NYS Trails mapped on Google Earth / Google Maps

The NYS DEC has made a data file available that lets you explore the state trail system via Google Earth or Google Maps!

Access it here.

Wow, very nicely done!

Apparently, it is only Google Earth for the Trails, but some of the choices give the option for Google Maps as well.

Wow, cool. That's a lot of data, too. Don't load it all at once lest your computer come to quite the crawl.

As an infrequenter of the Adirondacks, I only wish the hiking trail data set had the colors and numbers used by the guide books. On the few hikes I've done, I don't remember trails having names.

MichaelJ said:

Wow, cool. That's a lot of data, too. Don't load it all at once lest your computer come to quite the crawl.

As an infrequenter of the Adirondacks, I only wish the hiking trail data set had the colors and numbers used by the guide books. On the few hikes I've done, I don't remember trails having names.

Click to expand...

Many trails have names, but for some reason, we tend not to use them as much over here. I hear a lot of 'does the Red trail lead to the summit of Dix?' or 'is trail 34 the right trail to Wright?' types of comments.

i can't get it to work.. ?

i click on the google earth icon by the hiking trails and it asks me to either save it or open it.. i tried both opening using google earth and then saving it to my desktop and double clicking to open it, and choosing google earth as the program to use, but i get an error. saying .kmz is an invalid windows file or whatever..

Yeah, thanks for posting that!

leaf said:

i can't get it to work.. ?

i click on the google earth icon by the hiking trails and it asks me to either save it or open it.. i tried both opening using google earth and then saving it to my desktop and double clicking to open it, and choosing google earth as the program to use, but i get an error. saying .kmz is an invalid windows file or whatever..

Click to expand...

If you have Google Earth installed, then it should have the .kmz file type registered and this ought to work. What if you start Google Earth directly, then do [File]->[Open] and choose the downloaded .kmz file?

that worked! thank you!

MichaelJ said:

As an infrequenter of the Adirondacks, I only wish the hiking trail data set had the colors and numbers used by the guide books. On the few hikes I've done, I don't remember trails having names.

Click to expand...

Numbering system in guidebooks is only recent. It was less of a numbering of a trail, and more of a finding a trail from the book on the map

Trails are undirected graphs (abstract algebra sense). These can either be described by the edges or the vertices. New england tends to use the edges (Old Joe's trail) while NY tends to use the vertices (Dix from Round Pond).

The naming of trails is much more important in many parts of the whites, because sometimes, there are a dozen different trails to take from one place to another. If I say the trail to Marcy from the Loj, there is no confusion. If I say the trail from Pinkham notch to Mt Washington...

Yikes, I don't understand the purpose of all that data.

Just as a for instance the Mt Colden from Lake Arnold Trail junction with the Avalanche Brook to Lake Arnold & Feldspar Brook trail about 0.40 miles southwest of Lake Arnold. My GPS track and personal recollection has the junction at Lake Arnold. The location of the Dix trail from Round Pond is better than the Mt Colden example above, but NG and ADK Mountain Club paper maps are much more accurate renditions of the actual trail location.

Do not assume that you can go to this site and download GPS tracks to your GPS to get an accurate location of trails or trail junctions in the ADKs.

Paradox said:

Yikes, I don't understand the purpose of all that data. ... Do not assume that you can go to this site and download GPS tracks to your GPS to get an accurate location of trails or trail junctions in the ADKs.

Click to expand...

I sent them a correction, and they responded that they would pass it along to the map makers. So, I think they are open to suggestions. Suggest away!

Tom Rankin said:

I sent them a correction, and they responded that they would pass it along to the map makers. So, I think they are open to suggestions. Suggest away!

Click to expand...

I just got an email from the DEC, saying they will investigate my suggestion.

They also said "If you have Google Earth (v.5.2), load the trails, select a portion of one, right click, and select 'Show Elevation Profile' ". I'm gonna have to try this tonight!

Very cool. Does anything like this exist for the Whites?