Google Earth and Custom Maps
Those of us who have been exploring the backwoods for many years spent the majority of our time having poor map information. Topo maps were either out-of-date or too large in scale to be useful. Trail maps were rarely to scale and were not very helpful in the field. Well-researched maps with trail-specific information was rare because the process of marrying topo maps and route infomration was a laborious and inaccurate process. Thankfully, we can now access good information:
- Google Earth provides air or satellite photography of the surface.
- The projection can be turned sideways for a 3D view. We can zoom in or use an alternate view.
- Topo maps can be acquired on-line (if you know where to look).
- Google can be used to search for other on-line images.
- From Google Earth or from other sources, we can copy or save images (right click, save image as) as jpegs.
- We can combine maps, images, and Google Earth Satellite imagery.
A good video showing the basic steps can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLzvg2vnUDM&feature=related
A friend of mine (Nic) has been using the "Custom Maps" posted to this site, then using them as "semi-transparent overlays" on Google Earth, then saving them as .kmz files. As an image, this is the result:
If you have Google Earth, you can "open" the file:
[download id="5"]
To go one more step, we can now take our GPS with us, turn on the Tracking Feature and collect route data, integrating the .gpx file information with a custom map. We can even take photos and embed them into the map so that others can follow a route and see what you have recorded as a digital photo! (More on this in an upcoming post).