Google Earth and KML files

[JJonas]

How many of you have seen Google Earth? It’s FREE and you can do some pretty cool stuff with it.

Did you know that you can take a mountain bike GPS track and waypoints and see it in Google Earth?

All of the GPX trails on Singletracks.com can now be downloaded as KML files (the type of file that Google Earth uses).

Here’s an example:

[Jeff Barber]

Here’s a sample of the Captain Jack’s track as viewed in Google Earth. Screen shots don’t really do this justice because you can zoom, pan, and tilt this image in any way you want. It really is the BEST way I’ve seen to check out a trail and understand the lay of the land.

[i:1o4we78n]Note, I added the title text at the top of the image, the rest of the text is from Google Earth[/i:1o4we78n]

[Jeff Barber]

It might help to tell you how to get Google Earth (it’s free):

Google Earth

You can find out more about the requirements on the page above, the software is only available for Windows right now (hopefully there will be an Apple version someday!).

Once you have the software you can try out some of our free tracks and play around with the service:

Blodgett
Captain Jack’s
Palmer Trail/Section 16
Explore Park

To view any of these tracks, just click on the KML link in the blue box near the top of the page.

[Jeff Barber]

I’ve posted a script to convert any GPX file to KML format on TripleBlaze.com, check it out if you’re interested.

[url:kb701ob3]http://www.tripleblaze.com/gps/gpx_kml.php[/url:kb701ob3]

[Jeff Barber]

We’ve just posted a page encouraging users to try Google Earth and explaining that you can map many singletracks trails in Google Earth to amazing effect:

Mountain Bike Trails in Google Earth

While we’re on the subject, we’ve also organized our trail maps a bit to make them more user-friendly and accessible on the site. You don’t need a GPS to take advantage of these maps and elevation profiles so if you do alot of riding, you’ll want to get a membership to view the collection.

Mountain Bike Trail Maps

[J-Fizzle]

Yeah it is so sick to see trails in google earth. I think that it makes it easier if you haven’t ever ridden the trail to get an idea of what it might be like…. ie where the big climbs are. I found the use of that new API here….

[url:2av9skbe]http://www.crankcollective.com/virtualtrail.php?trailid=65[/url:2av9skbe]

I wonder if the detail of the earth including elevation will get better in the years to come. I would love to see the little notches in a trail. One day maybe.

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