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

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. Rock & Ice Climbing Crags and Routes
6. Cliffs
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, 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, and the BC Data Catalogue.

Regarding “secret” features

I understand some may believe the features I have added are “secret”. My philosophy surrounding secret features is to only add those that are frequently visited and/or widely known and referenced (i.e. they’re no longer secret). If it’s a borderline case, I will add the feature but leave out specific tags that ensure the feature does not shown up on carto and on data consumers (websites/apps) but is still viewable my rescue services. If you would like for me to explain why I believe a specific feature is no longer secret then please do not hesitate to reach out. I also welcome feedback regarding my philosophy and what measures should be used to determine if a feature is no longer secret.

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 without opening a discussion comment. 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 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.