Trail History

I started riding the trails in TA02 in 1996. There were are few times we rode other places on and around Camp Robinson. Eventually, we were locked down to the area where the trails are today.

TA02 Trails 1996

This map depicts all of the trails that were in TA02 at the time. 

Pipeline

Dogwood Trail

Twin Bridges

Flat Lands Loop

5 Mile Loop

Elevator Trail

Airport Loop

Port-a-Potty Loop

Outside Loop

Berm Trail

Christmas Tree Loop

Most of the trails on this map are drawn by hand. I find it amazing that whoever contributed the hand, did a decent job of understanding the shape of the trails. This is the first map that I worked on. I had access to a GPS however, they were very inaccurate so I often had to make adjustments whenever I finished plotting the coordinates on a map. There was no easy function that I could use to upload a track, I had to record coordinates at key locations (like a turn or an intersection) and then play connect the dots later. It is so much easier today to produce maps of the trails using a Garmin. 

New version of the trail map
created using Garmins and Google visualizer 

I mapped the section of Outside Loop between Christmas Tree and where it connects with Port-a-Potty using a compass and a measuring wheel. It took a day of shooting an azimuth, walking and measuring, then recording the data. Later, I had to recreate the section using a protractor, then resize a copy of a map to get the correct scale and trace the trail to the map. Point is, it was labor intensive to simply map a short section of trail.

Today, we use GPS data captured by our bike computers as we ride the trails to create maps using various products. Google makes a few decent mapping tools and I often use Google Earth to view GPS tracks from the Garmin Training Center to get a bird's eye view of a recent ride. 

A few of us are working on an updated version of the trail map that depicts the current shape and location of the trails. In the meantime, if you are not super proficient at navigating the trails or understanding how they are networked, ride with someone who is and pay attention to where you are at all times. On group rides, it is not uncommon to hear "Are we still on Outer Loop?" answered by "No, this is Porta Potty."