I like to get out and hike. I use mapping as an excuse to give myself some motivation to hit some new places. Seems like it would be helpful for people to be able to see the trails.
An aspect of that is fresh data to know current conditions. Maybe after a string of rains a trail has a section that is flooded. Maybe the trail just isn’t maintained well and not something most people would want to hike on.
Checking out books that have hikes in them, I’ve come to realize fresh data doesn’t mean something from this last day or week or even month. In a lot of ways the data just needs to be more fresh than the previous source.
I’ve found a lot of hiking guides seem to draw on maps of trails. But that data doesn’t always reflect the real world. It may be data for a trail when it was created 20 years ago.
An example of this is the Mazomani Trail in the MInnesota River Valley. Maps and even a guide book I have talk about a nice loop. I decided to give it a go.
I found out why there were comments on All Trails where some people turned around. For the east side of the loop the trail just ends. Well officially it goes through but it drops down through the bottom of an old beaver pond and with no blazes, no markers and no grass the trail just ends in a sea of mud.
I like that I am able to share mapping data of this so people can see and judge for themselves. For some, even myself, they may be up for an adventure and trek through the mud. And they can do that knowing it’s not a huge stretch, doable if you stick to the outside and soon you’ll be hooking up with a maintained trail.
Most people aren’t interested in that hike. Heck, they may see the high grass ( ticks, ticks, ticks ) for a mile or so before that and decide it’s not for them. But you wouldn’t know any of this from the guidebooks or the map.
A bit different was this part where if the water is lower, you can cross. Heck had I not made a n00b mistake and not had my watertight bag on me for phone and keys, I would’ve went across here as maybe it would worst be waist / chest high. At least with fresh data some folks would have the option of skipping this inner loop and do the outter one. Cheers.