Map overlay?

[STANG302]

First off I am no GPS expert. So I figured I'd ask the question here.

A few of us in our local snowmobile club would like to figure out a way to overlay trails over our county GIS map. So that we can easily keep track of land owners and the trails that cross there land.

Is this feasible?

Is there any known way to download GIS maps?

If there is no way to download the GIS map. Is there a way to cheat this with PDF or JPG of the map. And over lay the GPS file of our trails over it?

 

[tarditi]

Are you trying to have it digital on your GPS/device as you drive or just use it for trip planning?

There are lots of GPS applications that let you add notes and routes, etc.

 

[captadv]

You can build a layer in mapbox studio and then add that layer to Gaia GPS.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[87Warrior]

Your state should have a geodatabase where you can download most of the information on the county's GIS map. Your problem will be processing the data. Google Earth Pro has some processing power, but ESRI ArcGIS would let you do anything you want with it. As an example, this is the geodata clearinghouse for Kansas: https://www.kansasgis.org

I don't think the parcel information would be very useful in the field but it could be valuable when planning a route.

 

[theksmith]

i'm unclear on your question - do you already have access to these county maps and want a way to merge them with some tracks you have? ...or are you asking where you could even obtain the county maps?

FYI - Caltopo provides a "land management" map source that will work in many apps as a semitransparent overlay, but it's just for whether an area is BLM, NFS, state, private, etc. - it doesn't contain private land owner names.

 

[DaveInDenver]

i'm unclear on your question

Indeed, a bit of clarity would help and knowing the end goal. You can build transparent maps that let you show data over a base map on GPS devices, for example. So you're trying to take GIS shapefiles (e.g. border and boundaries data) and bring it into a GPS for use in the field, right? You'll need some sort of software, ArcGIS, ExpertGPS, TrackMaker, shp2kml/kml2gpx, QGIS, etc. as mentioned.

Just thinking, if you have a SHP file (perhaps something you've downloaded from your county or state), you can convert it to GPX or KML with an online tool.

https://mygeodata.cloud

I find KML works better with Garmin Basecamp but YMMV. You end up with a track that follows the path of the polygons from which you started.

 

[the406]

Try out ONXMaps, either the chip for a GPS or app for smartphone. I use the app for backcountry hunting trips, and it is amazing. Private land, roads, trails, national forests, etc. and you can pick your state. No need to download additional programs, layers, etc. from and once you select and download your area of interest, it works (for the smartphone app) regardless of cell service, etc. It is also very easy to mark waypoints or measure distances and plan routes.