I don't know how to do this for Gaia (or if it's possible to do so and keep it private).

I know several ways to do it on a computer. and I know how to make it accessible via Maprika on your phone. and I know how to make it accessible with a mapping Garmin.

none of these methods is especially easy (though making it for a Garmin is probably the easiest of the bunch). especially if you want said map to actually be good.

 

Not especially easy?
I might be too lazy....
Thanks, Harold.
=sParty

 

yeah. no matter what you do, if you're mapping while riding, your recorded track is going to reflect a decent amount of wander that you're not initially going to realize is there. until you overlay another one over that same path. and another. and so on. then you start to see the amount of variance you get. this is worse in the twisties and at higher speeds. it's much less of a problem the slower you go (say, at a grunting climbing pace, or at a walk).

throw in a complex network of trails (especially if you have two trails parallel to each other that do not intersect but are pretty close to each other) and you may wind up with the tracks saying that you had intersections where none exist. that two parallel trails look like they might be the same trail because of all the wandering of those tracks.

so to do a good job of it, you need to do several things (not necessarily all of them, but several of these)

• record the trails at a walking pace
• record the trails several times
• mark waypoints at definite intersections so accidental ones because of iffy data don't confuse matters
• use software that lets you overlay lots of tracks at once
• know that NONE of your raw tracks is going to be very good and that you are going to need to clean up the data some way - either with an automated tool that's imperfect or by hand (or a combo of both)

pretty much all of the gps data upload sites do some automated data cleanup on the backend that you don't really see. Strava has to do this in order to match your crappy raw track to segments (that were probably also generated from some crappy raw track). Trailforks does it. MTBProject does it. If you want your map to be useful, you'll have to do something about your crappy raw tracks.

Topofusion has an automated "network" tool that will condense a bunch of overlaid tracks into a single file with definite intersections. I've played with it, and it doesn't handle super dense trail networks with trails really close together very well. The variation in the crappy raw data makes it think that there are intersections where there are not. It works a lot better when the trails are less dense. This only gets you partway to your goal, though. The resulting file from this process is a vector file (you can choose from a number of formats, but .gpx is common and easy enough to understand). IF you can load this into Gaia as an overlay, you're actually in good shape and this has turned out to be easier than it could be. I don't know the program well enough to know if this is an option, though. It may not work, though. The "pure" .gpx file format is really meant for describing a single path you've followed. It's technically flexible enough to describe a network of trails, but this breaks some tools. Garmin devices, for example, cannot read this file correctly. It winds up breaking it up into a bunch of segments and doesn't display it right on the devices. To make it work on a Garmin mapping device, there aren't many more steps. a program called gpx2img will convert that gpx file into the img format that garmin uses as its native basemap file type. You can save that into Basecamp, layer it with other map layers (such as topos), and then send that over to the device. This is the EASIEST way that I know to produce a map of a place for yourself and keep it private, but digitally accessible. It's limited to Garmin, though.

You can convert this to another file format that's truly meant to handle a network, but it's less likely for Gaia to be able to read many of these on the app.

The Maprika method involves a good bit more steps. Essentially, you need to clean up the crappy raw gps data as above to start with. Then you need to take it and put it into a program that will let you layer it with other data that you might want such as streams, roads, contour lines, sat imagery, etc AND save that file as an image format such as a pdf (not sure how many image format options there are, but I've done it with pdfs). This may be more or less complicated depending on what you also want to display with your trails. If ONLY the trails, then that's simpler. But if you really want a lot of custom stuff, that'll push you into GIS software and the learning curve can be STIL for those.

You need to download Maprika's tool on your computer and you need to use their program to georeference that image file. What this means is that you essentially embed coordinate data into the image so it can then plot locations (such as your current location) on that map. You have to do this manually by selecting identifiable points in the image as well as on whatever already-georeferenced basemap(s) Maprika provides. It will distort the image to force it to fit. The better the points you choose to match, the less obvious that distortion is. It's a doable process, but it's tedious and if you've never done it before, you'll probably have to redo a lot of those coordinate pairs to make it work out. They need to be well-distributed across the image, otherwise it will have pretty uneven accuracy.

Once you get it right, you'll be able to use it as a map on your phone using the Maprika app. The maps I've made were for public consumption. I don't know if it's possible to keep maps private or not, as it's been awhile since I did it.

 

For a rough map, seems like you could just ride and record the individual loops/trails/segments as separate tracks and adjust the colors. You can display your history on Gaia, just follow the pink squiggle or the blue squiggle, etc.

for example, here’s a screenshot of a bunch of different hikes in the same area. Builds a pretty good trail map over time

 

You can display your history on Gaia, just follow the pink squiggle or the blue squiggle, etc.

In all the riding I've done, I've only recorded & saved one track so far.
You mean if I record more tracks and keep them, they'll all appear on... what? The base map? A saved track layer?
I need to get more familiar with Gaia on this point. I've saved one track. Can I open that track and then record another track on the same track layer?
Thanks!
=sParty

 

you can display your track history right on the base map. Look under the layers menu (top right) and then select “map overlay” and turn on “tracks”

If you record each ride and/or major section of trail as a separate track, they will all show up on your base map in a different color (which you can adjust). You can also restart recording on any track, and clip tracks to adjust the end point. I think there are probably ways to download/manipulate/reload tracks, but I’ve never tried

 

Thanks, man. This may be what I'm looking for.
Harold is right about accuracy -- the tracks I record certainly won't be as accurate as necessary for a published map. But for my purposes, I think collecting tracks in one layer should serve.
Thanks again to both of you.
=sParty

P.S. Under "map overlay" I found another option -- "public tracks." Turning public tracks on reveals even more track info.

 

Can confirm tracks you record and save will appear when you are logged in. It's pretty useful in areas like yours where trails are hidden on trailforks. You should be able to mark them as private but still see them yourself.