New CalTopo Layer: Mapbuilder

Agreed. It’s a nice layer.

I’m also loving the (somewhat quirky) auto-trace feature. I think that has been around for a while but I just started using it.

whats the auto-trace feature?

Correction, it’s called Auto Routing. It’s really handy.

Thanks for sharing! These features make Caltopo even more awesome

Another interesting combination in Caltopo is OpenStreetMap as the base layer, and then adding 40′ contours and Normal Relief shading at 15-20%

Like this (Lake Colden, Adirondacks eastern High Peaks, NY):

http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=44.11958,-73.98229&z=16&b=om&o=r&n=0.26&a=c

This isn’t useful everywhere, but there are some guys in the Adirondacks who have been busy adding a lot of detail to the OpenStreetMaps database for that area.  The payoff for users is more up to date, more detailed information about the locations of campsites, leanto’s, etc.

If someone plugged the information from HalfMile’s JMT/PCT maps into OpenStreetMaps that would be pretty darn cool.

The only thing I don’t like is that the OpenStreetMap’s depiction of trails is a thin dotted line, which isn’t very obvious.  I do like MapBuilder better than OpenStreetMap + 40′ contours however.

@jasong the auto routing feature is phenomenal. Big time saver. I like that MapBuilder layer too–makes things simple to see when you need that.

I wrote up a little tutorial using the auto route feature if you’re interested here.

AllTrails.com has quite a sophisticated auto-routing feature.  However, a paid subscription is required to use their service, and their software lacks many other features that Caltopo has.  Still, it’s good to see what the competition is capable of.

https://vimeo.com/131806094