Used as the engine to part of the functionality GPS Visualizer offers, here is the base site for looking up the GPS co-ordinates of any US address. Also shows a map of the lookup. geocoder.us: a free US address geocoder

Another neat site dedicated to sharing GPS activities - in this case activities dedicated to performance athletes. In many cases these athletes would be using a watch GPS. Shows routes, elevation profiles, performance metrics etc... Very neat. MotionBased

Now this is definitely the cat's meow. This is a new system that allows you to manage your own favorite waypoints, tracks, photos and profiles - sharing them with the world. Similar to geocaching.com's capabilities this allows a user to either upload GPS data or enter it manually. The coolest feature is the ability to add photo points to a shared track - basically creating a storybook of your journey. The track or waypoints are also automatically overlayed on a topo map (in the US also on an aerial and photo map). Very cool indeed. GPXchange.com

Holy crap, Google is a friggin' machine. Is there any stopping these cats. Another wicked cool application from the folks at Google. And it's free. Zoom in on parts of the earth like a pro - this program is addictive - easily the coolest friggin' thing I've seen in 5 years. Bar none. The detail in some cities allows you to count the cars in shopping centre parking lots. Really!!!! An turn on terrain and fly thru the Rockies. It's like owning your own lear jet. Google Earth

Here's a neat program that will allow you to manage the data, pictures, etc... on your newer cell phone if you have the correct USB type cable for your phone (found on Ebay and the like). BitPim

Geohikes is up and running. Well, after creating and posting 30+ hikes on Trailpeak.com - Geohikes.com is now active. It will share space with Doctor Livingstone's Undiscovered because, well, it's all part of the same theme. Enjoy. Please contact me at info@geohikes.com if you would like to know more about geohikes or trailpeak.

I found this great piece of free software to view AutoCAD files - one of the formats for the free maps that NB government offers. Free Viewer software to view, print, and review native AutoCAD files

Finally, I've found a converter to take a decimal degrees back to GPS co-ordinates or the other way. Sounds like a simple thing but when you have a program like EasyGPS that has converted all of your GPS co-ordinates to decimal degrees and you don't want to power up your GPS to see the co-ordinates values .... well this is a nice tool to have. GPS Coordinate Converter (of course the other manual option is to remove the whole number leaving only the decimal value and multiple that by 60. For example: +45.4567 would be N45 and (.4567 x 60) or N45 27.4020)

Here is another free program for uploading GPS tracks to topo maps etc... to create your own custom trail maps. GPS Trail Maps - Wissenbach Map3D GPS Mapping Software

This is cool as well. You have two GPS coordinates but you don't know the distance (as the crow flies) between them. No problem just enter them here. Distance between two coordinates Calculator

A very cool utility to upload your GPS tracking data to and have a GIF map created. Also has a neat utility to enter a US street address and have the GPS coordinates returned for it. Only if we had this in Canada. GPS Visualizer

This is a potentially useful site for downloading geospatial data for Canadian locations. Take a look. GeoConnections Discovery Portal

Well here's an interesting use of GPS data, pinpoint where speedtraps are and publish the sites. Hmmm, I don't think the law enforcement dudes like this site all that much. SpeedTrap Exchange

Looking for another freeware program to help you do stuff with GPS data. Well look into GPS Utility

This is a neat piece of freeware that supposedly allows you to plot GPS tracks and points on a 3D terrain which you can download from NASA. This I gotta try. DG Terrain Viewer

This is a nice example of a "geohikes" style portal for the Toronto area. This is also a potential model for geohikes.com Toronto hiking resource centre -toronto and southern ontario

Here is a potentially interesting piece of software to pull down GPS data for sharing. It produces the format of data that Trailpeak can except. Will be trying it out tomorrow to see how things go. Check it out. G7ToWin

This just might be what the "doctor" ordered. This site allows for the entry of hikes and mountain biking trails as well as the uploading of GPS data. I've submitted a trail to see how the process works. If all goes well then it may be the answer for a dbase for all of the hikes for the geohikes.com website. Stay tuned.TrailPeak

This is a really neat tool to track down location when all you have is a placename. It's also a great way to look for neat geographic features like waterfalls and bluffs. Canadian Geographical Names Database

Here's a great site for hikers in NB recommended by a fellow hiker, Kawboy123. I hadn't run into this site before but it looks invaluable. Thanks for showing me this. Check it out.SNB Geographic Data & Maps

The Doc is retiring permanently from Geocaching. Read on. The Doc is retiring from Geocaching this summer of 2005. That's right, all of Doc's 68 caches will be removed shortly. Why you ask? Well, sadly, there are many reasons and they have added up over time. Here they are: 1) 150km hiding rule imposed by Geocaching.com - this is a good rule for maintenance purposes but for a quality hider like myself its way to limiting when you run out of local "neat" places to hide caches. 2) Quantity vs. Quality - the Doc has always been about hiding in interesting places. Geocaching never was and absolutely isn't today about quality. This is a real shame. I was hoping more would catch onto this trend but sadly it didn't happen for most. I say this not to offend anyone - it's just there are two camps in geocaching and I have always belonged to the "interesting location first and container find second" camp. 3) Restrictions imposed on virtual caching - I would have been revealing more interesting spots for cachers but the rules at geocaching switched midstream and severely limited "creative" virtual caches. 4) Leaking containers - unless you use ammo boxes at $5 a pop you get leaking containers which can drive a hider to drink. Many thanks to those who helped dry out and repair my caches over the years. 5) Muggles - for the life of me I don't understand why people must take something fun and ruin it for others. I know some muggles are hungry animals which can be excused but for the human kind - get a life. Which leads me to 6) Ursa Major's unfortunate removal of his caches - I'm not aware of the details of what UM has had to go thru but the mere fact that one of the most respected cachers had to go thru this crap and that he has had to take his amazing cache locations offline ...well... this was the final straw for me. Similar to Ursa Major, I hide caches to show people where the wonders of NB are. If some sick person plans on using caches to hurt people then like UM I'm removing all of my caches. Period. I can put up with reasons 1-5 but I have no patience for this kind of crap. So, is this the end of Doc's love for showing the wonders of NB. Not a chance. Yes, I'm removing all of the caches but I'm moving all of the location and hiking information to a site I'm building called GeoHikes at www.geohikes.com (it may take me all summer to build it but it will exist and I hope those looking for neat spots in NB will enjoy it.) This blog site you see now at geohikes.com will transform into a HIKING PORTAL for neat locations to explore in NB. That's all folks. Best of luck to those remaining in the sport. I have met some neat folks over the years and I wish them well. I hope geocaching changes for the better. Doc L. Geocaching -

Ya know, after all of the pain one goes thru to keep those darn geocaches dry after rain and snow, Earthcaches sound oh so good. In fact, most of my caches would fall into this category if the cache container didn't exist. Hmmmm, maybe this is what I need to convert them all to. Something to ponder for sure. GSA EarthCache