I was googling a route in the Wind River Range for this Summer, and came across this site. Anybody used it? Good? Bad? Not helpful if you already know what you are doing?

I don't feel like paying. Bottom line.

Matt: Does that mean it's good but you don't feel like paying or that it is not good enough to pay for?

I think he's wondering if anyone has used it and if, in their experience, they felt it was worth someone who already knows what they're doing to pay for it.


That being said, I have a friend who uses it and they say it's pretty cool. they just use it to find day hikes around their area. I haven't played on it at all so I don't know if it's worth paying for or not.

Edited by arichardson6 on 03/30/2008 18:24:54 MDT.

I had this same question come to mind a few weeks ago and ended up subscribing after my two week trial period. The trial offer is free and it will let you see & print 3 routes - so choose well. I live in Washington and the coverage for this area is good, the guides seem to be well written and give me some new ideas so I felt it was worth the $50 annual subscription price. Trails.com also provides access to topo maps but I'm not finding this feature easy to use and I think the National Geo Topo product is far superior for maps and route planning.
I've since been looking at the Canadian section for a planned trip to the Banff & Jasper NP and I'm disappointed with what I've found so far. It covers a meager amount of days hikes and very few backpacking routes. I'm surprised about this? I may have to ask some of the Canadian members here for some advise when I get serious about planning my trip.

50 bucks, wow! Yeah I would rather get my info for free. I don't think you should have to pay that much for information, but that's just me. I'm a broke college student, after all...

Mark -

I agree that the Canadian coverage is poor. If I hiked in an area that actually had decent coverage I would probably sign up on Trails.com because every little bit of info helps.

If you are planning a trip to Banff/Jasper and are a GPS user you may want to check out this link. These guys are doing an amazing job on their Calgary Trails project and offer their custom GPS trail mapping for free.

http://www.calgarycachers.net/trailmaps/maps.htm

In the last year, I've more than gotten my money's worth from trails.com, though I'm sure I only paid $25 for it. In the southeast region, there are tons of areas covered by trails.com. If I had to buy guidebooks for all the maps and pages I've accessed, I would have paid much more than $25. But I've hiked on 4 long trails and at least a dozen different shorter trails in the past year, so I use it a lot.

If your area gets a good deal of coverage and you use a map from trails.com once a month (and winter is a prime hiking time in the southeast, unlike other areas) then the subscription would be worth it.

How many people here have gotten their money's worth from their backpackinglight.com subscription? I feel I have. It depends on how much you use it.

I double checked my subscription price and I paid $49.95, it's possible I have a "premium" version because it includes: biking trails, scenic driving routes, kayaking trips, hotsprings, etc., and a lot of other stuff I may never use. Still the hiking trail info for the Northwest is extensive and very good so I don't regret subscribing.

Mike - thanks very much for the Alberta GPS/mapping info, I'm sure I'll find this helpful.

...when trails .com finds a way to link it to my Garmin Colorado 400t GPS & lay down trails in my unit THEN I'll pay $50. for the fee. 'Til then I'm not very interested.

Eric