In the installment of this expedition portal series on brand that inspires usSenior Editor Ashley Giordano displays GPS app and off -road mapping Onx offroad.
In 2009, Eric Siegfried overseas lost its way while hunting at night. Navigating through rough fields in the dark, Siegfried hopes for the ability to see the boundaries of public and private land while in the field. The vision becomes Onx Hunt, a growing application including thousands of layers with beta informing hunters across America. Finally, the company realizes that its GPS application platform and capabilities can be customized to meet the needs of other external fans that require the right navigation tools. Onx offroad is a natural step.
While you may be familiar with the key features of Onx Offroad, including route constructions and turn navigation tools, the company also aims to maintain outdoor recreation opportunities for future generations through a variety of grants, programs, and initiatives. I contacted Andy Zielinski, a product marketing leader at Onx Offroad, to learn more about this opportunity and about the new features of this team excited for 2025.
What is the Onx access initiative, and why are they important?
Access can mean different things to different outdoor fans. For motorized communities, this usually means traces or road access. Some projects increase access by adding more routes and roads. Some projects maintain access to existing routes and roads by maintaining or cleaning them.
The collective surveillance of our place with us is critical. By supporting the initiative (whether it is a project funded by a grant or involvement and education of the community) that helps restore and maintain these places, we can maintain access to them. Because if we don’t, access can disappear forever.
An example of this new access initiative is when a two -California sports rider is cleaned and restored access to 40 miles in Frazier Park. By producing 60 trees that block track access, they are reopened effectively for off -road, hunters, pedestrians, and other groups of users. This volunteer effort is important to support our land management agency -which deals with a long backlog maintenance and the loss of delayed staff -in maintaining open access.
The current example is ours Sharing with Toyota this summer on the Revival Trail ProjectNationwide initiatives aimed at combating one of the biggest threats to external recreation: losing access due to deterioration, too much, trees and debris, and less fortunate land management organizations. By gathering local roads and community members, we hope to keep the route open and accessible for the coming summer. Currently, we Planning events In the National Forest Mendocino California, Colorado, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Some of the latest onx offroad features include the navigation layer and cells. What are some details of these features that Onx users do not know?
What makes Onx navigation (integrated tools, voice commanders, turns) is really innovative is that it is built on a routing engine made internally by our engineers. We launched our Builder Route tools a few years ago, allowing users to build a route on any route or road in our application with a snap-to-trail or snap-to-road functionality. Therefore, if you click the map to make the route, the builder will automatically detect the route to the nearest road or trace. Because we build it at home, we can make sure that the one -way route has been taken into account (as in, you cannot build the wrong route). We use the same logic for onx navigation. And it also works when you’re offline. Therefore, you can build a route using a builder path or drop a road point and navigate it in a turn even if you are away from the cell service, no matter if you travel on a sidewalk or dirt.
For us layer of cell coverageThis is an overlay map that describes the availability of mobile broadband and voice services from AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. The data is obtained by the US FCC broadband map. When you add it to your Onx Offroad map, it almost looks like a colored tile bee nest. As you zoom in, you will see that each tile is blue, pink, or purple (depending on the selected service provider). That marks the lowest level of service in the tile coverage area, whether it’s 5g, 4G, or voice and text. Onx does this to ensure that our application users do not misinterpret the entire tile as having 5G available when only part of it. In general, this layer allows off the road to find out when they will have the service and level of adventure. If they do not have the service, they can understand when they will have it again along their path. Our goal is to help improve the safety and confidence of users while on the path.
What is the Track Guide Program, and why important?
Onx builds a map from the bottom up, adjusting the content to external fans. To achieve this goal, we do not rely solely on the external content or content that the user produces randomly. On the other hand, we contract with Hundreds -The trace guide All over the US specializing in space. After training with onx offroad and treadlightly!, They map the rich content you see on the map. They are people who rode a path, keep GPS tracks, write descriptions, take pictures, observe obstacles, and add relevant information to others. From there, we have a quality assurance team that collects that information, confirming each line and trace, open date and closing, permit requirements, and more, before it is added to the map.
Are there some new features scheduled for 2025 that the Onx Offroad team is very excited?
On May 15, Onx Offroad removed a New layer for camping spread. It is the first of its kind, a comprehensive source of data where you can legally camp with roads or trails in forest service land. When exchanged, the layer highlights the road segment and traces in bright yellow where the camp is allowed. When users click on the road or trace, they can find details on the unique rules of each area. By highlighting the legal camps corridor on the map, rather than focusing on some of the marked sites, the layer will help users really understand the area where they can spend the night. At the same time, it will also help camps to spread and reduce too much, as well as our collective effects on public land.
What is Grant’s forever adventure, and why should people apply? What are some of the past projects awarded by a grant?
Because Onx is part of the engine that encourages people to come out, we believe it is our responsibility to return to the places that burn our adventure. We do this through various initiatives, one of which is our grant programthat creates opportunities for off-road clubs, non-profit, land trusts, clans, nationals, and other community groups to unlock funding for projects related to access and supervision.
Project -funded projects include those acquiring and conserving land for recreation, protecting access, building or restoring routes and riding areas, building a server community, or even supporting public access to private land. The total financing will vary by type of project and location, and usually falls between $ 5,000 and $ 25,000.
In 2024 (see us Impact report), Onx helped to buy 101,576 acres of land for public access, built 18.6 miles from a new route, restoring 434 miles and cleaning 65 acres. Some of these projects include the following grant recipients:
Two Wolf Foundationthat loads their off -road platform and goes in Bridger-Teton National Forest to help build a new trail that creates safe access to more than 300 miles from the Ridge Commissary area. They also removed garbage along 26 miles from the trail and ended 11 spreading campsites.
Treadlight!which organized five trace projects across Michigan in one day in June. The organization collects dozens of off-road community members to help install 1,120 feet of new fences, increase 76 miles from the route, and produce 8,402 pounds of waste.
Unknown effortswhich gathered 14 teams in 10 states and 12 national forests (at Southeast) to transport 101,312 pounds of waste, including 322 tires, and clean 255 miles of forest service.
One of the purposes of onx offroad is to maintain an outdoor recreation opportunity for future generations. What are the challenges facing teams along the way?
In the access and surveillance space, Onx represents many voices that do not always see the spies. For example, Onx users across our application suite include skiers, climbers, hunters, pedestrians, campers, mountain riders, and all kinds of motorsport lovers. While it can be a challenge to address everyone’s unique needs when it comes to organizing public land use, it is also an opportunity to bring a group of users together to stand for what we all want. We all have the same motivation when we are outside -are there to escape, rejuvenate, overcome physical or mental challenges, or discover and explore unknown. By unifying and organizing this equation in experience, we can achieve more together than we can be a separate voice.
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