Category: mapping

New Trail Map of Bald Mountain Recreation Area – North Unit

January 5, 2014

This morning I’d originally planned on going for a ride in the currently-active snowstorm, but I started working on a project that I’d wanted to complete for a while, and this evening I completed it: a CRAMBA-IMBA map of Bald Mountain Recreation Area – North Unit. Home to some gently rolling, old-style trails built with cross country skiing in mind it’s not very challenging, but this is one of my favorite mountain bike trails in the area.

Over the last few slow speed wintertime rides there I’d collected the GPS data I was lacking, put it into OpenStreetMap today, cleaned up the existing data, and followed my mapping workflow to create this map. It has a fair bit more detail than the official park map, showing some of the unofficial but well used connector trails, colloquial names for some areas, and a bit more context. It’s what I personally would want for a mountain bike centric map of the trail.

So, what to map next… I’d like to do a CRAMBA-IMBA map of Pontiac Lake Recreation Area, but I’ll need to spend more time riding and exploring there before that’s feasible. I’m familiar with the trails, but not familiar enough with the park to do a proper map. I also want to update the Bloomer Park map to get something that better matches the style of the other maps. But, for now, I’m glad that this got done. I feel like I’ve accomplished something.

One can see this map overlaid on Google Maps, along everything else in the MMBA Trail Guide here: link.

Crooked Maps?

March 3, 2013

In working on the forthcoming MMBA trail guide data I’ve had to find the lat/lon boundaries for rectangular maps so they can be presented as overlays on a Google Map. In doing this I’ve found that almost all of the Michigan DNR-drawn maps seem slightly crooked compared to what I see in OpenStreetMap. It almost looks as if the designer of the map rotated it slightly so that the north/south roads align with the page border.

When making the Stony Creek and Addison Oaks maps I’d noticed that roads which I’d previously thought of as oriented perfectly north-south or east-west were slightly crooked. Now I’m wondering if there’s something I’m not understanding with regards to map projections in Michigan.

Reading this article from the DNR about map projections I see that Michigan has its own projection system called Michigan State Plane Coordinate System. (More info here at Wikipedia.) So, I’m starting to wonder if there’s something that I’m missing and possibly doing wrong with regards to map making in Michigan. I just don’t know enough to know yet.

making things mapping

osm2ai.pl w/ JOSM XML Support

February 5, 2013

When working up some map stuff and trying to follow my own OSM workflow I ran into a quirk where the osm2ai.pl script wouldn’t deal with OSM XML coming out of JOSM.

Thank to help from a few folks on IRC I now have this updated version of osm2ai.pl available and it will successfully parse files from JOSM.

The root cause of this problem is the script parsing XML by hand, but as I didn’t have the time (or knowledge) to fix the problem by using an XML parser, this hack which deals with differing quote types and extra spacing, was put into place. It works, and I was able to get the map that I promised to someone complete.

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Muddy Trails Enhance OpenStreetMap Data

October 30, 2012

Part of my map making workflow that uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) data requires updating the existing data set to be as accurately as possible before exporting the data. The data that I originally loaded into OpenStreetMap for River Bends was based on GPS surveying that I did not long after some new trails were built. Thus, the (prone to error) GPS data was the most accurate data available.

When updating OSM data, one is explicitly permitted to trace Bing imagery to enhance maps. Earlier today while poking around in JOSM (which adds Bing data as a tile so it can be traced) I noticed that the latest imagery for River Bends was taken on March 11, 2012 and most of the recently built single track is now visible. Because of the particularly wet spring here in Southeast Michigan many of the trails were muddy while these photos were taken, resulting in the trails being visible dark marks on the traceable photos.

The image above demonstrates this, showing the imagery date, current OSM data (red dashed line), and the wide/dark lines are the trails themselves. By adjusting the routes to match the imagery I can radically clarify the OSM data, validating and refining routes. River Bends is due for a map update soon after some new trail construction is complete, so this means that the next map of there will be much, much more detailed and accurate. Thanks in large part to a wet, muddy March.

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Addison Oaks MTB Route in OpenStreetMap

August 19, 2012

With the upload of OpenStreetMap changeset 12787189 I have finished adding all of the hiking and equestrian trails, intersection markers, and mile markers needed to draw a second generation version of CRAMBA’s Addison Oaks map. This data includes the still-under-construction connector trail which’ll create a new park entrance at Indian Lake and Lake George and provide a safe route to Addison Oaks East and Oakland Township’s Cranberry Lake Park. I also added all of the named routes through the park as found on the official park map, including the specific hiking, biking, and equestrian permissions and restrictions.

If all goes according to plan, the next version of the map will show the actual locations of the C and D trails, shared hike/bike/equestrian (on C only) areas in the west of the park while highlighting the MTB route. The mountain bike route (trail F) frequently crosses these trails and occasionally shares their route, so I want to better illustrate the interplay between them all. This next version will also be based on OpenStreetMap data, which beyond the benefits of being CC BY-SA licensed should make it easier to update and use for future planning.

The only things I have left to add to OpenStreetMap before it’ll be usable for drawing a complete map of the park are a few campground roads and the B loop, a relatively flat and straight hike/bike loop around the campground in the northeast of the park. I’ll probably record that route the next time I’m at the park.

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Clinton River Park Trails MTB Map: Complete

July 11, 2012

This evening I wrapped up another mapping project; this one for Clinton River Park Trails in Sterling Heights. After getting a nice workflow nailed down this map was pretty easy to make, taking only around 30 hours to get it complete.

I can see a couple small changes coming down the line such as the addition of sponsor logos and a few tweaks as trail development continues, but for now it should be pretty set.

