In 2022, I made a conscious decision to start tracking all of my motorcycle rides. Not just the big trips or scenic loops, but everything – the full picture of my time on two wheels. The idea was simple: I wanted a memory of where I’d been that didn’t rely solely on my own mind. Remembering that obscure turn-off or tucked-away back road isn’t exactly my strong suit, and having a detailed archive just made sense.
I used Rever to track each ride, letting it quietly record in the background while I wandered. At the end of the year, I exported all of my .gpx files – one for each ride – to build something more tangible: a map that tells the story of the year.
Using uMap, a customizable mapping tool built on OpenStreetMap, I imported all of the 2022 rides into a single layer. The result is the image you see here – a year’s worth of travel, twisting through the Northeast and reaching into the Appalachians. Going forward, I’ll create a new layer for each subsequent year, allowing the history to unfold over time.
This wasn’t a step-by-step project so much as a “let’s see what happens” experiment – but if you’re comfortable working with .gpx files and enjoy a bit of digital exploration, it’s absolutely within reach.
Looking at the finished map, it’s humbling. All those tiny decisions – left or right, stop or continue, turn back or press on – woven into a sprawling, living memory far more complete than I could have ever kept in my head.
Want to zoom in on the details? Here’s a link to the map itself: http://u.osmfr.org/m/1214120/
