Public Biking, and Hiking Trails in Carmody-hills-pepper-mill-village, Maryland

Why was this site created?

To help people find maps of trails and open spaces near them, and then use those maps to navigate to, through, and within those places. While we expect that many will use this site to find maps of places they’ve been to before, we also hope to introduce people to places they haven’t been to yet, or even heard of, even though they’re just around the corner


Does this site list every map in each community, and every map about each trail?

It does not. This site is not meant to be a substitute for a Web search; you can do that yourself. Maps are listed here only if we decide that they are original, useful, and relevant to getting out and walking, biking, hiking, etc. on public trails.


What about bike-commuter routes, national parks, city parks, campsites?

We omit most of these. Our focus is on maps of trails and open spaces which are away from vehicle traffic, aren’t places that one can (and would) plan a vacation around (and can find easily enough on one’s own), and are over a certain minimum size (area or length). In some cases the decision to exclude an area may seem arbitrary (and in some cases, it actually will be arbitrary), but it’s all done in the interests of making this site useful, interesting, and unique.


Do you list every map that fits those criteria-- not urban, not national, and not on streets?

Nope. You can find all of these-- and plenty of bad results-- in any Web search, which will give you a number of maps which are:

1. Duplicates. When we find sites which offer this and nothing else, we don’t bother listing them here-- we link to whoever seems to be the owner/originator of the map.
2. Derivative. Some people host maps which are based on existing maps and simply have a single hiking or biking route drawn on them. Unless the map adds something substantial to the data (a network of trails/routes, for example, rather than just a single route, or highlights of trails), we don’t include it. (Again, this may seem, and be, arbitrary)
3. Irrelevant. Many maps relate to an aspect of an open space or trail-- vegetation, zoning, etc.-- which isn’t particularly useful to people who just want trail maps.
4. Inaccurate. Some maps, if you were to follow them blindly, would put you on active railroad tracks or into a river; others are “planned route” maps for a trail which might not exist yet.
5. Just not useful. Lots of of so-called “maps” are just small Google or MapQuest maps with a single dot on the map to indicate a park’s headquarters, a trailhead, or some geographical center point of an open space. This does you no good in terms of finding actual trails, and may not even be of use finding access points to a park, so we don’t include these.




Do people pay to be higher in search results? Can they?

No. Search results are based on the data only. Most of the maps we list here are put together by people who aren’t seeking a profit from their mapmaking: government institutions, “Friends of” groups, and individuals and groups who make maps for one reason or another. They provide the maps for free; we haven’t sought payment for placing them here, or for pointing you to them.

(pause)

Of course, if you want to sponsor a town’s page (or group of towns), or put an ad on our one of sites, that’s different-- let us know [<-- email link here]. But we only list free maps which we’ve found in our surveys and assessments; we wouldn’t point to a site where you have to pay, or register, to see a map.


I know of (have made, have heard of) a map I think should be up here. Will you list it?

Sure-- we’re constantly adding to our database of maps, and we’re always open to suggestions (<--email link here). But we don’t list everything-- just maps that are useful, interesting, unique, etc. as we listed above.

If the map you’re suggesting seems like it fits those criteria, yet we haven’t listed it, chances are it’s an area (of the country) we haven’t covered yet, or (if we have covered that area) we somehow missed it in our research phase. (We should mention here that we make no claim to be definitive or exhaustive-- just very good, and frequently updated, thanks to your help)

Also-- and this is important-- we don’t host maps, we just point to them. So if you want us to point to a map, send us a link, and a source, don’t just send us a map.


Can I view this site on my phone to find my way on trails and in open spaces?

It’s possible.... but we don’t recommend it. Even if your phone doesn’t lose reception (which it will, if you’re in the woods), and even if your phone can usefully display a big PDF or JPG map, we strongly recommend that you print out a paper copy or two of these maps and take them with you when you go. It’s simple and reliable, and you can mark it up and hand it to someone else if you need to, and if you lose it or get it wet/dirty, no big deal.


What about my GPS unit?

Sure, bring that with you too, but don’t rely on it too much. Like cell phones, GPS units can lose their signal, and batteries can go dead at exactly the wrong time. More importantly, we haven’t designed this site with an eye towards working with GPS units, and most of the maps that we point to on this site weren’t drawn with GPS-unit compatibility in mind (yes, many were drawn with the aid of GPS units, but not for them).

Plenty of sites provide maps that load into GPS units, but their focus tends to be on very large open spaces, like national parks and national forests. Some may also provide information about the trails you see listed here, but we generally find that the best source for accurate, clear, and reasonably up-to-date maps of the public trails of the type we focus on are the government entities, private groups, and people who are nearby and have some kind of direct interest or involvement in that space.


