GPS Tracks for Irish walks

Krusty_Clown

Hi there, was wondering if anyone had any resources for tracklogs of Irish walks etc? I'd be particularly interested in tracklogs of sections of the Wicklow way, and routes for Lug etc.. Doesn't seem to be a huge amount of information available on the net.. Most of the resources available tend to be more focussed on the commercial side of things (e.g. walking holidays etc).

Would anybody be interested in creating or contributing to a repository of such tracklogs if a reosurce like this doesn't exist already? Could we start posting them to a sticky on this forum, for example, in a pre-agreed format?

I realise that a GPS device is no substitute for detailed maps and a compass, etc., but for casual mountain walkers it would be a useful resource..

What is a good format for sharing tracklogs? GPX seems to be a reasonable format, and is a supported format within GoogleEarth. Any better suggestions? Apologies if this has been covered previously, the forum search isn't working very well..

cavedave

Good idea alright. I know the cavers have been marking entrances of Irish caves with GPS for a while now.
We tend to use Irish Grid reference which is not ideal. Use of GPX is a good idea because route to a point is often a huge help. I would guess the Irish mountain rescue service have a number of important waypoints stored but in terms of public info the MCI might be the people to try.
David

Evil Phil

Aye the MCI would be a good place to contact but in the mean time I'll happily sticky something like this on the forum.

Alun

I've got about 130 tracks I've recorded while about and about, most of them in the Wickow Mountains over the course of the last 4 years. They're all in OziExplorer format, but I could convert some of them to GPX format easily enough. There's probably a few duplicates, or near duplicates in there, but I don't think there's much of Wicklow that hasn't been covered.

I could pick a few out and upload them if people are interested, plus I've got a good few waypoints as well, mostly summits, but a few other possibly useful ones too.

Supercell

What kind of gps would anyone recommend for using with these maps ? Are there any suppliers that ship here ones that have an altimeter functionality?

Krusty_Clown

i'm a fan of Garmin.. I have a Quest, which I use on my motorcycle too... It's waterproof (very handy on a bike), has a 20 hour battery (very handy for trekking), comes with a car-kit (handy for driving) and combined with the free topo maps, is a good all-rounder, and a very useful product.

I'm eagerly awaiting the 2007 Garmin release of the NavTeq maps, as the current ones I'm using (CN 07) are pretty poor for Irish mapping.. It does calculate altitude, (as opposed to using a built-in altimeter), so it wouldn't be terribly accurate..

Krusty_Clown

By the way, I'd love to see your tracklogs Alun..
If they're small enough, you could zip them up and attach them to a post here..

Alun

To be honest the altimeter is a waste of time. The GPS tech-heads will try and tell you that the height calculated by GPS means alone is highly inaccurate, but when I'm up in the hills, and arrive at a summit, it's rarely more than a metre or two different from what's marked on the map, so I take that with a pinch of salt. You have to mess about calibrating alitimeters as well. Ditto for electronic compasses (power hungry), just take the bearing off the GPS when you're heading for a waypint and transfer it to a real compass, which you will, of course, have with you anyway.

Garmin mapping GPS's meant for outdoor use are also useless for use in the hills (no maps available for Ireland or the UK), so save your money and get a simple GPS like the old etrex Venture which I have, and is perfectly adequate.

Krusty .. can you get decent topo maps for the Quest for Ireland? I didn't think so.

Alun

Krusty_Clown wrote:

By the way, I'd love to see your tracklogs Alun..
If they're small enough, you could zip them up and attach them to a post here..

When I've got time I'll zip up a few and upload them. They're quite large in fact, since there's an entry for every track point and you'll get about 1500 points (about 125 bytes each) or more for a typical 6 hour day hike, but since GPX files are effectively text files they compress quite well when zipped. A 192K GPX file zips down to about 24k, for example.

Krusty_Clown

<thoughts?>

Track: Wicklow Way - Stage 1 - Marlay Park to Glencullen (Johnny Foxes)
Distance:Approximately 12 kms
Track type: GPX (GPS Exchange)
Terrain Type:Some road, forest path, boggy path, uneven surfaces
Terrain Difficulty:Easy. Some steep hill walk, boggy paths, exposed.
Suggested parking: Marlay Park Car Park, Johnny Foxes Car Park
Notes/Comments:
A Nice introductory walk. Takes about 2 - 2:30hrs. Will be very boggy in the wetter months (and probably in the summer months too!). Look out for the Fairy Castle, as you approach Two rock mountain. Stay on the paths to avoid further erosion in the area.

