Disclosing Trail Location on the Internet

I am pretty new to the whole off-roading thing and one thing that I was curious about is disclosing trail location on the Internet.

For instance, I know to prevent misuse it's bad etiquette to disclose cave locations in a public forum. I was wondering if the off-road community felt the same way.

I have a couple reasons for asking. One it seems that you can never find trail maps online. Two, I was going to toss a map of each run on my photo gallery from that run. I usually have the GPS with me and since I am a map freak I like to take a look at the route we took on a topo map.

Disclose away!

There are entire websites dedicated to locations and descriptions of trails.

...just so long as the trails are legal. Public lands, or wheeler-friendly landowners only, please. No "this is a contruction site you can go mudding at" (although I'm pretty certain that wasn't your intent).

This is what I had in mind.

Large Image
http://jbeamphotos.com/gallery/WPAXC_Ligonier_10-08-05/WPAXC_Ligonier_10_08_05?full=1

But if you know of any construction site with good mud let me know

Hey - A fellow splunker?

Kinda, it's been quite a few years but back in high school and just out of high school a friend and I were quite in to it.

Me 2.



Back in the (shudder) '70's...

Ok, not that many years ago for me

Another Cave Man here I do cave digging myself. Recently discovered the worlds longest formation( 2.5 miles long and still counting) Have a 160' deep dig to work on this weekend. I love wheeling, but caving gets me more exercise.

That sounds pretty damn interesting. There are only a few caves that I would frequent that still had any of their formations intact.

I can never find any trail locations online. I actually found my best set of trails through a fishing forum (my true passion). There's a river I visited in MA and the access to it was by dirt road. The road had a sign that said "no through way" and I said hell with that, let's see! Well, I did get through, and by just driving around that area I found some amazing off roading trails. Some of the stuff was too much for my stock X to tackle without a winch or anybody else with me, so it was pretty cool.

P.S. I'm also a (former) caver. I got the bug from my dad, who's member number 1258 or something in the National Speleological Society. He's been in books before and explored and charted caves for the first time.

I know back east, trial locations are NEVER disclosed online. Most offroading, if it's not in a "pay to play" area, is in public lands like National Forests, State Forests, etc. But these forests always butt up to private property. Wheelers don't like giving out trail location information to someone they don't know, or to someone that doesn't know the area. Mainly because if a person doesn't know the trail, they could easily end up on private property, and cause problems with the owner.

Several areas in Kentucky have been shut down for that very reason; wheelers tresspassing, without even knowing they were tresspassing.

But, I have yet to meet any wheelers that wouldn't help out another wheeler, with showing them around a new place.

You don't visit the P4x4 board much, huh? :rolleyes:

If you haven't done so already, download Google Earth for free: http://earth.google.com/

Plug in your GPS coordinates, get 3D satellite images of your location. Great for scouting out areas before heading out. Also good for Geocaching as you can see the best way to get there before heading out. Thick woods probably won't have a good view though. But the price is right.

I find topo maps more useful, but I do enjoy google earth (previously Keyhole). I use it as one of a few tools when reading old maps (dating back to 1870).

Out West we are spoiled by a flood of 4x4 guides in recent years, including the exceptional Wells guides. With a Wells guide you need nothing else, for 1/2 of Utah, all of California, Colorado and Arizona. Where will he go next?