Whether you are looking for a place to hike, cycle, paddle, ride, cross-country ski or snowmobile, you can find an experience that resonates with you. As the longest recreational trail in the world, The Great Trail offers a wide range of activities through a variety of landscapes – urban, rural and wilderness, along greenways, waterways and roadways.
True to its name, The Great Trail embodies the vastness of our terrain and the diversity of our people.
Category Archives: Outdoors
DIY FREE!! Printable USGS PDF Quads
A Quick, Easy, and Free way to Download any Quad in the Country
National Geographic has built an easy to use web interface that allows anyone to quickly find any quad in the country for downloading and printing. Each quad has been pre-processed to print on a standard home, letter size printer. These are the same quads that were printed by USGS for decades on giant bus-sized pressed but are now available in multi-page PDFs that can be printed just about anywhere. They are pre-packaged using the standard 7.5 minute, 1:24,000 base but with some twists:
- Page 1 is an overview map showing the Quad in context
- Pages 2 through 5 are the standard USGS Quads cut in quarters to fit on standard printers
- Hillshading has been added to each page of the PDF to help visualize the topography
Motorcycle Roads in Oregon
I found one place that looks promising to outline Motorcycle roads nearby where I can go for a ride MotorcycleRoads.com.
Oregon is a heavenly collection of scenic motorcycle roads. In fact, some of the country’s best motorcycle roads are found in the Beaver State due to its scenic diversity and scenic eminence. A motorcyclists traveling across Oregon from west to east would see the majestic shores of the Pacific Ocean, pass through crisp and regal peaks of the Cascade mountains, make their way along the breathtaking Columbia River basin to the north, and end up in vast arid plateaus cut by picturesque river canyons when they reached the eastern portion of the state.
Another is a blog from Jayne Cravens which in her words is about:
… motorcycle routes are for people who live in the Portland or Salem area of Oregon and want a nice day trip – scenic and winding roads – but these routes are also for motorcycle riders who are visiting the Portland area, or elsewhere in Oregon, as part of a long-distance trip.
Portland Area Hikes
Map a Hike For Spring Break using Oregon Hikers Maps Visual Mapping Tool
Whether I am rediscovering or discovering this tool: Oregon Hikers Maps , it is a great tool for locating hikes visually.
Easy Longboard Buyer’s Guide
If you are new to the longboard scene, or just need a little help learning exactly what you need, the Easy Longboard Buyers Guide infographic from Longboard Reviews could be a life saver. This cheat sheet tells you the differences between the board styles, wheel sizes, wheel hardness, and deck length.
Visit the Top Landmark or Top City Across the US
Randy Olson posted answers to questions that everyone has pondered at one time or another. What is the optimal road trip plan to stop at all major US Landmarks.
I did not even know some of these.
From Randy
Here’s the Google Maps of the route: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
(Note that Google maps itself only allows 10 waypoints to be routed at a time, hence why there’s multiple Maps links.)
Here’s the full list of landmarks in order:
- Grand Canyon, AZ
- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID
- Yellowstone National Park, WY
- Pikes Peak, CO
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM
- The Alamo, TX
- The Platt Historic District, OK
- Toltec Mounds, AR
- Elvis Presley’s Graceland, TN
- Vicksburg National Military Park, MS
- French Quarter, New Orleans, LA
- USS Alabama, AL
- Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL
- Okefenokee Swamp Park, GA
- Fort Sumter National Monument, SC
- Lost World Caverns, WV
- Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center, NC
- Mount Vernon, VA
- White House, Washington, DC
- Colonial Annapolis Historic District, MD
- New Castle Historic District, Delaware
- Cape May Historic District, NJ
- Liberty Bell, PA
- Statue of Liberty, NY
- The Mark Twain House & Museum, CT
- The Breakers, RI
- USS Constitution, MA
- Acadia National Park, ME
- Mount Washington Hotel, NH
- Shelburne Farms, VT
- Fox Theater, Detroit, MI
- Spring Grove Cemetery, OH
- Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
- West Baden Springs Hotel, IN
- Abraham Lincoln’s Home, IL
- Gateway Arch, MO
- C. W. Parker Carousel Museum, KS
- Terrace Hill Governor’s Mansion, IA
- Taliesin, WI
- Fort Snelling, MN
- Ashfall Fossil Bed, NE
- Mount Rushmore, SD
- Fort Union Trading Post, ND
- Glacier National Park, MT
- Hanford Site, WA
- Columbia River Highway, OR
- San Francisco Cable Cars, CA
- San Andreas Fault, CA
- Hoover Dam, NV
Then he included a bonus, a road trip stopping at popular U.S. Cities, the city TripAdvisor rated the Best City to Visit in every contiguous U.S. State
Here’s the Google Maps of the route: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Here’s the full list of cities in order:
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Wichita, Kansas
- Denver, Colorado
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- San Francisco, California
- Portland, Oregon
- Seattle, Washington
- Boise, Idaho
- Park City, Utah
- Jackson, Wyoming
- Billings, Montana
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Chicago, Illinois
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Columbus, Ohio
- Detroit, Michigan
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Manchester, New Hampshire
- Portland, Maine
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Providence, Rhode Island
- New Haven, Connecticut
- New York City, New York
- Ocean City, New Jersey
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Wilmington, Delaware
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Washington, D.C.
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Orlando, Florida
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Jackson, Mississippi
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Houston, Texas
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Branson, Missouri