Recreation Mapping

When I read the idea for this blog a couple thoughts popped into my head, mainly focusing on biking. The first being that there are tons of maps online that show where there are recreation bike trails such as rails-to-trails programs like the one in Northampton, MA that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. This trail section stretches from Northampton, through Hadley and Amherst, and finally ending in Beltchertown. DCR also provides maps for hiking and places such like public boat launches. While these maps are created by professionals, there are other maps that I use that are created by enthusiasts mapping their trails. An example of this is on Bachelor Street in Granby, MA. There is a map produced by DCR for this state owned forest that is part of the Holyoke Range, but it does not show the vast system of mountain bike trails that were created by these enthusiast. What they have done is take the DCR map and used it as a base layer and then added on the missing trails along with the names and difficulty rating for each. The only problem is that this map is not available online to show as an example. But, tons of examples of mapping recreation can be found by going to the D DCR website by clicking here.