Today, if you decide to go hiking anywhere in the Greater Trail Rossland area you can gain a bird’s eye view of the surrounding terrain before ever setting foot on a trail, as spy-satellite view technology is now available to the average person who has access to the personal computer and high-speed Internet connection. And you don’t need a geographic information systems certificate, or an Applied Science and Technology degree to do this, as a mosaic of high resolution images of the complete earth are now viewable by anyone using cutting edge technology called Google Earth which offers a freely accessible smooth and easy to use interactive geographic information navigation system.

View of Trail BC and Sunningdale

There are many reasons why you might want to use Google Earth, but the simplest explanation is that people want to navigate to some location on earth, whether it’s for hiking, forestry, or agriculture, and users can do so in an easy manner. If you’re a hiker or outdoors type, you can find existing trails or old navigation routes long since covered over, allowing to scope out the hiking or walking distances or simply to see how it relates geographically to other areas. And this free software is now in the hands of anyone that wants to learn to use Google Earth, the highly interactive software available software is free from Google.

Go to the Google Earth Home Page Google Earth Home Page

W.M. Archibald's plane

Over the past few months I have been using Google Earth to find and map out various scenic locations and hiking trail routes before I decide to head out to the Trail airport to hire a local pilot to fly over the area in a small plane. From the comfort of my home office I have been using this amazing software application to navigate the area in an easy manner further documenting hiking trails by viewing the numerous stitched together digital images that make one seamless view of the vast Columbia valley area terrain. As I zoom in and out the spy-satellite view photos gathered by a remote sensing satellites that takes a mosaic of snapshots of the earth below, I have learned more about the vastness and beauty of this area than I ever could from traditional maps or by plane.

Click on the image thumbnail to view a full size photo of Sunningdale pinpointed on Google Earth by Panoramio

The goal is to document as many of the Greater Trail area points of interest and hiking routes with the assistance of Google Earth and a hand held GPS (Global Positioning System) unit, so I can make it available on the Internet for others who are interested in coming to our area. The easier it is to find and navigate trail routes, and points of interest, the easier it becomes to help to place our many beautiful sites and locations of interest on the worldwide map for visitors to consider. By using Google Earth, users can help to place our area geographic information into a format that the average person can easily use.Similar to Google Search, Google keeps track of every search done by everyone using Google Earth and connects this information to your computer IP address, and as a result, Google is able to more easily organize user information for future reference.

One such feature that I believe will increase awareness and the accessible beauty of our area to help increase tourism and give a further boost to our local economy is the Google Earth pushpin documentation feature. Users can navigate to any location on earth or our area and place a pushpin into that point and can document it, making more information accessible to other users. And this makes the software highly interactive, and an important tool to further place our Greater Trail/Rossland/Beaver Valley/Salmo area communities on the earth map, especially leading up to the 2010 Olympics, which is now less than 2 ½ years away.

Trail, British Columbia Photos - by Brian Findlow 

Click on the image thumbnails to view a full size photo or slideshow through all photos using control arrows in upper right or left corner once you are in the larger photo view slideshow mode

If anyone would like to learn more about Google Earth and help to document our area, you can join our Google Earth Community Forum interest group on West Kootenay Unplugged to discuss the use this amazing mapping software and it’s many features to further document our Greater Trail Rossland BC area and the West Kootenay area.

Go to the Google Earth Discussion Forums on WK Unplugged Google Earth Forums on WKU

Let’s face it, if you were planning a trip half way around the world wouldn’t you want to plan ahead and gather up as much information on the Internet as possible to make your trip more worthwhile and enjoyable?

Google Earthing It and They will Come!

By making Greater Trail Rossland area and the Columbia River valley region information more accessible on the Internet, we can help to offer a viable and affordable choice of destinations to the long line-ups at Whister BC and the hustle and bustle and expense of Vancouver.

You can join in the discussion about Google Earth and how it is and can be used to map and document the Greater Trail and West Kootenay area to help increase tourism, and you can also learn about Google Earth to Get help or contribute tips or tricks. Join the dicussion now at WK Unplugged Google Earth Forums.

by Randy McCallum, West Kootenay Unplugged

Straight to the Source Links: 

Go to the Google Earth Home Page Google Earth Home Page

Download Google Earth free from Google Download free version of Google Earth

Watch Google Earth Videos Tours of it's amazing features Google Earth Product Feature Tour

Go to the Google Earth Discussion Forums on WK Unplugged Google Earth Forums on WKU

Go to the Google Earth Forums Home Page on Google   Google Earth Community Forums on Google

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