The map

The INVIA Base Map draws every dirt road as what it is. Forest Service, BLM, National Park and state OHV data are unified into one layer and sorted by vehicle access. A line's class tells you whether it is a motorcycle trail, open to everything, or pavement-legal only, so you know the access rules before you plan around it. Read the three pages in order, because each one goes deeper into what the page before it introduced.

The six classes#

Every road in that layer is drawn in one of six classes, from single track up to pavement, which is how the map answers the access question before you commit.

State OHV trails carry a difficulty casing, so a dark casing and one diamond after the name means the trail is rated difficult, and a black casing with two diamonds means extreme.

The legend and the Layers control#

The INVIA Base Map legend card sits on the map and is both the key and the switch, because each row names a class and turns it on or off. It also holds a master switch and a Hide legend control.

Press Hide legend and the card collapses to a small Base Map pill. Every road class you left on is still drawn and every switch keeps its setting, so hiding the legend changes what is on screen rather than what is on the map. Press the Base Map pill to open the legend card again.

The Layers control at the top right of the map holds the same switches and a few more.

Your choices persist in the browser and carry between the builder and Explore, so a map you set up on Explore looks the same when you open the builder.

Turning a class off#

Each class row is a switch, so turning one off stops every road of that class being drawn, across every source at once.

Nothing is deleted, because the roads stay in the INVIA Base Map data and come back the moment you switch the class on again. While a class is off you see no lines and no road numbers for it, the legend row is unchecked, and the class count in the Layers control drops. Every class you left on draws as before, and tap to identify still works on those. Open the legend card or the Layers control and switch the class back on to draw its lines and labels again.

The master switch turns the whole INVIA Base Map off, and the count then reads off. Ride-area and trail pins sit in a separate Pins section, so they stay on the map either way.

What feeds the map#

• USFS MVUM, the designated routes for every National Forest.
• Extra FS Roads, Forest Service system roads the MVUM never mapped, so verify one locally before you trust it.
• BLM Roads & Trails, the motorized network on Bureau of Land Management ground.
• NPS Backcountry Roads, unpaved park roads open to street-legal vehicles only.
• State OHV Trails for California, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado and Utah.
• Named Trails (OSM) from OpenStreetMap, with difficulty where it is known.
• Land Boundaries: Wilderness, military land, and National Forest administrative boundaries.

Base map and road classes.

Tap any road#

Tap a road on Explore or in the builder's Explore mode, and the whole route lights up while a card opens, so you can identify a line without leaving the map. The card names the road number and its class, then the surface, the designation, the dates it is open, the managing agency, the difficulty and any one-way direction.

What each field holds depends on the agency that mapped the road, which is why a Forest Service card reads differently from a BLM, NPS or state OHV one. Difficulty shows as a chip reading Easy, Moderate, Difficult or Extreme, with a Seasonal chip alongside where the road closes for part of the year.

A Forest Service card ends with a caveat, and the reason to read it is that the printed Motor Vehicle Use Map is the legally binding document. Check the printed map before you ride a Forest Service route.

Pins#

Curated pins mark the places worth riding to, so you can find a riding area without knowing the name of a single road in it.

The largest ride areas appear first as you zoom in, and the smaller ones follow. A sparse map at low zoom means you have not zoomed in far enough rather than a gap in the data.

Trail pins appear from about zoom 10 and closer, and notable and epic trails appear earlier with their mileage on the pin. Below about zoom 10 you see the notable and epic trails only. Zoom in and the rest appear. A single-track pin shows a dirt bike, so you can pick the motorcycle trails out of a cluster.

Tap a trail pin and its card opens while the trail's line draws on the map, which is the quickest way to see where a named trail runs. Tap to identify and pins.

Basemaps#

The basemap is the map underneath everything else, and INVIA draws its own roads, pins, routes and heat on top of it.

The builder and Explore open on Hybrid, while the map builder and its previews open on Outdoors. Picking a basemap redraws the map style and INVIA re-adds its own roads, pins and heat on top. Your layer switches are unchanged, so a change of basemap turns nothing off.

