The Making of a Cross Canada Route

[intothenew]

Congrats, and thanks, to all involved.

[slidefighter]

Just finished reading end to end. What an epic undertaking! Congratulations on your success and well done on the contribution you've made to the riding options available for the rest of us..

Out of interest, what model Honda was the red one with the white front fender and funky windshield?

[Spiritwalker2222]

Is it spring yet, is it spring yet?

Awesome job guys, can't wait to ride as much of it as I can.

[Rick West]

Only 162 days to go!

Six confirmed so far in our group. An International group to be sure with 2 Canadians, 1 Ozzy, 1 American, 1 UKer, and 1 German but all riding Orange. And fast.

Thanks again for making this ride Deady and the rest of your team. My riding mates say it's getting lots of attention in their countries and many wish they could come over and ride it.

[Deadly99]

Originally Posted by slidefighter

Just finished reading end to end. What an epic undertaking! Congratulations on your success and well done on the contribution you've made to the riding options available for the rest of us..

Out of interest, what model Honda was the red one with the white front fender and funky windshield?

That's my Honda xr650r. Fun, fast and reliable. A fun weekend bike, not so great for multi week touring though.

Originally Posted by Rick West

Only 162 days to go!

Six confirmed so far in our group. An International group to be sure with 2 Canadians, 1 Ozzy, 1 American, 1 UKer, and 1 German but all riding Orange. And fast.

Thanks again for making this ride Deady and the rest of your team. My riding mates say it's getting lots of attention in their countries and many wish they could come over and ride it.

Look forward to the ride report. Doing the entire route?

[Phreaky Phil]

Originally Posted by Deadly99

GPS files are finished and available for download

I would like to give a sincere thank you to everyone who helped out with the TCAT. Its a long list...

Chris Regier
Fabrice Tremblay
Jimmy Rodriguez
Chris Regier
Ross Glover
David WIlliams
Gord Jones
Jenna Novic
All the folks who joined me on trips over the last few years
All the folks who answered my annoying questions
Kelly Ruston for making the maps
I'm sure I am missing some..sorry..so many people helped get this project completed that I am still and will continually be amazed. I could NOT have done this alone


So the gps files are available for download..no charge.

The total distance is 15,639 kilometers (9718 miles).

What we do ask if you download the files and ride part of the TCAT that you let us know of any errors with the files, problems with the route (decommsioned roads, damagaed trails, etc). It is in this manner that we hope the TCAT stays relevant. We would also appreciate a photo or two we can put up on the website.

Before you head out I encourage you to check to see if you have the latest files. TCAT_R1.0 was just upload..revisons will be titled TCAT_R1.1, etc

If you ride the route and would like to contribute we sell decals...profits go to help keeping the website going

The route descriptions are 65% finished...still working on them as time permits.


Here is a quick look at the route....





Cheers and if you ride the TCAT, my house is on the route and I look forward to having a pint with you

This is looking amazing and I'm getting itchy feet to to organize another overseas expedition. This could be it. Dawn and I completed the TAT 2 up so I reckon we should be ok on the TCAT. How easy would it be to overlay the route on a map showing cities and towns so we could get a reference to where the route goes. ?

Awesome job to all those involved with the making of this route

[DingWeed]

FANTASTICK!!!!!!!.......Thanks to all who worked on this!!!!!
Scott

[Noah M]

This is nothing short of absolutely amazing!
Thank you to everyone involved thus far!
There are no words!
Wow! fantastic!!
THANK YOU!

[GISdood]

Originally Posted by Phreaky Phil

How easy would it be to overlay the route on a map showing cities and towns so we could get a reference to where the route goes. ?

I should have some interactive online maps available for large or small-scale browsing up early in the new year... links will be posted in this thread. Stay tuned!

[Deadly99]

Originally Posted by GISdood

I should have some interactive online maps available for large or small-scale browsing up early in the new year... links will be posted in this thread. Stay tuned!

[Phreaky Phil]

Originally Posted by GISdood

I should have some interactive online maps available for large or small-scale browsing up early in the new year... links will be posted in this thread. Stay tuned!

Thanks, i will look forward to seeing them.
Cheers Phil

[Cannonshot]

I've been working with Ted on the GPX file. I have been doing some detailed work for my own use and see that it might be helpful to share this so that we don't have a lot of people researching the same things (economy of effort).

So far I have put a lot of time in on the eastern half and sent Ted some material to consider for the master file. I sent him some sample "layers" that have waypoints for fuel, hospitals, Canadian Tire stores, and Tim Horton's stores along the route. I am working on the camping/lodging and POI "layers" right now. It all takes a lot of time to dig out and verify some of this stuff so things won't move too quickly overall.

Here is a picture that reflects some of that information.


I also tightened up the tracks to be used at a .2 mi scale while riding. I altered the track naming convention so that track segments appear in order to make it easier to measure distances during the planning phase. I segmented the tracks to run from fuel to fuel where fuel is scarce as it makes it easier to plan. I also marked 10 segments on the east side that need to be recorded by riders so that we can get the most accurate track we can. As with any project, the authors will be able to keep refining the material as riders run the route over time, record some tracks, and offer any changes or corrections that need to be made.

I plan to continue with the file and do the west side as well. Again, this work was intended for my personal use but I am happy to share the information with Ted and others that might benefit. I enjoy doing GPS work and track sharing and being that I am retired I have the time to spend on it in the dead of winter.

Not sure what Ted's plans will be as far as including some of this in the master file and the timeline for publishing revisions. It will take some time to get this done from end to end, so it might be best to have a longer gap in publishing updates to the master file.

If someone is actively planning a trip and wants to have some of this information in the near term, you can contact me and I will be happy to share the info you need.

One thing I should mention is that someone riding the entire path will need one of the newer GPS units that takes up to 200 tracks. The 20 track units may work well for riding shorter segments.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a lot of respect and gratitude for the excellent people that put this thing together. It takes a lot of dedication and effort to produce a project of this scale and quality. Thanks again to all who made this happen for the rest of us!

Edit: In case anyone is curious this is what the fuel "layer" (gas waypoints) looks like on the east side, this picture is an overview. There are a few long reaches in there but it looks like it will all work out well with a little planning.

[Deadly99]

An awesome improvement to the GPS files


Thanks Cannonshot


Merry Christmas

[WhicheverAnyWayCan]

I can't wait for a complete route on gps file to become available soon! I'd like to sign up to receive the file for this route so I can travel via this trail on my way up to Deadhorse before going down to Ushuaia.

[ramz]

You can get the initial set of files to get a head start on your planning:

http://graveltravel.ca/index.php?pag...hk=1&Itemid=59