About the Creator

The creator of the “Lewis and Clark Trail GPS”, Ed Haley, of Atlanta, GA spent 10 years and 48,000 miles traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail to document the Trail and develop these products:

Anyone who has read Stephen Ambrose's best seller, “Undaunted Courage” soon gets the bug to discover more about the fascinating 33 members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Many people have read various books about the Lewis and Clark Expedition but few people really appreciate the difficulties of their travels until they have experienced the sites first hand. Traveling cross country on a lengthy motorcycle ride to Alaska, Ed found himself following the Missouri River and hundreds of Lewis and Clark historical markers. He quickly caught the bug.

For 10 years Ed returned each summer to pick up the Lewis and Clark Trail and continued along their general route. After three years he had completed the Lewis and Clark Trail from east to west and from the west back east, twice. Looking back on his trips he realized Lewis and Clark did not follow those paved interstates he had traveled. He was missing the real history. After reading and researching their travels he decided to take the clues left behind in the Lewis and Clark Journals and by many history scholars, and document the actual sites they camped. Two hundred years ago in 1809, the five literate members of the Expedition left behind excellent tracks on how to follow their trail in the “Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition”. Today their trail has changed due to erosion, farm fields, and development of cities and freeways along the route. The real trail is however still there, it was just the matter of finding it.

The creator spend three years in the US Army Intelligence and the CIA as an amateur cartographer plotting enemy movement from satellite images and used those skill in plotting the Expedition's route based on those clues left behind in their Journals. When others heard about Ed's travels he began to realize that a lot of people shared his passion and interests in the Lewis and Clark travels and decided to share the years of research. The results are the “Lewis and Clark Trail GPS”. Most of the actual route of the Expedition was by river and through mountain passes. Lewis and Clark Trail GPS is the modern day version of the route across America's modern interstates, but when we approach a campsite, or anything mentioned in the Journals, the route takes you to each one of their campsites at a local city or state park, underneath an interstate bridge, and more often, down a country road (paved and unpaved) to the banks of the Missouri or any of a half-dozen other rivers along their route. Or even up a mountain ridge to a campsite rarely known about or visited.

Ed's routes are being used by hundreds of motorcycle enthusiast, RV'ers, and by others willing to tackle all or part of the original route. The route is over a variety of roads and trail surfaces and a number of campsites may require a mile hike. But if you're like the creator, those hikes will be something you will treasure and not soon forget.

The purpose of this website is to let people know that there is a source to help you experience the adventures. The Lewis and Clark Trail GPS is more than just a route. It's a planning tool with digital maps, GPS coordinates, and a modern-day version of their sacred Journals describing their daily travels. This modern day journal lets you quickly recall what they did and said at each campsite over 200 years ago. Within the list of products you will find a series of tools to help you plan and make your travels a success. The Lewis and Clark Trail GPS also provides visual maps that let you see what looks like a paper map on your Ipad, netbook, or laptop. Your GPS unit walks you from one campsite to the next. You can start anywhere on the Lewis and Clark Trail and your GPS will start you from the nearest campsite and guide you from there to the next sequential campsite, all the way to the Pacific shores and back to St Charles, Missouri.