frederick has a list, which was created to help preserve dirt roads. because roads happen on a city or more likely, county level, the county govt is the likely place to look. this list, in our case, is just that, a list, leaving it up to us to map the list into some sort of reality. that said, i am not interested in making this project just a frederick thing, or a PA thing. that is of a limited utility. i’d like to be able to be whereever and at least have an idea if there is some good dirt riding, and maybe a potable water source, ect.
almost every other genre has this: mtn bikers, road bikers, even commuters. its simply time for old fashioned tourists to have the same thing. and true to the equipment laden tourist philosophy, i think this database should be as detailed as possible, and include things like road surface info, photos, recommendations on where to get food, ect. contrary to ruining the sense of exporation that makes touring so great, i think this will encourage more folks to head out to places they wouldnt ordinarily consider. i like ‘i’s idea above: use an existing frame work to implement at least the beginnings of this concept.

I tried to find out down here (VA) if the state highway dept had surface data in a GIS layer. Answer: maybe, but not easy to work out. Maybe your highway dept could produce either a layer or at least a map showing roads by surface.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=102577530942181521690.000446ad6ed2984c6643d