{"id":20143,"date":"2026-06-25T09:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T13:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/?p=20143"},"modified":"2026-06-25T09:06:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T13:06:43","slug":"trailmaps-app-map-generator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2026\/06\/25\/trailmaps-app-map-generator\/","title":{"rendered":"trailmaps.app + Map Generator"},"content":{"rendered":"
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trailmaps.app Website on 2026-Jun-25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I’ve been using it for a while now, so I guess it’s a good time to announce the revamp \/ relaunch \/ whatever of trailmaps.app<\/a>. This is a personal project website which started one frosty January morning as I sat in an Ishpeming rental waiting for temps to rise before heading out on a fatbike ride and is now a hub for hosting maps I’ve generated of various trail systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site started out as a hand-written HTML landing page, hand-made Leaflet maps<\/a>, and directory indexes of my trail map PDFs<\/a> where I learned a bunch about showing OpenStreetMap<\/a> (OSM) data via the web, generating tiles, etc (for example, see Making an Online RAMBA Trails Map<\/em><\/a> from 2021). Now it’s now hosting feature-rich web-based maps that help people find their way around mountain bike trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The root of the idea was cooked up on a long drive; I wanted something akin to the subway-map-style’d official RAMBA print map<\/a> (parallel lines over a single trail to illustrate the trail’s membership in multiple routes), but web based. And maybe usable on a phone. And after the early learning<\/a> then quite a bit of work this spring… Here it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of just doing a single map (one-map-at-a-time coding \/ tile generation \/ etc) as I had in the past, I now have a full-on map generator that takes data from OSM and other online\/open\/free sources, combines it all, and generates static content that’s easy to host and cachable so it works if a device loses cell service. It’s basically as close to an app as one can get while still staying web-based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By being hand-curated (that is, not just auto-generated off of all OSM data) these maps also fill a long-standing gap with other online maps (eg: Trailforks<\/a>, MTB Project<\/a>, Strava<\/a>, RideWithGPS<\/a>) in that they don’t style (color) the routes the way official park maps and signage do, making what a rider sees on their phone challenging to align with what they see on a signpost next to a trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, compare these maps of the Shelden Trails at Stony Creek Metropark<\/a> to the PDF of the official park map which is at the trailhead<\/a>, and whose color-matched signs are along all loops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n