u/pmags

​

Last October, I hiked Rhode Island's ~75-mile North-South Trail (NST) as part of a longer ~500 mile hike from the Canadian border to the Atlantic.

Despite being a relatively short thru-hike, I found the planning information surprisingly scattered for the NST: older tracks and maps, camping information in different places, questions about water and resupply, hunting-season requirements, parking and shuttles, etc.

And, frankly, there were some things I found out about later that I wish I'd known!

So I put together the practical guide I wish I'd had:

https://pmags.com/hiking-rhode-islands-north-south-trail-a-practical-guide

It covers:

- Maps and GPX

- Legal camping options

- Water and resupply

- Parking and shuttles

- Blaze-orange requirements and hunting seasons

- Some worthwhile "side quests" near the route

I also made a public CalTopo map based on an OSM Gaia GPS track, adding mileage markers, camping, resupply, side quests, and other useful waypoints:

https://caltopo.com/m/860R2HE

Tip: Collapse the folders in the left-hand sidebar for a cleaner overview, then expand them as needed.

And for anyone who prefers paper maps, I made a free OSM map set at roughly 1:35,000 on 11x17 pages. The base layer uses meters, but I added mileage markers so you don't have to convert anything into freedom units. :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ENAu2nr-7u7ledZHgtbJ\_RdNZ5kda3vK/view?usp=sharing

I do not think many people outside southern New England will be interested in this little hike, but finishing at the Atlantic Ocean and watching a sunrise over the dunes after walking all the way from Canada remains one of my all-time favorite outdoor memories

One idea for a longer hike: The NST also connects easily with Massachusetts' 92-mile Midstate Trail:

https://www.midstatetrail.org/

The Midstate continues north and connects directly to the 21-mile Wapack Trail into New Hampshire:

https://www.wapack.org/

Put the three together and you have roughly 190 miles of connected trail from southern Rhode Island into southern New Hampshire, with some surprisingly rural walking considering you're in southern New England.

A neat little route for the fall!

Hopefully this saves someone else some planning time and makes this somewhat obscure little thru-hike easier to tackle.

Though CalTopo and Gaia remain the overall favorites for many people, Avenza is used by many GIS professionals, government agencies, SAR teams, and more.

From a recreational backpacker's standpoint, Avenza lets you import georeferenced PDF maps from CalTopo you create or from other sources, which are often available on government websites. One example: camping zone maps here in Grand County, Utah.

Many nonprofits also make their maps available for free download in the Avenza store, while small map companies sell their maps there. I think the Latitude 40 maps, for example, are excellent for the Moab, Utah, and Grand Junction/Fruita areas.

No more.

Info here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gis/comments/1squcv3/avenza_maps_alternatives/

In essence, Avenza got bought out by a venture capital firm:

https://www.dailycommercial.com/press-release/story/103696/blue-marble-geographics-avenza-systems-unite-to-combine-complementary-products-in-field-to-office-geospatial-platform/

"Blue Marble Geographics is backed by Eterna Growth Partners, a growth investment firm focused on scaling innovative technology companies."

You can no longer download and add georeferenced PDF maps without a paid subscription. Organizations, companies, and nonprofits can no longer update their existing maps or publish new maps. New publishers cannot join the platform either. You can still download maps that already exist in their current state in the map store.

However, the map store will eventually be phased out as well.
https://community.esri.com/t5/gis-life-discussions/avenza-alternative/td-p/1700623

EDIT - Screenshot from another subreddit - https://imgur.com/ZYm6TjG
Source - https://www.reddit.com/r/algonquinpark/comments/1rhkkik/heads_up_avenza_maps/

That last point matters. For many small organizations, Avenza offered a cost-effective, sometimes free, way to get electronic maps into people’s hands. This fall, for example, I used the Cohos Trail map on Avenza. I assume that the map provides at least some revenue stream for a small nonprofit.

CalTopo lets you add georeferenced maps, of course, and it is still an excellent tool. But for maps you download from elsewhere, Avenza was a quick-and-dirty option with fewer steps and easier in the field or just on a phone.

For adding georeferenced maps, Field Maps is one suggestion mentioned in the thread above. I’ve used it a bit for volunteer work, but I’m not overly familiar with it.

So it goes.

Though CalTopo and Gaia remain the overall favorites for many people, Avenza is used by many GIS professionals, government agencies, SAR teams, and more.

From a recreational backpacker's standpoint, Avenza lets you import georeferenced PDF maps from CalTopo you create or from other sources, which are often available on government websites. One example: camping zone maps here in Grand County, Utah.

Many nonprofits also make their maps available for free download in the Avenza store, while small map companies sell their maps there. I think the Latitude 40 maps, for example, are excellent for the Moab, Utah, and Grand Junction/Fruita areas.

No more.

Info here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gis/comments/1squcv3/avenza_maps_alternatives/

In essence, Avenza got bought out by a venture capital firm:

https://www.dailycommercial.com/press-release/story/103696/blue-marble-geographics-avenza-systems-unite-to-combine-complementary-products-in-field-to-office-geospatial-platform/

"Blue Marble Geographics is backed by Eterna Growth Partners, a growth investment firm focused on scaling innovative technology companies."

You can no longer download and add georeferenced PDF maps without a paid subscription. Organizations, companies, and nonprofits can no longer update their existing maps or publish new maps. New publishers cannot join the platform either. You can still download maps that already exist in their current state in the map store.

However, it looks like the map store will eventually be phased out as well.
https://community.esri.com/t5/gis-life-discussions/avenza-alternative/td-p/1700623

EDIT - Screenshot from another subreddit - https://imgur.com/ZYm6TjG
Source - https://www.reddit.com/r/algonquinpark/comments/1rhkkik/heads_up_avenza_maps/

That last point matters. For many small organizations, Avenza offered a cost-effective, sometimes free, way to get electronic maps into people’s hands. This fall, for example, I used the Cohos Trail map on Avenza. I assume that the map provides at least some revenue stream for a small nonprofit.

CalTopo lets you add georeferenced maps, of course, and it is still an excellent tool. But for maps you download from elsewhere, Avenza was a quick-and-dirty option with fewer steps and easier in the field or just on a phone.

For adding georeferenced maps, Field Maps is one suggestion mentioned in the thread above. I’ve used it a bit for volunteer work, but I’m not overly familiar with it.

So it goes.