2022 Updated CalTopo Philmont Planning Map

I had spare time and felt there was an audience for a solid Philmont digital planning map. So, at CalTopo I have a pubically-shared map:
https://caltopo.com/m/TK68

It has the new 2021 and 2022 camps that are listed on PhilTrek.com. The primary data source was the current (labelled 2021) edition of the Ranch GIS Department KMZ file. The “full” 2021 GIS KMZ file includes MANY DATA POINTS such as the camp roads, 99% of the trails, trails labelled “Under Construction”, camp locations, the turnarounds/trailheads, and numerous peaks marked.

I merged the new/changed data into my 2020 edition of the CalpTopo map. I dropped the GIS roads layer, added several peaks, and the CHQ road entrances. I retained camps that are closed for historical interest (and I am too lazy to delete them).

LONG-WINDED DETAILS:

Against my better judgement I included the VERY overly-detailed PSR GIS trail routes, but made them not visible by default. I did take the step of manually splitting the GIS trails into North, Fire Zone, and South sub-folders as an attempt to improve rendering performance. The PSR trail data is VERY disorganized, split into HUNDREDS of odd little pieces, and has ZERO labels. The GIS trail data really is more trouble than it is worth compared to the “more than good enough” trails from Open Street Map.

CalTopo has a good Open Street Map layer/option that includes most Philmont trails. The trails in OSM are named/labelled by what camps they connect. CalTopo also has an autotrace (called auto-route) function that can draw a custom (and exportable) line along OSM routes. One “gotcha” to watch out for is that the CalTopo auto-route will pick whatever route is shortest, including fire roads and so-called “staff trails” that the ranch does not “encourage” campers to use. The routing behavior can be over-ruled by clicking on “good trails” at junctions along the way. There is a brief explanation of the function here:
https://blog.caltopo.com/2016/03/10/auto-routing/

With the Itinerary Guide, and the OSM or TF Outdoor base map, you could get a very good map for any trek. In the samples I looked at the PSR GIS trail and the OSM trail differ within one or two tenths of a mile. I had great success using PhilTrek.com to find out what sub-routes connect camps if you search for camps by name.

I retained my version of the boundaries for the surrounding land that PSR uses, based on a mix of the old 2019 GIS file and Open Street Map. I include a down-sampled copy of the PSR-provided perimeter for the 2018 Ute Park Fire “Semi No-Go Zone”.

CalTopo can export a GPX and KML files. I don’t have anything that reads/needs GPX files, so I have no idea if they are “too big”. CalTopo can also export KML files for people stuck using Google Maps. I have worked with KML. Without deleting all the trail data, the exported KML file is VERY LARGE and Google Maps will choke on it. You will need to split things up yourself.

If you aren’t familiar with CalTopo, read through recent (January 2022) posts at the CalTopo blog at:
https://blog.caltopo.com/category/how-to/

I MIGHT be able to provide LIMITED help via posts here at BackpackingLite. If you have no idea what any of these files and acronyms mean, you need to find the basics for yourself. I simply do NOT have the time to teach a detailed How-To guide. Nor do I have time to export data for individual itineraries. Sorry, but I have family AND a Troop AND my 2022 Philmont crew to prepare.

DISCLAIMER:

On the trail at Philmont, Scouts should ONLY USE PHILMONT-PRINTED MAPS AND COMPASS for navigation. This file is provided for planning purposes only and might not match the latest documents published by Philmont Scout Ranch. If try you use this as a primary navigation tool at Philmont, you are a fool and consider yourself warned not to do that. Seriously – don’t do it.