maps for pyrenees
 

Hi all,

I'm taking a trip to the Pyrenees in June & would like any info on trail maps & where to get them.
Cheers Chris

There are loads of trails that can be ridden. If you have a GPS have a look on wickiloc. There is a set of gps tracks that go pretty much coast-coast off road. Could be an interesting trip.

Alternatively PM me your email address and I will send them through to you in GPS and google earth formats. I can also send the routes I made up for my trip last Easter, which included the far western end of the pyrenees, Bardenas Reales, across the mountains and up to Logrono and a few trails near Bilbao. I made these up by trawling tracks on wickiloc then selecting the bits that looked good.

Hi Rossi,

I've had a look at the wickiloc site and reckon that will do the job just fine.

Many thanks, Chris

No Problem. You might still want one of the routes I have as I remember fitting in a bit extra off road work at the end of day 1 (starting from the atlantic). This cut out a section that was missing and may otherwise have to be completed by road.

hi, im going to that area on the 4th may...thats if we ever get the beaten up tenere and dr800 rumbling again!!

but the ferries booked so it Will be done! all i need is a route plan which i was going to get done but if you have a good one that you could share that would be great.

im a bit new to sat nav and have a new tomtom so not sure how to load routes but sure i can sort it.

my email is begazzz@hotmail.com

thanks in advance if your feeling generous..

dom

Attachments sent by email.

Rossi:thumbup1:

Would be grateful if I can get a copy of your route as well.
shalesy at gmail dot com

Cheers,
John

Hi Chris,

Just thought I would mention this, in case you perhaps felt like picking up an old fashioned paper map; Michelin National Road Map No. 734 covers the country, but does not do a very good detail of the Pyrennes at all.

There is an "AA Road Map of Spain and Portugal Map Series" that does a 1:400,000 Map called "Pyrennees, Catalonia & Balearic Islands.

I used it for 16 days, and road 7000 km in the Pyrennes going from Santander over to Sort and back (touched the Med. briefly just to stick my toes in the water) and found the map very good for showing almost all of the roads. Especially the nice tertiary and fourth class ones. I did not go off road though.

I picked my copy of the 1:400,000 scale map on the Brittany Ferry coming down from the UK.

Have a great trip!

Cheers,

Ian

Hi Rossi, I've had at better look at wickiloc and it's not as simple as I thought. I thought I would be able to manually enter waypoints, but as they are so detailed I think not. Oh well back to looking for paper maps.

Ian ,thanks for the info but I'm really after off road trails.

Garmin sell a topo map for that area amongst others!

Thanks Bertrand, not sure if my old 12xl is up to that, maybe it's time to update to the 21st century.

- Or not!:smiliex:
I still always carry my trusted old silva compass and paper maps-
Can't say I enjoy ther soggy map scenarios but they are more comfortable to plan with rather than scroll through a small screen!
Maps- Stanfords in London- best place I know - there must be also some on amazon or perhaps from riders who no longer need theirs?

Just a thought,why do'nt you print your own maps by zooming in on google earth & printing the resulting maps?
The reason I'm asking is because that's what I'm planning to do for my Pyrenees tour later this year.
Mark

Bertrand, I used paper maps in Morocco, just using the gps for a "comfort blanket". The Pyrenees isn't nearly as remote and easily navigable with map & compass so i'll probably do it that way and hopefuly get no rain. Can be more fun too.

Mark, I have looked at that, could go that way but thats alot of printed
sheets.

Cheers Chris.

People usually post tracks up on Wickiloc which can contain hundreds of points. As you say, there are too many points to use these as a route directly. If you have Mapsource, assuming you have a Garmin, it is quite easy to sort this though, particularly as many trails are actually marked on mapsource as roads. I have European Metroguide which I bought in 2002. A little bit out of date in some places but most of the time I'm not interested in new roads.

Display the track on mapsource then, using the route tool, drop points along the track by clicking on the map. I tend to go for obvious corners and junctions in trails.

One thing I have useful is to drop a point just before a junction rather than right on it. Then, if you are using the compass display rather than the map, the compass shows the direction you need to take rather than just saying "turn now". I find this can make it easier to identify which track to take if there is more than one.

If you load the garmin file I sent and have a look at the first route heading inland from the Atlantic you should get a feel for what I mean. There is a small section at the end of that route that I made up using google earth. I identified a route on google earth and wrote down the coordinates to use. Just make sure that google earth and mapsource are showing positions using the same co-ordinate system.

Chris. I just noticed that I sent the files to somebody else, not you. Do you have a Garmin GPS? If so pm me your email address and I will send the files over.