Accepted Solutions
Another useful thing in this endeavor might be OpenStreetMap. You'll often find dedicated individuals such as yourself who take it upon themselves to map out their local region, and many cases do it in astounding detail. Though OSM has its drawbacks, there are places where its data is the most accurate and authoritative you could hope for.
Check out Overpass Turbo to query the OSM dataset directly, and you can see the existing paths and footways in the area you're interested in. What's more, Esri has a Living Atlas Feature Layer of OSM Highways, which includes paths, footways, cycleways, etc.
Here's a map filtered down to the non-motorized highway features. You can see that certain areas already have a great amount of detail, including surface type. Esri's feature layer updates about every ten minutes or so. As you edit OSM and add paths, you'll see them in this layer very quickly, but already converted to a more Esri-friendly format for use in desktop and web mapping tools.
Bonus Points: If you have an account with Strava, they've given explicit permission to use their public "heatmap" to help identify and digitize features in OSM.
Another useful thing in this endeavor might be OpenStreetMap. You'll often find dedicated individuals such as yourself who take it upon themselves to map out their local region, and many cases do it in astounding detail. Though OSM has its drawbacks, there are places where its data is the most accurate and authoritative you could hope for.
Check out Overpass Turbo to query the OSM dataset directly, and you can see the existing paths and footways in the area you're interested in. What's more, Esri has a Living Atlas Feature Layer of OSM Highways, which includes paths, footways, cycleways, etc.
Here's a map filtered down to the non-motorized highway features. You can see that certain areas already have a great amount of detail, including surface type. Esri's feature layer updates about every ten minutes or so. As you edit OSM and add paths, you'll see them in this layer very quickly, but already converted to a more Esri-friendly format for use in desktop and web mapping tools.
Bonus Points: If you have an account with Strava, they've given explicit permission to use their public "heatmap" to help identify and digitize features in OSM.
