This is supposed to be a little guide for the Authors of this site that illustrates how you can use Google maps to get Put-In and Take-Out information from Google Maps
to fill in the “Northing PI”, “Easting PI”, “Northing”, and “Easting” fields. It is pretty straightforward if you know the area well. However, in some cases, it can be hard since Googel Maps road data base for BC is not quite complete.

In the following section, I illustrate how to get the coordinates for the Lower Gordon River:

Take-Out

1) Go to Google Maps

2) Drag the map with your mouse and zoom in so that you are approx. in the area of the Lower Gordon. You can switch between “Hybrid” and “Map” view to get a better idea. Hybrid view is a superposition of a satellite image and a map. The map view only shows basic coastlines, major cities and fairly detailed roads. Here is a screenshot. I zoomed in so I could see the ocean by Port Renfrew and a good chunk of the Gordon River Main Logging Road.
Googel Maps Snapshot

3) You can switch to Hybrid view and you will be able to see the Gordon River on the Satellite Image. You will also see most logging roads as fairly bright lines as illustrated in this next screen shot. The little white box indicates the next zoom.
Googel Maps Hybrid Map Screen Shot

4) Now zoom in where the Gordon Main goes over the Gordon River. You will clearly see a bridge as indicated on the next screen shot.
Google Maps Zoomed In Screen Shot

5) Double click on the position of the bridge. Then right mouse click on “link to this page” as indicated on the screen shot above. The link you just copied will look somewhat similar to this:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.635177,-124.451408&spn=0.091820,0.205153&t=h&hl=en

Note the part ll=48.635177,-124.451408 These are the coordinates for the bridge! You are done. Just copy the first number (48.635177)
into the “Northing” text field and the second one (-124.451408) into the “Easting” text field. Also note that the easting is always a negative number for Canada.

Put-In:
1) Now you want to do the same thing for the Put-In. Just trace the river to where the Put-In is located. In the next screen shot, I zoomed in so that shot shows the Take-Out, too. I used Bugaboo Creek and the middle bridge, where most people scout the bridge drop if they are unsure about levels to find the put-in.
Google Maps Screen Shot of Put-In

2) Here, do the same thing as before. Double click on the location of the Put-In and then right click on “link to this page” and paste the link somewhere:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.655366,-124.461880&spn=0.091784,0.205153&t=h&hl=en

Note the part ll=48.655366,-124.461880 These are the coordinates for the Bugaboo Creek bridge! You are done. Just copy the first number (48.655366) into the “Northing PI” text field and the second one (-124.461880) into the “Easting PI” text field.

If you have any questions, ask me.