Disclaimer:Tracklogs are meant for entertainment purposes only, and are used entirely at the user's risk. Tracks are a historic record of previously existing paths and may not reflect current conditions or paths. GPS receivers are not a substitute for detailed maps and a compass.

Krusty_Clown

Hi Alun, not real Topo maps, just those that were made available by the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC)... Handy for identifying peaks, valleys etc, but little else...

See the screen-shot from my previous post for a sample..

Alun

Krusty_Clown wrote:

Hi Alun, not real Topo maps, just those that were made available by the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC)... Handy for identifying peaks, valleys etc, but little else...

See the screen-shot from my previous post for a sample..

Oh right, now you mention them I do know about those. They were mentioned on Simon Stewart's mountainviews.ie website in the section on GPS, I believe.

I wonder, as far as posting JPG's of maps with the tracks superimposed on them, could we be facing copyright problems? I have both OSi and Harvey's maps in my OziExplorer setup, but would have problems posting excerpts from these on a public forum like this.

Supercell

Looking on the OSi website, they have a product called the Trail Master that seems just the ticket for making a nice topographical map to import into a GSM device.
Anyone here tried this before?

Alun

Longfield wrote:

Looking on the OSi website, they have a product called the Trail Master that seems just the ticket for making a nice topographical map to import into a GSM device.
Anyone here tried this before?

I've tried it, and wasn't too impressed to be honest. You're paying primarily for the usage of the mapping data, but the application they supply (written by a Belgian company who seem to be mainly a GIS operation) is pretty poor IMO. It's painfully slow when scanning and zooming, and the user interface is, to my mind at least, a little strange and hard to get used to. I recently re-installed my PC for totally unconnected reasons and didn't bother re-installing it, which says a lot.

Personally, I use OziExplorer (www.oziexplorer.com) and either scan and calibrate maps myself or try and get hold of good quality images of others. I managed to persuade Harvey's to sell me a high quality image of their Wicklow map for example. It cost me as much as the digital map packages you can get from them complete with software, but the quality is far higher than you'd get by scanning it yourself.

Supercell

I did look at the homepage for OziExplorer and wonder how hard it would be to make (i.e. scan etc) your own maps into it.
How much money would a high res Wicklow map be ?(my primary area of interest as I'm moving there shortly and plan on doing a lot of hill walking).
Would the normal OSi Discovery 56 map be sufficient if carefully scanned?

Alun

It's not too difficult, really, but you need to be quite careful and methodical about it. The main problem is that you have to scan in small sections at a time (unless you've got an A0 scanner, that is!) and stitch them together somehow. What I do is to scan small sections, not paying too much attention to keeping them particularly straight, and then calibrate each map segment separately using as many calibration points as possible. I then use the Ozi MapMerge utility (separate download on the website) to merge them together into one big map. This can take a long time and uses lots of CPU power, be warned!

As for the suitability of OSi sheet 56 for hillwalking purposes ... some people here my disagree, but I think it's not particularly useful. I much prefer Harvey's Wicklow Mountains Superwalker map. The only snags are that it doesn't cover some areas to the far south or far west of the common walking areas, and it's to an 'odd' scale (1:30,000). As I said, I've got a high quality copy as a JPG from Harvey's and usually print out just the section I'm using at 1:25k for the walk I'm doing, so that's not really a problem.

ShayHT

Trying posting on the geocachingireland.com forum, i'm sure some people up there would have tracklogs...

Krusty_Clown

Thanks for the suggestion ShayHT, but the point was more about creating a resource for people to be able to grab clearly defined logs to guide them on walks or hikes which they otherwise might not be tempted to try. Simillar, I guess to helpful resources like mountainviews.ie, or megalithomania (only with tracklogs ).

Raw tracklogs would scare of all but the most determined of GPS users (like me!).

Speaking of which: Alun/anyone else got any tracklogs for Lugnaquilla they wish to share?
I'll upload Part 2 of the wicklow way later.. Evil Phil: can we get these posted to a seperate stickied thread?

Alun

OK, here's a zipfile of 4 tracklogs involving Lugnaquillia. Mostly self explanatory, but if you need any more info, let me know. You'll need some kind of mapping software and maps to make any sense of them.