Do you have something against GPS?

Not at all-- we just look at it as a tool, but not a vital one, and not something we rely on. If you prefer to navigate that way, that’s fine-- it’s just not what this site is about, and not something we spend a lot of time dealing with when we’re out on the trails. A little, sometimes, but not much and not often. (For the record, we’re not against cell phones on trails either; we just don’t tend to use them.)


I had a bad experience with one of these maps! I (got lost, was hit by a meteor, came to a trail that was closed, flooded, overrun by crickets, etc.). Why don’t you verify the accuracy of these maps, and the safety of the places?

We’d like to have the time-- or get paid, or have trust funds that allow us-- to do this, but we don’t. The conditions of trails can vary not just from year to year, but from day to day; mapmakers have a hard enough time keeping up with administrative changes, let alone seasonal factors like the flooding of wetlands trails. We can’t predict, let alone protect you from,  the many dangers you might encounter out there. Bad things can and will happen; but it’s not the purpose-- expressed or implied-- of this site to guarantee a comfortable, fun, and danger-free experience. By pointing you to these maps we take no responsibility for what may happen if you decide to actually use them to go somewhere. Also, we make no claim as to the accuracy or currency of any of the maps we link to, so use at your own risk, and recognize that your safety is your responsibility.

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How To Use This Site

The Basics

1. Use this site to find free, downloadable maps of public trails in your town and towns near you.

2. Once you find a map, print it out so that you can take it with you. (Why print it out? See ”Can I view this site on my phone?” (<-- link) below)

3. If you haven’t been to a particular trail or open space before, use these maps along with a site like Google Maps or MapQuest to get there. There are two ways to do this:

Method 1 (the quick way): Get the address (if there is one) from either the map or the source link. This might well give you a good starting point, like a parking lot or park headquarters, but it won’t necessarily be the closest or best way to get onto the trails.

Method B (the better way): On the trail map, find the streets that border on/pass through the mapped area; Google Maps or MapQuest will give you a sense of how to get to different access points. (Note that neighboring towns may both have a “Maple Street”, so make sure you’re matching the street name up to the correct town)

 

Understanding the listings

Map title/link: This is usually the title of the map as it appears on the map, plus more text as we deem necessary. The link takes you directly to the map, which is almost always PDF, but is sometimes a jpg. Some maps are offered in more than one format (usually in high- and low-res versions); if that’s the case, we put in an additional link or two next to the map, like this:

Town Forest | jpg
Springfield
City of Springfield

Please note that when you see an entry like this one, it’s the same map, not just the same place; it’s just in a different format. The map linked to the title (almost always a PDF) is the one we believe to have the most detail, but in most cases the lower-res version is just as good in terms of finding your way. When you see multiple entries for the same place, it’s because it’s a different map from a different source. (For more about what this means and why we do it, see the note about “Source”, below.)

Towns: If the area covered by a map is also in other towns (other than the town of the page you’re looking at), you’ll see those towns listed in alphabetical order under the map’s name.

Source: The entity which hosts the map, which in many cases is also the place that created the map, and often administers or otherwise takes care of that trail or open space. While in many cases there’s a “definitive” map of a place, you may find (as we have) that looking at different maps can add to your enjoyment of a place. Not only do different maps often have different levels of detail, they may actually have different boundaries or names for a trail or open space.

Also, while maps created by towns, state agencies, or other institutions are quite accurate, you can often get a different (and, sometimes, more detailed and useful) perspective of an area from a map created by individuals or “Friends” groups who take an active, personal interest in a place. (Many of our favorite maps include some kind of hand-drawn component, which you don’t see much anymore in government-created maps)

Another important thing about the source: It can be very worthwhile to take a few minutes to read about a place before you go, not only to learn about the trails, but also places to park, potential hazards like flooding, and about the rules and regulations about given places. For example, many trails exclude dogs or activities like mountain biking or fishing some or all of the time; better to learn about that before you show up with your dog and/or bike and/or fishing pole.

Type: “Open space” means an area, often conservation land, town forest, or a state park, where there’s either a network of trails or a loop. “Linear trail” means a trail or trails (most typically, rail-trails and river pathways) which limit the user to being on one or a few trails rather than a web of trails. (Some maps include both linear and open space trails, and are noted as such)

By default, maps are listed alphabetically, beginning with trails in your town, followed by trails in nearby towns, again listed alphabetically and then by distance. As you’ll see, you can adjust the sort order, or click on the name any town to “re-center” your search results on that town.

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