mplsbiker

I am a beginner bike-packer/tourist, I planned my first over night tour from Minneapolis to Northern WI. The first day (~100 miles) went great and was a ton of fun. The second leg of the journey was a nightmare, every trail that google maps suggested was best suited for a fat bike not a loaded Trek 520, I eventually had to resort to getting driving directions and riding along the shoulder of some busy highways...

Attached is an image of one of the trails, and this particular trail was much better than the "gravel" (large golf ball sized rocks and deep loose dirt) trails later on.

So I guess what I am asking is, how do you plan your routes so you do not end up in this situation??? Any help would be appreciated.

52telecaster

saw rough stuff on the rock island trail this weekend/ suited for fat tires only as well. we went to the highways and it was much more fun.

johnny99

Google Street View?

Steve B.

I dont use GM for route finding for one. Don't trust it.

I either use RideWithGPS or Garmin Connect and if I've never been in an area I always use either Google Map Satellite view, plus street view if available, as well as Google Earth to make sure I'm dealing with either pavement or decent dirt/gravel. Paved roads typically have a double yellow painted line down the middle, which can be seen in a satellite view.

spinnaker

How is that going to help for something that you can barely call a path? You would have a hard time riding a bike on that thing. How are they going to get a google car on it to snap the photos?

Most of the roads of the world are not street viewed yet. I doubt they will be giving priority to bike trails anytime soon.

rm -rf

It's not easy to find a central source of trail's construction or surfaces.

The Bicycling option on google maps shows paved trails in green, unpaved in brown -- but unpaved can be anything from smooth, packed crushed rock, to leftover railroad ballast stones.