Krusty_Clown

These are absolutely perfect Alun... Many thanks for the upload..
They open just fine in Mapsource and GoogleEarth.

Krusty_Clown

Track: Wicklow Way - Stage 2 - Glencullen (Johnny Foxes) to Glencree (
Distance:Approximately 13.5 kms
Track type: GPX (GPS Exchange)
Terrain Type: Gentle mountain rises and falls, parkland, boggy paths, some road.
Terrain Difficulty: Easy. Some steep hill walking, boggy paths, exposed.
Suggested parking: Johnny Foxes Car Park, Crone Car Park
Notes/Comments:
Slightly longer and more difficult than Stage 1, this walk begins with a gentle hike up towards and around the left hand side of Prince William's seat. Watch out for mountain Bikers in the area, give them plenty of room. The hike then descends through what is left of Curtlestown wood. Watch for markers on rocks. The walk travels around the side of Knockree Hill, before joining up with and following the Glencree River. This is a wonderfully scenic section of the walk, and tends to be busy with campers, walkers etc.

Disclaimer:Tracklogs are meant for entertainment purposes only, and are used entirely at the user's risk. Tracks are a historic record of previously existing paths and may not reflect current conditions or paths. GPS receivers are not a substitute for detailed maps and a compass.

Krusty_Clown

Track: Wicklow Way - Stages 3 & 4 - Glencree to Lough Teagh and then on to Oldbridge (near Roundwood)
Distance: 1st Leg = 12kms, 2nd Leg = 6kms (18 kms combined)
Track type: GPX (GPS Exchange)
Terrain Type: Forest, Exposed top of mountains, boardwalk, boggy fields, mud, road.
Terrain Difficulty: Very exposed at times, some steep climbs. Moderate.
Suggested parking: Crone Car Park, Car Park overlooking Lough Teagh (stage 3), Beside the bridge at Oldbridge (end of stage 4)
Notes/Comments:
It's worth doing the two stages together to avoid having to do the next leg (a brief 6kms walk) on it's own. So this tracklog covers the two stages together, to make a total of 17.7kms, from Crone Wood to Oldbridge.

Stage 3: On this leg of the WW you get exposed to fantastic lake views, superb granite mountains, aerial views of Powerscourt waterfall and beautiful misty paths alongside Djouce mountain (weather/mist permitting!). The first part of the walk takes you up and over Powerscourt waterfall (from Crone woods) with breathtaking views of the Powerscourt area. Following the path over the top of the mountain, you'll enter a very scenic valley which brings you closer to Djouce Mountain (725 Metres). The path up to Djouce is much eroded and quite boggy. At some point on the stretch up to Djouce you'll have to make the choice of continuing to the top (well worth doing at least once!) or continuing on the WW path. This tracklog continues on the Wicklow Way path. Eventually you'll arrive at the boardwalk - a section of the path made up of railway sleepers, to preserve the area, and minimise the erosion caused by walkers. This area is very exposed, and very nasty in poor weather, but you can make good progress on the boardwalk. Arriving at the end of stage 3 you're introduced fantastic views over-looking Lough Teagh and Luggala.

Stage 4: Follow the road past the piers and the entrance to Lough Dan and enter the forest. As you start your descent, look for a WW waymark, which brings you around the edge of the forest, to a perch over-looking Lough Dan. At the end of the walk, you'll climb over a style, and enter a farmer's land. Keeping to the right of the field (potentially occupied by some very tame sheep and cattle!) climb over the gate, and another gate to enter the field immediately to the right. Follow this field in an anti-clockwise direction to exit to the road. These fields are very boggy, so expect mud and much squelching! Follow the road for a couple of kms, to arrive at Oldbridge.

Disclaimer:Tracklogs are meant for entertainment purposes only, and are used entirely at the user's risk. Tracks are a historic record of previously existing paths and may not reflect current conditions or paths. GPS receivers are not a substitute for detailed maps and a compass.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Thanks for the info on the topo maps from the Scottish mountaineering site. They look useful, but still nowhere as good as my good ol paper os map.. I have a mapping gps ordered, and i hope to have it in the next few days. I am new to this , but i am reading up on it as much as i can, and from what i see, there is no decent topo maps available to use for anywhere in Ireland (OSi will not release them?).

While i know that a mapping gps should be no substitute for a paper map and and compass, i still would like the convenience of having the os quality paper map in the gps. Now from what i have read, you can use such programs like Oziexplorer to scan maps and use them to plot your route, and then upload the track route to the gps (but not the map itself..).

