How to identify off road trails
 

Just returned from a trip to India and realized that my smart phone map navigation (apps enabled with Open Street Map or Google) didn’t get me very far in planning off road type stuff. Numerous small roads attempted but most ended up in a swift return to tarmac due to sand.

I’m wondering what approaches people take to identify off road trails that can be included in route planning (next destination to be confirmed!)

Thanks!

Wikiloc as a starter: it's been around for a while -
ttps://www.wikiloc.com/trails/motorcycling

Viewranger is a navigation app that also "stores" routes loaded by those who use the app.

There are other, similar, apps - they seem to be growing in numbers.
e.g. the TET has it's own website, recently opened, that provides data in the .gpx format.

Brilliant, thank you! wikiloc.com looks great, just what I was searching for. I'll also add my files to the site :-)

i'll check the others out too - great to hear that there are more options out there.

:rolleyes2:

? Sand?
Sand is 'off road'. While it is not pleasant on a heavy loaded motorcycle .. it is possible to ride it.

OSM can have the trail surface in it .. and some of the map makers will display it .. OSMand will if you enable that option.

I always spend the winter months on Google earth identifying tracks. I then mark them and convert the file to use on my Garmin or Mapsphere. I also aim on taking my tough book this year, so with a local sim I should be able to constantly refer back to GE. But even with this you will still have to turn around a few times. But after running off road tours in Turkey for many years I learn to recognize the sign's that mean a track is going some where. We stopped asking locals because they thought that tourist would never make it, so always pointed to the road.

Great thanks, will check it out!

Thank you, great tip on Google Earth, sounds time consuming but a solid solution. Totally agree with you on the locals, they couldn't understand why I didn't want to take the highway so stopped asking after the first few days :scooter: