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Are you using gaiagps for your motorcycle/atv trail rides?

Overlander

Trail Ready
Joined
May 19, 2011
Messages
349
Location
Westminster, CO
I know some of you have been using gaia for some time but I've just recently learned about it - tried the free version and it's not that intuitive for me to understand.

I've been using it from the PC's web browser using the FREE account for now. Maybe it becomes more clear when I purchase the subscription but I'm finding it difficult to tell from the free topo layers which roads are paved, which ones are dirt, which ones are trails I could take dirt bike on, which ones are closed to traffic... Just getting lost in all the details but not seeing what I'm really after.

Which layers are helpful in your planning/research for CO terrain?

James
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
12,944
Location
Grand Junction
This is a gripe of mine with most handheld devices but Gaia isn't really better or worse in this respect. The screen can only show so much information and detail. Paper maps and big screens are much easier naturally. The problem is maps only recently have been really optimized for screens and have moved away from their old paper quad formatting.

Understanding the map will first depend on which one you're using, which you have to refer to the map's legend. Most maps (and Gaia's Topo does) follow the USFS/BLM/USGS topo standard that a dashed twin line is unimproved and unpaved. The OpenStreetMap OpenTopo does this, too. If you pay for a subscription there's other maps, like Trails Illustrated that will follow this convention.

The variability is in minor roads with the light solid double lines. They can sometimes be unpaved but well maintained, which is typical of county roads. There's no way to really know this 100% of the time. Maps are trying to convey difficulty more than surface. So a minor road might be minor because it's not striped two lanes or soft shoulder or because it's only graded and oiled. Either way a 2wd car can reasonably assume it's fine to travel so you have to read the map for context. If it's a double solid and carries only a FS or BLM number it's probably graveled dirt. If it's a county road or dual listed it might be improved or paved, but if it's rural it's probably still unpaved. If it doesn't go through or connects a few inholding properties it's probably minimally maintained dirt, like it gets a blade once in spring to smooth so it's not deeply rutted.



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Danger Noodle

Trail Ready
Joined
Oct 5, 2020
Messages
436
Location
Divide, Colorado
COTrex is my goto. You can plan routes, log trips, etc, and it's free. It's the gubments app for all forest service and BLM land trails. I have never had a problem with losing GPS on my phone with it.
 

Overlander

Trail Ready
Joined
May 19, 2011
Messages
349
Location
Westminster, CO
THanks DNoodle - that's a great site... wow
 

Danger Noodle

Trail Ready
Joined
Oct 5, 2020
Messages
436
Location
Divide, Colorado
THanks DNoodle - that's a great site... wow

Not a problem! I've been using it to plan routes and find new trails for dirt biking for several years now. I love it. Once you download the parts you want, you have at a minimum a map of the trails if you lose GPS signal.
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
12,944
Location
Grand Junction
Nice thing about COTREX is a full installation of offline maps is 342 MB. On iPhone the app itself is 97 MB so you have a full set of maps for Colorado only consuming 439 MB of space. The one thing is I don't know how to update the maps you have stored other than deleting and downloading again. Which is a fair amount of time since there's 84 blocks to deal with. It's also not the most feature rich app but it certainly gets the job done.
 

Johnny Utah

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2015
Messages
1,067
Location
Arvada
I have been using Avenza for several years and COTREX since last year. I dont know anything about Gaia because Avenza has had what Ive needed. I just search for the area I need and either download it for free or pay a small fee for some of the nicer maps.
 

cbranch

Rock Stacker
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
39
Location
Aurora
I've been using Avenza for years as well and enjoy it, but will probably check out COTrex thanks to this thread
 
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