-compatible maps for some of these.

One method I've used to load trails into my GPS is to use the aerial photos from the Terraserver using Doug Cox's USAPhotoMaps program
at http://jdmcox.com
If the trails can be seen in the aerial photos you can click on them with your mouse and create a route of the trail. The program also allows you to convert the route to a tracklog so you can update a more detailed map of the trail to your GPS (most GPS devices only allow about 50 points per route but support one or two thousand points in a track). 

If I were to go out to a trail and wanted to make my own map using my GPS
device, what would the best way to do it be?

Position your GPS so it has as good a view of the sky as possible. It's frequently best to let it get a good lock on the satellites before starting the hike, especially if the trail is largely tree-covered. Then just go for the hike and turn off the track recording function when you finish hiking. Freeware programs like G7toWIN can be used to download the tracklog from your GPS receiver to either csv format text (good for importing into Excel for analysis) or GPX for exchange with others.

The best website I saw for exchanging hiking tracklog information was
http://www.trailregistry.com but it appears to be down.

.

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