This Map Shows Every Hiking Trail In California

Outdoor lovers, rejoice! Now you can see nearly every hiking trail in California on a single, gigantic map.
The California Hiking Map is a passion project of John Mandly, an air quality planner, who funded the project on Kickstarter earlier this year. According to his website, Mandly and his wife are avid hikers, who have hiked dozens of California trails, marking their accomplishments with a pin on a map in their living room. When the couple moved from the San Bernadino National Forest area to Chico, California, they needed a new map to track their exploits but couldn’t find space on their walls to include everywhere they’d been – and furthermore, everywhere they wanted to go.

Mandly searched for a map that outlined all the trails of the Golden State but found there was none.

After about two years of work, assembling disparate data from satellite imagery and geographical maps county by county, Mandly has put together an astonishingly comprehensive resource of hike-able trails. At 40 inches wide by 60 inches tall, the map shows all the hiking trails that are open to the public and generally about two miles in length or longer. The trails shown include hiking trails, Class 1 bike paths, and fire roads closed to vehicle access.

Insets were made for detailed coverage of select areas that have a high density of trails, including Los Angeles and Orange County.

While this map aims to be comprehensive, Mandly warns it shouldn’t be used for navigation, for which hikers should refer to detailed, local maps. However, The California Hiking Map grants an excellent, big-picture perspective for recording where you’ve gone and where you’re going.

Here’s to your next adventure.

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