I wonder is it possible to actually scan an os map, calibrate it, convert it to the format used by the gps, and then upload the whole map to the gps.

(I wish this guy came over here to ireland and free up some maps.. http://libremap.org/ He has made available over 50,000 us topo maps for free to use..)

Alun

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote:

Thanks for the info on the topo maps from the Scottish mountaineering site. They look useful, but still nowhere as good as my good ol paper os map.. I have a mapping gps ordered, and i hope to have it in the next few days. I am new to this , but i am reading up on it as much as i can, and from what i see, there is no decent topo maps available to use for anywhere in Ireland (OSi will not release them?).

Not strictly true. It's more a case of OSi wanting so much money for them that Garmin and others have made a business decision not to offer them. In some countries national mapping agencies (like in the US) make this kind of data more easily available and either for free or for a nominal fee, others don't. Remember that it's the same situation in GB with their OS maps. At least in GB there are a number of third party companies providing mapping software as opposed to the monopoly OSi have with their less than spectacular TrailMaster product.

While i know that a mapping gps should be no substitute for a paper map and and compass, i still would like the convenience of having the os quality paper map in the gps. Now from what i have read, you can use such programs like Oziexplorer to scan maps and use them to plot your route, and then upload the track route to the gps (but not the map itself..).

Indeed you can, but the map format generated is specific to OziExplorer and won't work in any mapping GPS device. This is in fact what I do, plan the route on Ozi, print a section of the map with the route and all waypoints on it, and upload the route to the GPS. It works perfectly for me, I have to say, and I can't see having the map itself in the GPS, especially on such a titchy little screen being of too much use myself.

I wonder is it possible to actually scan an os map, calibrate it, convert it to the format used by the gps, and then upload the whole map to the gps.

Nope! If you can come up with a Windows Mobile device (PDA) that's waterproof and either has a built-in GPS or can take a CF or SDIO based GPS card, you could run OziCE, the PDA version of Oziexplorer though. Given other factors like battery life, and ruggedness though, I wouldn't really consider this a practical suggestion.

(I wish this guy came over here to ireland and free up some maps.. http://libremap.org/ He has made available over 50,000 us topo maps for free to use..)

I'm not sure of the legality of what he's doing. The USGS makes it's data available to third parties without too much fuss .. it is a government agency that is effectively funded by tax payers money after all, but I believe they do make a charge of some sort. If he tried that over here, he'd find himself being sued within 5 minutes, I'm sure.

In any case, these are raster maps, not vector maps and as such can't be uploaded to a mapping GPS either.

Having said all that, the Garmin map format has been cracked and it is possible to do the raster->vector conversion all by yourself. There are a few internet resources out there to help you do this, such as http://www.makeyourownmaps.com and also a Yahoo Groups group called Map Authors or somesuch, but be warned, it's a lot of work and very, very tedious, plus the software is shall we say, a bit experimental in nature.

K09

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Track: Wicklow Way - Stages 3 & 4 - Glencree to Lough Teagh and then on to Oldbridge (near Roundwood)
Distance: 1st Leg = 12kms, 2nd Leg = 6kms (18 kms combined)
Track type: GPX (GPS Exchange)
Terrain Type: Forest, Exposed top of mountains, boardwalk, boggy fields, mud, road.
Terrain Difficulty: Very exposed at times, some steep climbs. Moderate.
Suggested parking: Crone Car Park, Car Park overlooking Lough Teagh (stage 3), Beside the bridge at Oldbridge (end of stage 4)
Notes/Comments:
It's worth doing the two stages together to avoid having to do the next leg (a brief 6kms walk) on it's own. So this tracklog covers the two stages together, to make a total of 17.7kms, from Crone Wood to Oldbridge.

Stage 3: On this leg of the WW you get exposed to fantastic lake views, superb granite mountains, aerial views of Powerscourt waterfall and beautiful misty paths alongside Djouce mountain (weather/mist permitting!). The first part of the walk takes you up and over Powerscourt waterfall (from Crone woods) with breathtaking views of the Powerscourt area. Following the path over the top of the mountain, you'll enter a very scenic valley which brings you closer to Djouce Mountain (725 Metres). The path up to Djouce is much eroded and quite boggy. At some point on the stretch up to Djouce you'll have to make the choice of continuing to the top (well worth doing at least once!) or continuing on the WW path. This tracklog continues on the Wicklow Way path. Eventually you'll arrive at the boardwalk - a section of the path made up of railway sleepers, to preserve the area, and minimise the erosion caused by walkers. This area is very exposed, and very nasty in poor weather, but you can make good progress on the boardwalk. Arriving at the end of stage 3 you're introduced fantastic views over-looking Lough Teagh and Luggala.

