Active Trails is a good site with a compilation of hiking trails. It can be found at http://activetrails.com.

I just have to plug my own mapping tool: http://www.DiscoverMachine.com

I created it just for fun. It can import GPX files and has a pretty clean interface.

I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't too much of a good thing, at least where trails are concerned. There seem to be more trailsharing sites than there are trails. Trailregistry.com is an older site with a much clunkier (no KML) interface, but it has plenty of content. Trails keep trickling in - but only trickling. I suspect this is because the trails you'd really want to share often have poor GPS reception. Some sites like crankfire seem to succeed because they're focused on one activity and already represented a solid community. Others *might* eventually dominate through really great interfaces. But I suspect that we're going to see a weeding-out process over time. Honestly, I'm more excited about redtrails.com.

Good list. Thanks for posting it.
It's no wonder so many interest has been generated considering the heavy price erosion in the market and how many people have now a GPS (I have several myself).

Not to put too fine a point on it, but there are great sites out there like www.navitraveler.com that have awesome GPS capabilities and let you find about anything you could want to find.

Well GPS has certainly taken a quick tour in development! I started using a GPS in an old wooden yacht I sailed along the coast of Sweden. This is some 20 years ago now, and I still remember is sometimes showing me being in the Med and sometimes in a place where I could actually be!
At this time it was ofcourse all down to numbers and no mapping was avaliable (well not in my budget!). Today it is really diffrent, GPS is today integrated in such a different way, I use it in my car to find the marina where Im going racing, it ofcourse shows me where to stop for fule and where to get food on the way there, once there, I take it out of the car and put it in to the yacht im gonna sail. Now it shows me all the info I need including tides and water movment. Connnected to a simple little laptop it will actually help calculate the winnning track to sail and win a race.
This is really far away from the old classic wooden yacht my father used to race, I still sail "classic" but you can be sure I do it in a very modern way!
Thx for reading!

Hey, thanks for mtbguru. Great stuff.

GPS is in and here to stay.

I have 8-10 LandAirSea tracking Key and 3100 units. These work well, but I would really like to be able to give my contractors a unit that does everything that these LandAirSea units do (take a reading every second, ability to create maps, playback their track on PC, and create reports with total time driven, stops, and mileage.

I would like a unit that has a screen, like the Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan units.
For our application (driving from house to house delivering to mailboxes), it is particularly helpful to be able to see where you are on a map, and also show where you have driven.

I have tried using the Garmin Nuvi 750, which does show where we have driven, has a screen....it also does keep a track of somekind. I have had trouble downloading it (I think the software with Mapsource is still pretty buggy) plus have been unable to get any meaningful reporting out of Mapsource. Also can't playback. Further, there is no control on the Nuvi 750 as to when it begins tracking and ends tracking...it simply takes a reading every second it is on, up to 10,000 points, and then begins deleting and replacing at beginning again.

The Nuvi 200 has a hack that allows you to use it for tracking (http://www.marcforrest.com/2007/11/15/garmin-nuvi-200-track-hack/). I have begun to try this unit for this purpose, but again, even with the data, not sure what software can produce the maps and playback that I really need. I like that you can start and stop the unit's tracking (unlike the Nuvi 750).

Any ideas?

Your help is needed, as I need to purchase 6-10 units immediately.

Thanks!

Yes, amazing technology...and a good point one person makes...the fact that many trails may not be marked because they don't get a good GPS signal. Still, GPS is here to stay. Trucking companies are using Google Earth and mapping. Check out www.jett-track.com and www.jett-track.com/blog for more info.

I have enjoyed reading.Nice blog.

i absoluteluy agree with you...GPS devices have devloped at a very rapid pace and become more common...people have started using GPS watches having all the standard features of an GPS device..

i absoluteluy agree with you...GPS devices have devloped at a very rapid pace and become more common...people have started using GPS watches having all the standard features of an GPS device..