I worked on a piece recently about a guy who, with some friends, mapped out a dirt/dual-sport north-south route the length of Arkansas. Charlie and Doc dubbed it the Trans Arkansas Trail, TART for short, and then figured they ought to ride it to see what they had created. As it worked out, Doc couldn't make the ride but four other friends joined Charlie for portions of the route. No ride is truly an adventure ride if you don't have stories to tell, and these guys did end up with some stories.
It took a lot of work on the parts of Charlie and Doc to create the TART and there wouldn't be much at all to come out of it if all that happened was that a few guys rode it once and that was that. Charlie had different plans right from the start, however. He wanted to share the trail with other riders and the vehicle for accomplishing that is the website DualSportsMaps.com.
At DualSportsMaps.com, riders can create interactive maps of their favorites routes complete with color coding to show the difficulty of various stretches, icons to indicate recommended gas stops or eateries, particularly photogenic spots, and a bunch more. The maps are downloadable with GPS tracks that can be loaded into your unit. Those who post routes are expected to maintain them, indicating changes when they occur so that someone else doesn't start out following the route and find themselves at an impasse. And it's free. You just need to go and sign up to gain access to all of this.
After Charlie and the crew rode the TART he headed back to the site and made a number of revisions. In one place what was clearly a public road had been blocked off by a landowner who apparently believes he has the right to do so. Or just doesn't care. Charlie rerouted. And so now, if you want to ride the TART, it's all there for you.
But OK, sure, you don't live in Arkansas or anywhere near. No problem. There are maps all over the country to choose from. Click on the GPX Files tab on the site and you'll get a map of the US with colored circles showing the number of routes available in different areas. As I look at it right now, there are 54 in California to the east of Los Angeles, 25 in the Ozarks region of Missouri and Arkansas, and a whopping 706 in western Colorado. (Does that give you any idea why I'm so eager to do more dual-sporting?)
Zoom in on any area and you begin to drill down. The closer in you get the more the big circles break up into smaller ones until you zero in on a particular trail. Some, like the TART, are fully annotated, while others show little more than the route.
In addition to the GPX Files area, the site is set up with an Android app that you can use and another section for Garmin GPS Maps. And there's a whole lot more. It strikes me as a very well thought out site that offers a lot in one place. If you're into dirt you owe it to yourself to check out DualSportsMaps.com.
Comments