I posted the map of my travels to date and was asked by several people how I did it. How I did it, and how you'll do it are probably different, so I'll give some ideas, resources and issues you'll encounter along the way; along with some ways to get through them.
First, you need to get frequent GPS coordinates along your routes of travel. One easy way to do this is to carry a Spot tracking device. Basically, you register your new device with Findmespot.com or a similar site and it will capture the signals sent from your device up to a satellite and record them. I didn't figure it out early enough; but, you can download all the coordinates. There are several formats that you can download them in, so pick one that will work with the software you choose.
I found Google Earth is a pain in the butt for this. In order to use Google Earth, you need to make a fusion map of your coordinates first. I don't recommend going this route, so I'm going to focus on alternatives. Just know that it's a pain in the butt and I'm trying to dissuade you. There are better tools.
I found GPSPrune. It is a Java program that will take as input a CSV or even a GPX formatted file of coordinates. I really like it. There are a couple things to note. First, by default, the program will not display a map, only your track. In the icon bar, dead center, top, you'll see a globe. Click it and you'll see your map. The GUI is completely intuitive. You can edit your map, add photos, audio, etc. This is a really cool tool, and it's free. The second thing to note is that after awhile, you'll run out of memory - just give it more, and don't be stingy about it. You have to run this from the command line anyway, it's just another parameter. The command you want is java -Xmx750G -jar gpsprune.jar -x. The 750G part is how much memory you're going to give it. When you're done making your map and exit the program, the memory will be freed, so don't worry about it, just give it lots. Finally, you will need to have java installed on your screen. Open a terminal session or CMD prompt and type java. If you don't have it, you'll get an error message. Just google it and download it.
If you know where you've been; but, you didn't have a GPS tracker, you're in luck. You can generate the coordinates. I like this site --->>> http://gpx.cgtk.co.uk You simply put in your start and end locations and bend the route to what you actually rode. It's just like Google Maps and probably uses their API. One note, there's an undocumented ceiling. I've found it to be around 500 miles. Beyond that, you'll get an error message. Simply put in smaller segments. After you give your route a title and save it, you'll have the opportunity to download the GPX file. Simple.
If you have a GPX file and need a CSV file for your mapping program, try this --->>> http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input. This will allow you to select your gpx file(s) and convert them.
I continue to use GPSPrune. Every time I ride a new segment, I simply import the new segment into my existing map.
One last note...what if you can only download 100 points at a time and your trip was 250 or 300 points? No problem. If you're a Unix geek, like me, I don't have to tell you to cat them all up and append them to a file cat *.csv >> really_big_csv_file.csv. If you're stuck in the Windows world, open Excel, cut and paste them all into one sheet and safe as a CSV. Note that GPSPrune doesn't won't except much beyond lat/lon/elevation and some notes, so you may have to delete some extraneous columns for it to be excepted. If you're using Excel, it's easy to delete columns. If you're using Unix, either cut -d",", F x,y or open vi and <ctrl> v to visually select the column you want to delete and use x to delete it.
Enjoy, and I hope this helps you make a very cool map of your adventures.
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