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fyodorova
Member
Joined: 29 Apr 2012
Posts: 88 | TRs
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I subscribe to Gaia and CalTopo. Agree with previous comments that Gaia is easier to use while hiking while CalTopo is better for planning. CalTopo's land ownership and slope angle shading layers are helpful, as is the 5-day satellite imagery.
I wish CalTopo had a better UI. It looks like it was designed by a software engineer (I am a software engineer so I know of what I speak.) |
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b00
Member
Joined: 29 Sep 2003
Posts: 1089 | TRs
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i have both gaia and caltopo.
at home i sync caltopo with google earth to look over routes.
in the mountains i bring a dedicated handheld gps, usually with my intended route loaded, along with my iphone with both gaia and caltopo apps. i use the gps the most, running a track for the whole trip, and checking where i am, when needed. on those rare occasions i want a bigger picture of the route, i pull out my phone. i think both gaia and caltopo are very similar, with differences not worth worrying over. i have basically stopped using gaia and only use caltopo(i have a paid subscription as i really like the updated satellite imagery and love their customer service). i also downloaded all the topo maps for the state of washington and keep them on my phone, so i don't need to remember to download a map for where i am going. caltopo's downloaded maps take up less space than gaia's - maybe because of how they format them?
conclusion: both caltopo and gaia are excellent resources
:>) |
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Foist
Sultan of Sweat
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 3761 | TRs
Location: Back!
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| fyodorova wrote: |
I subscribe to Gaia and CalTopo. Agree with previous comments that Gaia is easier to use while hiking while CalTopo is better for planning. CalTopo's land ownership and slope angle shading layers are helpful, as is the 5-day satellite imagery.
I wish CalTopo had a better UI. It looks like it was designed by a software engineer (I am a software engineer so I know of what I speak.) |
When was the last time you used the CalTopo app? I found the UI much improved last summer vs the previous summer. |
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Cyclopath
Faster than light
Joined: 20 Mar 2012
Posts: 4821 | TRs
Location: Seattle
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Be aware not all maps are equal.
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fyodorova
Member
Joined: 29 Apr 2012
Posts: 88 | TRs
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| Foist wrote: |
| When was the last time you used the CalTopo app? I found the UI much improved last summer vs the previous summer. |
Yeah, the app UI is pretty good. I was thinking about the web UI. There are so many powerful features that could be easier to find and use. |
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Foist
Sultan of Sweat
Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 3761 | TRs
Location: Back!
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Navy salad
Member
Joined: 09 Sep 2008
Posts: 1668 | TRs
Location: Woodinville
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| b00 wrote: |
| i also downloaded all the topo maps for the state of washington and keep them on my phone, so i don't need to remember to download a map for where i am going. caltopo's downloaded maps take up less space than gaia's - maybe because of how they format them? |
Any idea how much space the topos for WA state take up on your phone? |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007
Posts: 6819 | TRs
Location: Stuck in the middle
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jstluise - Thanks for tip about 'KML Network Link". The live updates of a saved map is great, but a bonus is getting to overlay CalTopo layers onto the Google Earth view.
I subscribe at the "Pro" level because Matt Jacobs has been trying to make a living out of this since 2016 and I really want him to succeed. Apparently whatever he's doing is working -- There are 10 people on staff!
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Mid Fork Rocks • flickr |
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jstluise
Member
Joined: 22 Apr 2019
Posts: 23 | TRs
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| puzzlr wrote: |
| jstluise - Thanks for tip about 'KML Network Link". The live updated of a saved map is great, but a bonus is getting to overlay CalTopo layers onto the Google Earth view. |
No problem! The 'KML Super Overlay' network link you get with your Pro membership is pretty cool because you can overlay map layers on Google Earth terrain like you say. Really useful for something like slope shading. Early on you could manually download KMZ tiles directly from Caltopo to open in Google Earth. Now that's moved to only the Super Overlay with the Pro membership.
For any non-Pro users that want to try it out, you can still find KMZ formats of maps from other sources to overlay in Google Earth. USGS has their TopoView (https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/) where you can download a whole slew of maps in various formats, including KMZ. Maps that are particularly interesting to overlay are satellite views with some map features like trails, streams, roads, etc.
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Joey
verrry senior member
Joined: 05 Jun 2005
Posts: 2322 | TRs
Location: Redmond
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| puzzlr wrote: |
jstluise - Thanks for tip about 'KML Network Link". The live updated of a saved map is great, but a bonus is getting to overlay CalTopo layers onto the Google Earth view.
I subscribe at the "Pro" level because Mat Jacobs has been trying to make a living out of this since 2016 and I really want him to succeed. Apparently whatever he's doing is working -- There are 10 people on staff! |
Wowie! Good for Matt. Glad to see it working for him.
I know Matt thru online. Matt's other project, SARTopo, gets a lot of love in the SAR world.
(edited to remove reference to kidney. Had Matt confused with someone else)
I'm fairly certain CalTopo has a feature where you can enter the address of a GIS server and then display any data layers that server is hosting on the CalTopo map. I'm going to drop them an email and let them know about the list of ArcGIS server addresses that I curate. There are lots of layers with trail data at the federal/state/county level.
Here's the list in a PDF:
https://mappingsupport.com/p/surf_gis/list-federal-state-county-city-GIS-servers.pdf
Usually I post an updated list each Wednesday. I am behind a bit this week since I am finishing a major upgrade to my server. |
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