Maps

[Boone]

I posted a comment in the longest dirt road thread but since then there have been no comments so i will post my question here in case people just arent looking at the longest dirt road thread anymore.

My question is, is there a map other than say county maps or my atlas and gazetteer that is somewhat dirt road specific? The county maps and other area specific maps are rather unclear as to which roads are actually dirt roads and which roads are just back / country roads.

Thanks.

 

[inthewall]

National Geographic Maps | Home I have seen some of these maps printed out. They seem to be very detailed.

 

[e9999]

look for maps from the Forest Service etc if you are around those parts

 

[2mbb]

National forest maps designate dirt roads. I've found some for California available on line but it's probably easier to purchase them then to find a printer big enough to do them justice:

Region 5 Online Maps

 

[AdventureBuddies]

If you're into using a GPS, some Garmin models have the ability to display topographic maps from the Garmin Topo Mapsource series. These have a decent amount of dirt roads on them plus you can see contour lines.

The National Geographic Topo Series are great maps, but I'm not aware of any GPS brands that will display the NG maps on the screen. Printing maps is a bit impracticle because to get any sort of detail, you'd need a lot of maps to cover the distance that you can drive in just a day.

 

[Bogo]

DeLorme Topo USA has lots of dirt roads on it. They can be dowloaded to some GPSes. I don't, but them my GPSes are cheap ones.

 

[stevezero]

deloreme has a ton of forest service roads, dirt roads, etc on it, you can use an old GPS connected via cable. I use a very old lowrance globalnav 212. you set up the port as NMEA complaint. default baud rate is 4800, but you can go up to 9600 if you set both ports (gps and serial port on computer). It gives real time 3d or 2d moving map. I crossed the nc/tn state line 11 times not on a paved road up near the cherola skyway/tellico area. I kept trying to connect the two smallest lines on the map.

if you want paper, then Natl Geographic maps are good. they have topolines and most forest roads. they are tear resistant, and you can mark new trails/points of interest with a sharpie.

National Park Service maps are good, along with national forest service maps. Forest Service maps have all of their known/marked forest roads.

 

[Boone]

Thanks for all the replys they have helped a lot. Tat delorme looks great! i checked it out online and will have to get that.

 

[7P's]

Sorry for not being current on this topic, but for those of us using GPS on the trails, we have several options for excellent maps at very little cost. I run a Garmin, so the information I'll provide is for the Garmin. You can make your own GPS maps, which can be as custom as you wish/or have the resources and time to refine them or you can download maps that can only be described as second to none at this time - because as technology gets more affordable our GPS maps will only get better. Currently we have free access to Canada and the USA and we also have free access to outstanding GPS maps for a few states and probably within the near future, California as well will be available. When I say the maps are free – they are, but I would recommend donating a couple bucks to the guys who are “making the maps” for our use. Here are some sites. Ibycus is the handle of one of the map makers and he has an excellent site for all of Canada if anyone is interested – I have found the Canada map to have all the major “old” logging roads in the area I fish.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=11

http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_main.html

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/

 

[Boone]

Thanks man lots of good info there, i'm hoping to get a gps soon.

 

[Bighead]

You can also download USGS 1:24000 maps in a .pdf format at the USGS Store.

 

[WristPin]

you can also go to the library and make copies of the maps. I paid less than a dollar for 8 giant sized copies.
but plan ahead, when doing it, some where missing a small section which made it challenging to line each of them all up.

 

[samba]

i've had very good luck with benchmark atlases in california and oregon. very detailed and almost all of the dirt, fire, back country, logging roads are drawn. i really like to have paper maps with me just in case. they have a gps grid on them as well. great for cross referencing as well.

 

[Boone]

hmmm... I like the library idea...

 

[uabericm]

Have you had any luck finding long sections of dirt roads in the southeast?

 

[Boone]

Not really... But i have found a few. All of them in western NC most of them about 10 miles so not long but they are fun. Probably about 10 or 15 dfferent roads.

 

[uabericm]

Did you find them by driving around or were you able to locate them on a map and then head out to ride them?

I was looking at the National Parks Service website and I came across MVUMs (motor vehicle use map)s for all of the national parks. It lists all of the roads in each park and they are categorized for highway legal vehicles, all vehicles, atvs, and motorcycles. I have not had a chance to get out and verify, but I hope to soon.

 

[Sherpa 60]

You can also download USGS 1:24000 maps in a .pdf format at the USGS Store.

Ditto that. USGS was the bible before GPS.

I also use Google Earth. Start with a print based map then trace path in Google Earth. Depending on whether you pay for the service (Professional version) you can pick waypoints and load them into your GPS (at least with Garmin). Or load them manually if not. Great for forks in the road, etc.

After the trip you can also upload waypoints taken on the trail back into google earth.