Stage 4: Follow the road past the piers and the entrance to Lough Dan and enter the forest. As you start your descent, look for a WW waymark, which brings you around the edge of the forest, to a perch over-looking Lough Dan. At the end of the walk, you'll climb over a style, and enter a farmer's land. Keeping to the right of the field (potentially occupied by some very tame sheep and cattle!) climb over the gate, and another gate to enter the field immediately to the right. Follow this field in an anti-clockwise direction to exit to the road. These fields are very boggy, so expect mud and much squelching! Follow the road for a couple of kms, to arrive at Oldbridge.

Disclaimer:Tracklogs are meant for entertainment purposes only, and are used entirely at the user's risk. Tracks are a historic record of previously existing paths and may not reflect current conditions or paths. GPS receivers are not a substitute for detailed maps and a compass.

Sorry for bringing up an old post but I thought this was a great idea to provide a description of various hikes. Was there any development on this?
Or is there a website that does this?
I know mountainviews does something similar but its really just peoples general comments and no details are provided such as where to park, etc.

Thanks.

Esroh

This is still a good idea KC.

Having read thru the thread the ig change is the demise of Trailmaster with a web based replacement.

micawber

K09 wrote: »

Sorry for bringing up an old post but I thought this was a great idea to provide a description of various hikes. Was there any development on this?
Or is there a website that does this?
I know mountainviews does something similar but its really just peoples general comments and no details are provided such as where to park, etc.

Thanks.

everytrail.com allows you to upload gpx,photos and descriptions. I use it but I've been a bit lazy about doing desciptive bits,although as I usually start my gps trail the moment I leave the car you can work out where I parked.

burly

Yes i use everytrail.com, and have posted numerous tracks in gpx format woth photos included of walks in the Commeragh Mountains, the Galtee Mountains, Knockmealdowns, and many more.
Ive also use this website to download tracklogs for walks in the Grand Canyon and Yoesmite in California, which I then followed.
A great website I must say.
I remember suggesting it on another thread a few months ago, but it never took off. If we got only 10-15 people on here to post walks every couple of weeks, we'd build up a good database.
It would be a great resource for walking clubs to use too to keep a record of their activity.

PanK

Hi guys,
any one has a track Moyne-Glendalough? It looks like not very popular part of WW though

adser53

hi guys, I only found everytrail yesterday thanks to this thread and have to say it's a fantastic site! I have a question though regarding gpx files.

I don't have a dedicated gps unit but I have garmin mobile xt on my symbian phone with mapsource on my pc that can read the files but the routes won't show up for some reason on my phone after i transfer them. I also use sporstracker on my phone to track my routes and such and it's a great bit of software. Now to my question, does anyone know of any software for a symbian phone that can read gpx files and show the routes?

nomdeboardie

burly wrote: »

Yes i use everytrail.com, and have posted numerous tracks in gpx format woth photos included of walks in the Commeragh Mountains, the Galtee Mountains, Knockmealdowns, and many more.
Ive also use this website to download tracklogs for walks in the Grand Canyon and Yoesmite in California, which I then followed.
A great website I must say.
I remember suggesting it on another thread a few months ago, but it never took off. If we got only 10-15 people on here to post walks every couple of weeks, we'd build up a good database.
It would be a great resource for walking clubs to use too to keep a record of their activity.

I’ve just uploaded a couple of trails under the name “nomdeboardie” to try this out myself. They’re at
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=637406 and
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=637407
I had a look at one of yours Burly – nice. I'll keep a lookout for requests for Wicklow/Dublin (I don't have tracks from other areas yet) and/or put up other stuff piecemeal if it takes off. I see a few entries for this area already (searching for “Wicklow”), inc. some nice ones from a Joe King. Looking at those I see one of my entries is a subsection of his Sugarloaves walk, so my upload for this was pretty pointless in retrospect. This brings up the question of how best to co-ordinate uploads, naming conventions etc between users, if at all.

(PanK: I have some tracks that overlap some bits of that WicklowWay section, but not the whole of it, sorry.)