Map that route!

[Tom Wilberding]

Hello birders,

For this year’s CFO Cortez convention our president, Jim Beatty of Durango, created 19 field trips based on his advanced birding in southeast Colorado over many years. Bill Kaempfer also contributed to this planning. For these great field trips, big thanks to Jim and Bill! They described the routes in words, and I offered to do the fairly easy job of plotting them with Google maps. If I made any goofs in that translation I hope users will forgive me.

Google has recently made it pretty easy to create a route map and to create a short url link to it. If you would like to try this, see below tips. It took me about 2 ½ hours to create 19 route maps, which automatically show miles and driving time. Here is a sample route link: http://goo.gl/maps/rmmqL  As you probably know this is a “living” map that a viewer can zoom in or out as needed.

1. Go to https://maps.google.com/
   
2. You will be in Map view. Notice at the upper right you can click on “Satellite.” Click on Satellite, then click on the drop down box to check- mark “Terrain.” This shows topography very well, useful in showing a driving route. eBird uses this Terrain view, I believe.
   
3. Now you are ready to start your route. Click on “Get directions,” upper left column.
   
4. Type in your starting point in box A, say your home address or the name of a motel you are staying at.
   
5. Type in your next stop in box B, maybe the name of a state park.
   
6. Under box B click on “Add Destination” to get box C. Fill in box C. Add destinations as necessary.
   
7. Next add boxes to get back to your starting point, and you have a round-trip route.
   
8. If you want to move the destinations to change their order, just use your cursor to drag, say D up the list, or B down the list.
   
9. To delete a destination click on the x right of that box.
   
10. You can add a destination by pointing your mouse at it on the map, right click, then click on “Add a destination.” Voila! you have an additional box. Drag it up the list if needed to where you want it.
    
11. When you point your cursor at the blue line route you will see a little white circle, “Drag to change route.” Do that if needed. If you change your mind, right click on that little white circle, “Remove this point.” Or use the back arrow at upper left corner of your screen to undo something.
    
12. When you have your round-trip done, click on the blue box, left column “GET DIRECTIONS” to finalize the route.
    
13. Use your mouse to drag the map around as needed.
    
14. Use the left vertical slider to zoom in and out. (I like to zoom in or out to show the entire route onscreen, centered.)
    
15. Once you have the map the way you want folks to see it, you are ready to create a link to it,
    
16. To get your link, click on the chain icon next to the printer icon, upper left column.
    
17. Click on the empty square “Short URL.” (This is Google’s recent answer to Tiny.cc)
    
18. Right click your mouse, “Copy.”
    
19. Go to your COBird post or document or email and right click your mouse, “Paste.”
    
20. Before you post your sighting or send the email, click on your short URL to make sure it takes the viewer to your route map.
    

That sounds complicated, but gets easier with practice. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. 

Best,
Tom Wilberding
Boulder, Colorado

P.S. If you would like to know how to capture a Google map and save it as a JPEG to post to Flicker or a slide show, email me and I will tell you how to do that, using Windows.