Making maps with a smart phone

GPS Essentials for Android.

I've been testing a GPS app for my Android phone. My ultimate goal is to record a track over several hours without draining the battery or downloading a bunch of data (i.e. Google Maps base map tiles). I think I found something that will work. I was able to configure GPS Essentials to record a point every few minutes and save the final track as a KML file. 

Recording a point every 60 seconds for 6 hours, took about 40% of my phone's battery. I'm not sure that recording points more often would drain my battery much more but time will tell. At the end of the drive I was able to save the track as a KML file and upload it to my Google Drive account. The file on Google Drive can be made public and shared. The file will open up in Google Maps and can be downloaded.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_F-UQ1ukqOmWkk0ZmpFakw0bEU/view

I wish I could embed maps in Blogger but Google prevents running scripts on on these pages (for good reasons) so a picture will have to do.

My holiday pilgrimage.

I can't wait to try this from my tank bag in the spring.

- Ride North

Beer season

Get to great beer! 

When the temp falls below freezing in the Great North it's time to park the bike and pick up a pint. Using a variety of data sources, I put together a simple map to help you find the many tap rooms, beer halls, brew pubs and breweries available in Minnesota's Twin Cities and beyond.

Let me know if I missed anything and I'll add it to the map.

Cheers!

- Ride North

Thank you David Fawcett for posting your data to github!