Click here if you’d like to view a copy of this map: ~~CRAMBA_CRPT_MTB_Trail_Map_2012-Jul-10.pdf~~ latest.pdf

cycling making things mapping

MTB Trail Mapping Workflow with OpenStreetMaps

June 5, 2012

With recent map drawing activities (1, 2, 3) I’ve been asked about the process I use for creating maps. What follows here is the workflow I used with OpenStreetMap (OSM) for the CRAMBA Stony Creek MTB Trail Maps, and hopefully others will find it useful.

I expect I’ll be following this same workflow for the next maps created, and even possibly revising previous ones using this process because it provides more solid base data than my previous method which consisted of little more than manually tracing SVGs of GPS tracks in Illustrator. It also helps get more map data in OSM, which is basically the cartographic version of Wikipedia.

One note, using OSM data in your maps requires that the resulting map be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) license. This basically means that anyone else can redistribute and reuse the map (or portions thereof), as long as they provide appropriate attribution and license their version in a similar way. As I’m intending these maps to be freely used by the general public (as part of my work with CRAMBA) I’m happy to do so, but others should be aware of these restrictions before getting too far along in the process.

Here’s the workflow:

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New Stony Creek MTB Trail Maps

June 5, 2012

I’ve been unhappy with Stony Creek’s official mountain bike trail map for a while now, as its routing is a bit physically inaccurate and missing some trails used during races. This led me to want to draw my own, and with recent forays into OpenStreetMap proving quite successful I’ve been able to get working on the map itself.

Tonight everything came together and I was finally able to publish the maps, and as a bonus I also documented three of the more popular routes. The more-formal announcement for these was made over on CRAMBA.org, but each map can also be seen here:

· Regular Map
· Fun Promotions 6 & 12 Hour Race Route
· Tailwind XC Race Route
· Wednesday Night MMBA / CRAMBA Group Ride Route

I’m sure some changes will be needed down the line, but for now I’m quite happy with how they came out. Making maps is fun.

cycling making things mapping outdoors

Down the OpenStreetMap Rabbit Hole

May 25, 2012

I’ve been interested in making mountain bike trail maps for a while now, resulting in my drawing the official River Bends and Addison Oaks maps. Stony Creek Metropark has some great trails as well, but it’s MTB trail map is unfortunately lacking. It is missing some segments used during races, has some one-way markings that don’t match what’s actually signed on the trail, and isn’t geographically accurate enough to be used for trail planning.

My original intention was to record all of the trail segments at Stony Creek myself using a GPS then draw a map similar to the ones for Addison Oaks and River Bends, but after looking on OpenStreetMap (OSM) I found that most of the trails at Stony Creek were already mapped. Thus if I am willing to license my map in an appropriately open manner I can use this data, saving myself a bunch of time.

Since a few small connectors that I wished to include were missing I headed out to Stony Creek this evening and recorded GPS data for only the missing segments. Most of these were connectors used primarily during races, but as they are passable throughout most of the year I wanted to include them. I then brought the GPX into JOSM, edited the map, and submitted the changes. This is a pretty easy task if one is familiar with basic CAD tools.

While the changes aren’t yet reflected in the main online map, the changes have been submitted and it does show when new data is manually downloaded, so I imagine it’s only a matter of time before it’s visible to the public. I will then use this OSM to make my MTB-specific map, complete with markers for things such as log piles, rock gardens, etc.

I suspect that this ease of editing is going to change my mapping workflow in the future. There’s a very good chance that any new maps which I do will first go into OSM, then this data will be pulled out to generate the actual map. Barring any license constraints, of course.

Looking further it appears that River Bends’ trails aren’t yet on OSM. Looks like I’ve got some work to do there as well…

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Stony Creek Bike Ride

March 24, 2008

Today’s Bike Ride at Stony Creek

Today I was off work, so I had a rather relaxing, but work-filled day. It started out with a now-typical weekend breakfast of yogurt, granola, coffee, and a banana. Then I showered, and decided to work on cleaning up my bike. A little while later my bike was freshly washed with a nicely oiled chain and clean brake rotors. After oiling the chain on Danielle’s bike^† I decided that I needed to go for a bit of a bike ride.

Since the weather was relatively nice (it felt like 40, even though the various online systems indicated it was only 35 or so), I headed up to Stony Creek Metropark. I took my car (with the bike rack) on the highway to get there, and while the rack was nicely stable, my car did seem to drag a bit. It’s clearly not as aerodynamic with a few bikes sticking up off of the back of it.

While at the park this time I ended up riding along the road. It’s a bit smoother and tends to have less water on it, and being a park the drivers are familiar with watching out for those on bikes in the road. I ended up doing two laps along the main road, with a jaunt down to the Nature Center between the two.

This was the longest ride I’d ever done, with the GPS clocking it in as 16.6 miles, and the bike computer at 17.05. Normally I wouldn’t think that is very much, but as anyone who has been to Stony knows, it’s nothing but rolling hills there. I think there is only maybe half a mile of flat pavement amongst all of that; where the main road crosses one of the dams. It was definitely a good bit of exercise.

After coming hope I ended up showering again, sitting around for a bit, then ordering a pizza and enjoying the majority of it with a Trader Joe’s 750mL beer and some TiVo’d entertainment (King Of The Hill, Colbert Report, Daily Show, and How It’s Made).

Here is the KMZ of today’s ride, and here it is in Google Maps, if you prefer to look that way. Again, this was logged with my old Garmin eTrex Legend. This time it was converted with GPSBabel for Windows, because the drivers for my USB RS-232 port are complete crap on OS X. They repeatedly hang, can’t be unloaded via kextunload, and just cause problems. Therefore, next time I place an order with Mouser I will be ordering a good FTDI development serial cable.

^† I never, ever want to oil the chain on a coaster brake bike again without either a workstand or a second person to help. That was not easy.

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