If you read this blog you know that I’m enamored with what some people are doing with the Google Maps API.
Here’s my latest discovery, and (as a biker and runner) I think this
may be the best application yet of interactive satellite mapping: the Gmaps Pedometer. (This site is a few months old, but it’s new to me.)
The site is simple to use. Navigate to a trail or road route you plan
to take, zooming down so you get a good level of detail. Click the
“Recording” button, then double-click on your starting point. Drag the
map around to trace your route, double-clicking at as many points along
the trail as you like.
The application tracks cumulative mileage as you pass along the trail
or road, and there’s the option of tracking calories burned if you’re
running the route. (The latter isn’t particularly accurate, since the
application does not take elevation — and thus ascent or descent of
the route — into account.)
Here’s an example of a running route near Boulder, Colorado, that someone produced using the Gmap Pedometer.