I browsed some northern Wisconsin trails at random from google maps. If you zoom way in, the trail name repeats on the trail route.

~~~~~
For example,

This Buffalo River State Trail has a WI Parks page, showing a groomed trail, suitable for touring bikes. But the description says:And it mentions ATVs are allowed all year. This appears to be more of a snowmobile and ATV trail.

Trailink.com
I've seen some trail reports from trailink.com. But they kind of force you to log in to see the pages. So I haven't read enough reports to know if it's useful in general.

The report for this Buffalo River Trail says:Ballast is the large, egg to fist sized rocks that were the base for railroad ties.

rm -rf

Riding roads, not just trails:


Strava Heat Map.
It's a year of uploaded GPS recordings, showing the most popular bike roads (or trails) from dark red: most popular, to light blue: least popular, or blank: no bike activity.

It's probably best used for planning a trip, instead of finding alternate routes if the planned route is bad.
You can save the URL to come back to that same map view later.

It's good for picking popular roads, often lightly used local roads instead of highways. And for avoiding the barely used roads (often busy or otherwise annoying to ride) where there are popular roads nearby.

Strava Route Builder
This uses the heat map data, and picks popular roads. You can Undo or drag the route to a different road.
Route builder link.

Wisconsin example:
The same Buffalo River Trail barely shows any usage on the Heat Map. Most rail trails are bright red -- lots of activity.
Here's the local map. Click the "Toggle Labels" option on the left side. The trail is the faint blue line just south of Eleva WI, indicating very light usage.

If I was riding west to east here, I might consider using the US 10 road, but I like to avoid main highways if possible. Farther south, the County Highway Z looks promising, likely to have light, local traffic. And the curves might indicate it follows a creek valley, often more scenic and fewer hills.

Edit-- here's County Road Z on google maps with Terrain View. Yeah, a creek valley. And it has Street View available too.

Tourist in MSN

If you have a 520, you are probably going to want to stay on pavement or well maintained state cycling trail. That bike is not really set up for rough riding. Many of the Minnesota designated trails are paved and a 520 would be great. But Google Maps will find lots of stuff that you are not set up for. Somewhere I have a copy of Minnesota cycling map but I can't really remember how well it shows the trails.

In Wisconsin, the DNR maintained trail network is pretty good, most are gravel but a cycle with 32 or 35 or 37 mm tires should do ok. A week ago I did about 50 miles on a Wisconsin DNR maintained gravel trail with 37 mm wide tires (full length of Military Ridge trail) with my load of camping gear just fine.
Find a State Park, Forest, Recreation Area or Trail - Wisconsin DNR

Wisconsin DOT also has some maps pertinent to cycling
Wisconsin Department of Transportation County bicycle maps

But with a 520, you probably are best off just trying to stay on secondary paved roads and avoiding the trails unless they are a designated state cycling trail.

My condo association has no trespassing signs posted but Google Maps shows some of our sidewalks as cycling trails, which they are not. Needless to say, I put little faith in accuracy of Google maps.

I used to like riding a motorcycle on the secondary roads in central and northern Minnesota, not much traffic. I did that before GPS existed, I just generally tried to follow the right direction on a compass.

A GPS would be helpful to have if you have an unplanned detour. A week ago I went past the road closed sign in Western Wisconsin and fortunately I could get my bike past the new culvert piping in the construction zone, but sometimes you are not so lucky and a GPS can find the shortest alternative. At one point my GPS tried to put me on a snowmobile path that looks a lot like your photo, but looking at the screen I could see that a highway paralleled that path so I took the highway.

jefnvk

Simple. Streetview an intersecting road, and look down the trail.

That said, make sure you check the date on the streetview. I tried it once, a rather nice limestone trail is viewed as an overgrown right of way, because the streetview was from 2009.

hilltowner

I've managed to use Google street view to get some idea of bike paths by looking for crossing points and scoping out the surface right and left of that. It doesn't show you all you need to know but you do get some idea of the level of use the trail sees when you can find the right spots to get a glimpse.

john_mct

Horses for courses...If you want to tour bike trails, get a MTB to tour on. Also, do more research and don't blindly trust Google maps alone. Did you search the web for ride reports on the specific trails on that second day? Surely someone out there has ridden them and taken pictures. Successful touring on mixed surfaces requires significant planning time dedicated to researching the route; some folks find the process enjoyable, some don't.

DCwom

Most every rail trail has some sort of review with surface conditions on the Rails-to-trails web site: www.traillink.com. If its not a rail trail then its likely a short MUP which isn't usually conducive to touring. I think Google Maps is an excellent tool for identifying potential paths & trails, but you've got to do your due diligence to investigate their surface before you attempt them. I always use the satellite view and street crossing view as other have mentioned along with the traillink web site and have had good success with knowing what to expect on an unseen trail. Note that terms to watch out for are ballast and gravel, ballast is never good, but gravel is often misused for good surfaces such as "stone dust", limestone, and decomposed granite, these are ride-able surfaces found on major trails like the GAP. If it says blue chip or loose gravel its probably fat tire turf.

Leebo

520? Bike touring on pavement. Mt bike with 2.3" slicks, works on almost anything. Sort of the the right tool for the job. Sure with 35-40 mm tires the 520 would be OK at some nice dirt roads or gravel. But for me, bigger tire are always better. Found out that class 6 roads in NH, some are " Not Maintained" that means a washed out jeep road with 2 ' rocks in the middle. Nice. Pick your lines carefully.

mplsbiker

Thanks @rm -rf for the detailed advice!

So yes, I am aware that a 520 is not setup for offroad but being a beginner I did not know where to look for good route planning, I really appreciate the folks that offered helpful advice for a newbie.

@john_mct seek help.

john_mct

I hope you have more success in the future.

DropBarFan

I read blogs/posts if available, Google is a bit limited. Once tried to ride down a Google walking trail which was pretty bad even on foot.

Machka 

First of all, I tend to stay on roads. Each country is a little bit different but here in Australia "A" roads are busy and probably best avoided in general unless they've got a decent shoulder. "B" roads are slightly less busy, sometimes, and may have a narrow shoulder. "C" roads are usually quieter and won't have a shoulder ... but these may be paved or gravel. And unlabelled roads are anybody's guess ... but sometimes they can be quite good.

So, when I open Google Maps and select to go from here to there by bicycle, it will usually put me on "B" or "C" roads. Then I can use Street View to check those roads and also check other options, like "A" roads or unlabelled roads. No Street View, no go. Here if the Google van hasn't bothered to film a road, chances are it is gravel and not in great condition.

Second, I might switch on the Bicycle path layer just to see. Anything in brown (gravel trails), I avoid like the plague. Those are awful! The ones in green might be a bit better and I try to get a look at them with Street View if I can ... perhaps where they cross roads.

Third, I might look for sites like this: https://www.greaterhobarttrails.com.au/ and look for good cycling trails ... if trails interested me.

mev

I get a rough idea of routing using Google Maps automobile instructions with "avoid highways" checked. Works reasonably well in western USA and certainly better than the bicycling routes.

Sometimes I will cross check with Strava Heat maps, particularly in going into or out of a larger urban area.