Trevor Rainbolt sat in the passenger seat of a Google Street View car, his eyes wide with wonder. For years he had spent hours upon hours looking at the world through the lens of Google Maps, pinpointing unknown locations in seconds for his devoted GeoGuessr followers.
Rainbolt, 26, a geography expert, had been recruited by Google to join their Street View team as they expanded coverage in Costa Rica in 2025. Few people get to sit in a Street View car, much less ride along as the cameras photograph the world in real time. Rainbolt’s life revolves around decoding the visual language of highways, signs and landscapes, so this was an opportunity to experience the process from a different perspective.
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The team was capturing “flooded world locations”—roads so remote or tough that drivers rarely go down them. These are the holy grail for GeoGuessr players, the kind of places that spark debate and awe in online forums. “Roads like that are always highly appreciated in the community,” Rainbolt said. “The driver doesn’t have to go down that road, so to be a part of it is very special.” One such road, a narrow, rough path, made Rainbolt gasp. “No way,” he said as the car approached. “This is a big deal.” The team gave it five stars, a rare moment of nerdiness between the geography guy and the Google team.
Rainbolt also got to try out the Trekker program, which uses a backpack-mounted camera system to capture images in areas cars can’t reach. He wore the Trekker and hiked to the Fortuna Waterfall in San Carlos, Alajuela, climbing 500 steps and descending 500 feet. The backpack was lighter than the previous ones but still heavy and made him stand up straight, undoing years of “gaming posture” as he put it with a grin. It was exhausting but worth it, allowing Rainbolt to contribute to Street View’s mission to document the world’s hidden corners. “This is the beauty of Street View,” he said, standing on a bridge overlooking the waterfall. “We get to document something totally unique.”
[Source]
