Black Hammock Wilderness Area Trail Mapping

This is a detailed trail map of the Black Hammock Wilderness Area (click on the map for the original printable file). The BHWA is a Seminole County WA - info at http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/leisure/natland/bhammock.asp

I created this trail map of the Black Hammock Wilderness Area trails during the 2007-08 Christmas break. To create it I used my Garmin GPS 72 set on track mode (this is automatic) and simply carried it in my pack as I ran and biked the trail network. The best GPS units now for doing this are the Garmin 60 CSx or Garmin 76 CSx - they both track and have very good antenna strengh - critical for not losing coverage under tree cover. I am sure there are a few trails I missed (this was done in three successive workouts) - and if so I will be going back and filling in the blanks later. After each workout I downloaded the trail network to my Topo! software ( http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/category/Outdoor%20Recreation%20Mapping%20Software/?cid=3&tid=0 ) - at one point it looked like they were going to have a nice online capability of sharing the TPO files, but this seems to be a lower prioirty for them now. No worries - if they don't do it someone else will eventually. Anyway - I download the track (as a freehand route without waypoints) to the software and overlay it on top of the USGS topo maps from the software. The printout should print at a 1:15000 scale (not the original1:24000). I did some editing - deleting duplication of some tracks and defining the trail style before printing.

This is pretty much the type of maps we are producing for adventure racing in Florida, most all the race directors (Elias Jiminez, WeCeFAR folks, Greg Owens, etc... ) are familiar with doing this mapping now - so we are getting some pretty nice maps. Anyone with other good mapping tips (also ones that can be done easily) or software, please feel free to comment on this post. I am probably going to set up a wiki of the local trail maps and hiking as soon as I find someone to host it for free (or convince CFAR folks to pay fo the hosting).