USGS Topo is a raster map whose own tiles stop at zoom 16. Past zoom 16 the map keeps drawing, and the tiles are enlarged rather than resharpened, so detail stops improving. Your routes, your pins and the INVIA Base Map roads draw as usual. Pick Hybrid or Outdoors to read finer detail.

3D and labels#

3D On and Labels On are on the builder's map only, so the Layers control on Explore does not carry them. Both labels report the current state rather than the action, which is why the 3D button reads 3D Off until you turn it on.

Press 3D Off and the map drapes over real terrain. It is off by default. 3D On has no effect on USGS Topo, because that basemap carries no elevation data. The button still flips and your routes, pins and roads are unchanged, so pick another basemap to see terrain. Tilting with the map compass adds the same terrain on its own, which means the map can be in 3D while the button still reads 3D Off.

Labels Off hides every text label the basemap draws, so place names and road names go together. The imagery, the roads and your route line are all still drawn, and pressing Labels On brings the basemap labels back. The names INVIA prints on its own roads are a separate switch, Road labels, under Info. Labels are on by default, and INVIA re-applies your choice when you change basemap.

Land boundaries#

Land boundaries is a Pro switch under Info, off until you turn it on, and it draws three kinds of land so you can see where riding is closed.

Boundaries draw beneath the road lines, so they never hide the road network. The switch persists in that browser, and the builder and Explore share it.

On an account without the feature, the switch is replaced by a Pro tag with a lock. Tapping the tag opens the plan picker and boundaries stay off, while every road class you already have still draws, along with your routes, your pins and all seven basemaps.

Heat#

Heat is public riding drawn as soft lines, so you can see which roads other riders use before you commit to one. It counts overlapping lines rather than estimating density, which means five riders on one trail make one thick glow rather than five.

On Explore, every public route and every public ride in the loaded area is drawn as a soft line, with routes glowing blue and rides glowing orange. Where lines overlap the glow stacks and gets brighter. Past zoom 7 the coarse bright core fades out and a crisp line per route is drawn instead. Explore heat is free on every account.

Two buttons sit beside Heatmap in the Explore sidebar, Routes and Rides, and both start on and work independently. Press Routes to turn route heat off, and the blue glow and the blue crisp lines both leave the map while the orange ride heat stays on the map. The basemap, the INVIA Base Map roads and every pin are unchanged, so press Routes again to bring the blue heat back.

The two buttons are on screen only while the sidebar is on its Routes tab. Move to another tab and the buttons are not drawn, your heat setting is unchanged, and the map still draws what you left on. Go back to the Routes tab to reach the buttons again.

The builder carries its own heat in the Display group of the Toolbox, where two pills sit beside the word Heatmap.

Both pills are off by default, and builder heat draws on the builder's map only.

On an account without Mine, the pill carries a lock, so pressing it does not turn the red layer on. The message reads Your personal heatmap is a Pro feature.

Your routes and rides are all still saved and still on the map. Global is free and still works, so press Global to see the community heat. Basemaps, boundaries and heat.

What is Pro on the map#

A locked class stays in the legend, dimmed and with a lock, so a greyed row is a plan limit rather than a fault. No lines of that class are drawn, and tapping the row says {class} is a Pro feature.

The four unlocked classes draw as normal, every basemap and every pin still works, and tap to identify is unaffected. A locked trail pin still opens its card, which reads {class} lines are not drawn on the Free map. Pro draws them.

The pin stays on the map and tapping the road itself still opens the road card, so the trail is on the map even though its line is not drawn. Upgrade to Pro to draw the locked classes. Plans.

1. 1
   Base map and road classes

   The INVIA Base Map: Forest Service, BLM, NPS and state OHV data unified and drawn in six vehicle-access classes, what feeds it, difficulty casings, the legend, and what is Pro.

2. 2
   Tap to identify and pins

   What the road card shows for each data source when you tap a line, the difficulty chips, boundary cards, and the curated ride-area and trail pins with their categories and zoom behavior.

3. 3
   Basemaps, boundaries and heat

   The seven basemaps and where each is the default, 3D and Labels in the builder, land boundaries as drawn, and the heat maps on Explore and in the builder, Global and Mine.