Oregon Hikers

Michael, I discovered that the upper portion of the Catherine Creek trail is not shown on the OSM, and is inaccurately shown on Google Maps. Since you have worked on other Gorge OSM trails would you consider revising this area?

Webfoot wrote:Michael, I discovered that the upper portion of the Catherine Creek trail is not shown on the OSM, and is inaccurately shown on Google Maps. Since you have worked on other Gorge OSM trails would you consider revising this area?

I can, but I thought I finished up that area, what parts exactly and do you have a GPS file of it that's relatively good?

My GPS track is lower quality and I did not hike all of this, but here is a rough hand traced path made from Google aerial photos of the trails I am talking about.

I haven't been on any part of "3" or "4" so I don't know if they are valid and open trails but I noticed them while tracing the other two so I added them. (I changed the attachment once so please get the 17kb version.)

Webfoot wrote:My GPS track is lower quality and I did not hike all of this, but here is a rough hand traced path made from Google aerial photos of the trails I am talking about.

I haven't been on any part of "3" or "4" so I don't know if they are valid and open trails but I noticed them while tracing the other two so I added them.

Here's a collection of tracks I've built-up over the years for that area. Your route "3" is a good one, yes. The generally E-W stretch of "4" is random, probably game trails. I've heard (but not hiked) of a reasonable pathway along the east bank of the creek in track "4" as well. Either way, I'd say that one isn't an "official" trail in most senses of the phrase.

Karl, that's a lot of hiking! Thank you.

aiwetir, I found another trail that isn't on OSM: Mosier Plateau.

I haven't forgotten this stuff, just been busy.

No problem! It was polite of you to let me know.

I took a cursory look at this stuff and I need better data to add it. I'll see what I can find on gpsfly but it's not really clear to me what are official trails and what aren't so until I can figure that out, I won't be adding anything. Same with Mosier Plateau and it seems the trails there don't overlay the aerial very well either.

Just wanted to say that I've been driving to rice road, and then onto an unnamed forest rd, then parking just past where the Step Creek trail crosses the road. The road only continues maybe another 200ft past there, with a dispersed camp site at the end. Total mileage has consistently been 3.9 using both OsmAnd as well as Google Fit. I'd definitely call what I've been doing the "Step Creek Loop", but can appreciate that not renaming the existing guide's entry to "Gales Creek plus Step Creek Loop" means there'll be less traffic on this trail that I've become fond of. 3.9 is a lot more approachable to weekend warriors than the listed 7.4 (which includes the Gales Creek section).

I understand where you've been coming in to the loop although the original intent was for the trail to be accessed from the Gales Creek Trail. I can note the shorter option/access point briefly in the guide but won't change the title.