Planning And Navigation V2

Ride With GPS screenshot

 

On this page I will detail how I go about planning, mapping and navigating a route. This will be as generally applicable as possible but obviously tinted with my perspective of creating routes in the remote American west. Any images are clickable to obtain a larger view. This page isn't meant to tell YOU how to plan a route, just how I do it and perhaps head you in the right direction. Others will do it other ways. Sorry, this may be somewhat lengthy.

Planning Tools: 

Google Earth Pro. Pro is the desktop version vs online version. Make sure to load the Earthpoint USA topo add in for Google Earth, it's free. To load the Earthpoint add in, click the 'View In Google Earth' link. It will load in the 'Temporary places' folder in Google Earth. Just cut and paste into the 'My Places' folder.

Although giving a Google Earth tutorial is beyond the scope of this page I encourage you to become as familiar as possible with the tool. For me this is a vital tool. You CAN create your entire route in GE, this includes the tracks and POI's. (Placemarks in GE). But it is a bit tedious.

 

Ride With GPS I generally use this app to draw the route I plan to follow. A free account is perfectly adequate for drawing a route but you don't get premium features such as adding waypoints (POI) or the ability to split/stitch routes together.

NOAA Interactive Snow Information. Useful for determining potential snow depth on your proposed route.

Windfinder and Windy

Copernicus, Sentinel and Spectator for near real time satellite imagery.

American Whitewater. (When applicable)

Caltopo is a great site. I however don't have enough experience using it.

 

There are so many other routing tools I'll leave it to Google and you to decide what you want to use.

Work Flow

The obvious starting point is, where do I want to go? Bikepacking(.com), and Bikepacking Roots are great resources to explore for ideas. They may have a pre-built route for the an area that could be exactly what you are looking for. You may also get ideas and modify a route to suit your own interests or goals. There are many other online resources for pre-built bikepacking routes as well. Try a google search. If you don't find what you are looking for or simply want to build your own route read on.

I usually like to start on Google Earth. I pick a general area then switch to the Earthpoint topo overlay to get a general feel for what tracks (roads) might exist. Trailforks can be very useful here too if you are interested in singletrack. Did you know you can export Trailforks trails and routes (with an account) as .GPX or .KML files? I often will look to Trailforks to see if there are published bike trails in the area of interest. I can then download what I find (.kml) and look at them in Google Earth.

 

 

 

 

 

Creating Your Route

Once I have a general idea of what I want to do, I'll go to Ride With GPS (linked above) and click the "route planner" to begin drawing the route. You can do this with a free account as well as save your route and upload to a GPS device. I believe you can upload to your phone as well but not save offline maps with a free account.

The 4 main overlays I use are: 

1) Google Hybrid - shows satellite images + labels and roads etc. You can find the road and starting point of your route and just start clicking on the road and the software will plug in the route as you click on it. You will want to click the appropriate modes for what you are wanting to route. ie: follow roads, unpaved, via bicycle. You can zoom in and out on the overlay (any overlay) as needed.

2) Often RWGPS routing will not follow a route that is not highlighted on the GE Hybrid overlay. I can switch to "OSM Cycle" overlay and very often it will show my route and I can click it as before and the software will draw the route as I click. This overlay is most useful for that utility. But sometimes OSM Cycle will not show the route either.

3) USGS scans. I may find that this will show my route and I can continue drawing in my route. This overlay is also very good for finding 'points of interest' and if you have the paid (vs free) account you can mark these POI's on the map you are creating. For example, in my case I look for springs, wells, tanks, etc. for water sources in the dry Nevada desert.

4) The final overlay I use is the RWGPS overlay. It will show some (but definitely not all) singletrack bike trails. So If it shows a trail of interest you can click on it and continue drawing your map. I use this overlay the least of the 4.

 

So what to do if none of the overlays shows my route of interest? I switch from 'follow roads' mode to 'draw lines' mode. You can then just draw a route wherever you want. I switch back to Google Hybrid view when doing this so I can 'see where I'm going'. For example in the last slide I routed across Lake Mead 3 times planning to travel via packraft. Using the Hybrid (or plain satellite) view I can pick potential launch and take out sites.

 

More

With a premium account you can add/delete control points on the route RWGPS is drawing in order to more precisely control the route creation. POI's are pretty important and you can't add them without the account upgrade. You'll also need the upgrade to download offline maps in the phone app. There is much more you can do during and after creation of your route and the help folks are very responsive.

 

Proofing Your Route

Save the route you created on RWGPS. Then from the dashboard or your routes page, download the file as a .kml to look at on Google Earth. Don't forget, you can use historical imagery if the latest view isn't good. Very valuable and something I use all the time.(RWGPS only has the latest imagery).

I always do this proofing to help ensure the route accuracy. Many times that spring on the map may be a dry dusty sagebrush. Or the dirt road you are hoping to follow doesn't actually exist on the ground. 

Navigation Tools

In some areas, for example, mountain biking for the day in a known area, GPS navigation may not be necessary. Usually for me, I'm in an area I don't know well and in order to be efficient at route finding I need to follow a pre-planned route via GPS navigation. The tools I use:

 

Phone Tools

RWGPS with offline maps. Great because of the mileage markers and elevation graphs, and of course I'm following the route I created in RWGPS.

 

Gaia GPS. My primary phone tool. I download Gaia map overlay which is basically an enhanced topo, and Private Land overlay that cover my route plan. Since I do so much bikepacking in NV I have just downloaded sections covering the entire state. Generally just those two. Pro tip, The Gaia maps are much smaller files sizes than the equivalent USGS topo downloads. Gaia is very detailed and is great for re-routing or alternative routing on the fly. You need an account and again this isn't free. Gaia uses the .kml file you created in Google Earth. Unfortunately I haven't been able to preserve the POI's created in RWGPS when exporting as a .kml to Goggle Earth. It's pretty easy but tedious to recreate them on the Goggle Earth file imported from RWGPS. When you upload your Google Earth .kml file to Gaia it maintains all the POI's

 

Gaia screenshot

Map Out - IOS only. When I had an Iphone I used this app. It's very good with easy route uploads and easy map downloads. Only $5.00 I no longer use only because I have an Android phone.

GPS Navigation Device

You should have a backup navigation device whether you call it your phone or your GPS device. For a long time I just used my phone but there are some drawbacks. Such as battery life, particularly in cold weather, accidental loss/damage etc. I now have a dedicated GPS device, my case the Coros Dura. I moved from Wahoo Element Bolt (V1) to using a friends Hammerhead Karoo2 (great screen!) to the Coros. RWGPS supports sending your route file directly to any of these devices as well as Garmin. For a full list see the RWGPS website. I carry the InReach Mini V1. I don't think the new Iphone satellite capability is quite ready for prime time. Nor do I think it's worth it for me to upgrade my InReach to a V2. See this page for emergency thoughts. Hopefully I'll never need it for a real emergency.

Before Going Out

I check websites (NPS or State Parks if applicable) for current information regarding fires, roads, campgrounds, visitor centers (water, restrooms etc). If packrafting a river I check streamflows to ensure adequate water. I look at the wind/weather sites linked above, particularly when crossing large expanses of open water such as the Lake Mead trip. Early season has me checking the snow depth via the tool linked above. I'll also look at the real time satellite view via the website linked above. I make sure all electronics are charged and functioning and routes are loaded. Perhaps I plan too much but I hate turning type 1-2 fun into type 3 due to lack of diligence. That's just me YMMV.