Photograph the signs. Record the track. Upload both. Then open the OpenStreetMap editor with the signs, your trace and the Strava heatmap side by side, and fix the map from what you saw.
Photos leave the phone. The track leaves the computer. Both meet in the editor.
1
On the trail
Photograph every trail sign. Walk up to it, fill the frame, square on, no glare if you can. One photo per sign is enough. If a post has signs on two sides, that is two signs. Kiosks, boundary signs, closure notices and parking rules all count. Use the ordinary camera app so the photo keeps its location and compass direction.
Record your track. Your watch or your usual app, started at the car and stopped at the car. The track is proof you went, and it shows which trails are real.
Notice what the map gets wrong. A trail that is not on the map, a trail on the map that is not there, a sign that says no bikes where the map says bikes. You do not have to write it down. The sign photo is the note.
2
Back home
Photos from your phone.phone Open Upload on the phone, Sign photos, pick the day's photos, upload. A big batch takes a few minutes. Keep the page open.
Track from a computer.computer Export the GPX from your watch or app, then Upload, Track.
Within about an hour the sign photos are on Panoramax and your track is a trace mappers can load. Your Me page lists both.
3
Map in iD, with three layers on
Open the OpenStreetMap editor from a JuicyTrails page: every sign photo page, every shared track page and every flag has an Edit in iD link. It opens iD on the spot with the sign photo open, the trail selected and the comment #JuicyTrails already filled in. On a laptop; iD does not work on a phone. You need an OpenStreetMap account, free.
Sign photos (Panoramax). Already on when you arrive through a JuicyTrails link. By hand: Map Data (the stacked-layers button, or U) → Photo Overlays → Panoramax. Click a dot to see the sign; the open photo's marker turns yellow. To see JuicyTrails signs only, put derricknehrenberg in the Username box — every JuicyTrails photo is published under that name for now. Leave the box empty to see everyone's photos. If the dots vanish, the Username box is the first thing to check.
The track (GPX trace). A shared track page has Open in iD with this trace. The blue line is one real pass along the trail, recorded this season. By hand: Map Data → Custom Map Data… → paste the GPX address. The trace tells you the trail is there; the sign tells you what it is.
The Strava heatmap (browser extension). Install Strava Heatmap for Chrome or for Firefox and pin its icon. In iD press B, scroll to Overlays and switch the heatmap on; click the extension icon to sign in to Strava (a free account) and pick the activity. The heatmap shows where everyone goes; your trace shows one real pass; the sign says what the trail is. Optional: select a rough line and press Shift+S to snap it onto the heatmap, then look before you save. This extension breaks from time to time when Strava changes something. The Panoramax photos and your trace are the durable part; map from those when the heatmap is down. Tracing from the Strava heatmap into OpenStreetMap is allowed (OSM wiki).
Save with #JuicyTrails
The comment box is prefilled with #JuicyTrails. Keep it. The Mapping board credits your OpenStreetMap name within about an hour, whether or not you have a JuicyTrails account. Linking your OpenStreetMap account under Me → Settings adds all your trail edits, not only the tagged ones.
What to fix first: what the sign says and the map does not — access (foot, bicycle, horse, atv, motor_vehicle), the trail's name, a trail that is missing, a drawn trail that is not there. One sign photo, one edit, one save is fine; several tags on one way in one save is better.
Every color is a claim about who a trail is for
JuicyTrails reads the OpenStreetMap tags and paints each trail by who it is for. The map is a picture of the data: if a trail looks wrong on the map, the tags are wrong, and a one-tag fix corrects it on every map built on OpenStreetMap.
Before
Path — unverified
highway=path(no access tags)
→
After one tag
Hike
highway=path+ foot=designated
The red dashed line is not a bug. It is the map saying nobody has tagged who this trail is for. The sign says who. Add foot=designated and it is a hiking trail everywhere downstream.
Line
Trail type
Minimum tags
J
Bicycle, Horse, Hike
highway=path+bicycle=designated+horse=designated
U
Hike
highway=path+foot=designated
I
Bicycle Rec Path
highway=path+bicycle=designated+surface=paved
C
Hike, Horse
highway=path+horse=designated
Y
Motorcycle
highway=path+motorcycle=yes
T
Path / Informal Path
highway=path(no mode tags at all)+informal=yes→ faint dashed Informal Path
R
Bicycle, Hike
highway=path+bicycle=designated
A
Sidewalk and Footpath
highway=footway+footway=sidewalk
I
ATV
highway=path+atv=yes
L
Track / 4WD Track
highway=track+4wd_only=yes→ dashed 4WD Track
S
No access (black on the map)
highway=path+access=no
Minimums assume no conflicting tags and an unpaved surface (unset counts as unpaved). Mode values yes, designated and permissive are interchangeable. Informal Path (faint, thin, dashed) and 4WD Track (dashed brown) are de-emphasis variants of Path and Track, not new colors: add informal=yes or 4wd_only=yes. The acrostic J·U·I·C·Y·T·R·A·I·L·S is the legend. The full tagging guide, with the recommended tags for each type and the OpenStreetMap wiki links, is on the tagging page.
