Hello! I’m a resident of Metro Vancouver that’s interested in hiking, trail running, whitewater/sea kayaking, gravel/mountain biking, rock/ice climbing, canyoneering, and paragliding.

Current projects:

1. Átl’ka7tsem / Howe Sound region

My main contributions to date have been:

1. Walking, Hiking, and Cycling Trails and Resource Roads
2. Waterfalls
3. Emergency Shelters, Fire Lookouts, and (well known) Cabins
4. Rec Sites, Rec Reserve, and Conservation Area Boundaries
5. Paragliding takeoffs, landings, and wind socks
6. Rock & Ice Climbing Crags and Routes
7. Campsites and Camp Pitches
8. Misc. Park Amenities (bathrooms, fountains, picnic tables, etc.)
9. Mountain Peaks, Passes (saddles), Pinnacles, and Ridges
10. Natural landscape (specifically aimed at mountain or water navigation)

My reason for adding these features include:

1. Share information with the general public (knowledge is power) with the goal of reducing barriers to outdoor recreation
2. Protect areas from development and industrial operations
3. Reduce rescue / near miss events and ensure fire rescue, ambulance service, coast guard, wildfire, and search & rescue groups have a highly accurate map

My research methods and common tags

For most trails that I add I do extensive research from over a dozen sources to ensure correct naming of features and points of interest. I’ll often add the sac_scale, trail_visibility, trailblazed, trailblazed:visibility, assisted_trail, informal, access, description, and note tags to further safety. The main sources I use are my own surveys, satellite imagery, the Strava heatmap, NRCAN’s HRDEM Lidar dataset, LidarBC, and the BC Data Catalogue.

Regarding “informal” tag

I follow the best practices guidelines proposed by the OSM US Trails Working Group.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Trail_Access_Project

Regarding “secret” features

I understand some may believe the features I have added are “secret”. OSM’s policy is to map what is on the ground, aka the Ground Truth policy, and does not remove features, such as trails, for subjective, arbitrary, or political reasons. My personal philosophy surrounding features perceived to be “secret” is to only add those that are frequently visited and/or widely known and referenced (i.e., they’re no longer secret). An example of this could be a reasonable amount of “heat” on the Strava Heatmap, discussion on public forums, publicly posted tracks or proximity to other features. If I had added something, it’s probably not as secret as you think it is.

Please note that OSM’s policy is to not remove trails for subjective reasons. More information can be found at the wiki article below.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Why_can%27t_I_delete_this_trail%3F

If you notice a problem with one of my edits

I encourage to not worry about what I’ll think and to do the change that you think is best but please do not delete features unless you’re certain there is an error. Some trails/routes/resource roads might be in bad shape or overgrown and I would recommend updating the lifecycle prefix (adding disused or abandoned) and modifying the trail_visibility tag rather than deleting the trail/route entirely.

If you like my edits and want to support my work

I encourage you to donate to an outdoor organization of your choosing. Some I recommend are the BC Mountain Foundation, Nature Trust of BC, BC Parks Foundation, Metro Vancouver Regional Parks Foundation, Hope Mountain Centre for Outdoor Learning, BC Marine Trails, Chilliwack Parks Society, North Shore Mountain Biking Association, Fraser Valley Mountain Biking Association, and Squamish Access Society to name a few.