Guthook Apps 2015 updates, and call for suggestions

[guthook]

The three of us here at Guthook's Guides are in the process of making some major changes to the AT Hiker apps, along with all of our apps for the PCT, CDT, etc. We'll have new map options, better networking performance, and a few other improvements, which you can read about here for iPhone or here for Android.

Also, we're interested in hearing your suggestions for features. I can't guarantee we'll get around to all the suggestions, but many requests in the past have wound up as prominent features in the current versions of the apps-- like the elevation profile, the distance to waypoints along the trail, and the Facebook/Twitter sharing options. If you have something you'd like to see in the app, let me know and maybe we'll figure out a good way to add it eventually.

Cheers,
Guthook

[Coffee]

Just downloaded the full pct app...looks good!

[Connie]

I did. There is a demo.

The Demo has everything for a section.

then, I went in Settings and added what I wanted at the special price.

[Chair-man]

Also, we're interested in hearing your suggestions for features.

Cheers,
Guthook

I'd like to see more water sources on the Appalachian Trail. There are a lot more water sources out there than your old map was showing.

[guthook]

I'd like to see more water sources on the Appalachian Trail. There are a lot more water sources out there than your old map was showing.

Chair Man, do you have any specific areas where you're noticing that? I mark water sources where I find them, but in some places the water sources are very seasonal, even in a good year. There are places up here in Maine and Vermont where a creek that's gushing almost a foot deep in June is bone dry by July or August, so I'm bound to miss some water sources depending on the season when I walk the trail for the map.

[wi11ow]

I purchased one of your apps for the AT at the end of one of my section hikes this past fall and really enjoyed having it.
I don't know if this is completely unrealistic; but it would be helpful to have an elevation map that described what the terrain was like.
Its nice knowing the elevation but it sure would have been nice to know at times if I was going to be walking up or down a grassy field vs a dirt path vs a massive boulder field.
Not that its completely necessary; but a general sort of ranking in terrain (along with knowing elevation) sure would help out when planning miles per day.
For example the elevation line could be colored blue for terrain rated 0-2(mostly grassy with few roots or rocks) and red for terrain rated 8-9(large boulders..etc)
A have a few guides that give some physical descriptions of what a hiker will see; but it would be helpful to see that reflected with the elevation profile line.
Looking forward to your 2015 guides.

[JohnnySnook]

Guthook - Personally I haven't used your app but it comes highly recommended.
Personally I don't want all the exact details for every section. I don't want the to be like following a guide book even though hiking the AT is following a guide book.

I want to experience the trail. If i wanted to see every inch of the trail there are many blogs and youtube videos by many hikers that document every inch of the trail. I choose not to watch the section by section videos. Yes, videos under 30 minutes of the whole trail I do watch.

If you do add extremely detailed maps, videos, and pictures of the trail to your app I suggest making two user interfaces.
One for the purist that wants a guide to the trail but wants to actually experience the trail as a new journey in their life.
One for the person that isn't concerned about the adventure the trail offers but just wants to finish the trail and add a notch to their belt.
No offense the the younger generation of hikers but many fall into the 2nd description.

They hike the trail like a school coarse. Many will never hike again. Yet they can say they bucked the system and spent 5 months in the wilderness. I don't respect these hikers.

I personally am no one to judge anyone as its been many many years since I've been on the trail. Just stating what I see researching the trail.

Will I hike it this year? I Hope so.

[guthook]

Willow, I've had a few requests for similar things, so it's in my mind, but not very feasible. One of the issues is that I'd have to re-map the entire trail with en eye on what the tread looks like rather than an eye for individual points of interest. More feasible would be an alternative sort of waypoint where, rather than an individual point, we could show an area along the trail. Rather than showing every type of terrain, it would just highlight major anomalies like road walks, PA rock fields, alpine zones, etc. Still, that's a long way off at this point. But it is on my mind :-)

JohnnySnook, I tend more toward your philosophy of "less is more", although not always for the same reasons ;-) Last year I added the ability to turn off the photos of waypoints in the apps, and this year one of my plans is to add the ability to remove the waypoints entirely from the elevation profile (so you can have a nice, clean profile to look at, just in case you don't care about what's along the path). Maybe I'll add that option to the map as well. It's all about options... more control over what you see in the app can't hurt.

[Rain Man]

I have one of your AT section apps and have run into one glaring and troubling "error." You mix metric and American measures.

Why in the world you'd use miles for one reason and meters for another is lost on me.

Otherwise, it appears to be an excellent app!

Rain Man

.

[Kerosene]

I used your app for my Rangeley to Katahdin section this past Fall (my final AT section!) and found it most helpful in finding stealth sites as well as a few nice lookouts.

Let me build on Willow's suggestion: For me at least, elevation profiles don't begin to give you a sense of the difficulty of the terrain. Personally, I can hike uphill on a well-groomed trail with 700'/mi elevation gain faster than I can along flat ground where the trail consists of ankle-shredding rocks and roots along a streambed. I'm thinking that there might be a way to color-code mile-long sections -- perhaps overlaying the elevation profiles -- that provide some sense of the trail surface. For example, portions of the Chairback Range in Maine are much more rugged and slower to traverse than climbing The Priest in Virginia SOBO.

A 5-step color-coded scale (red-orange-yellow-blue-purple?) would provide a lot more information and would allow a hiker to calibrate to their own style of walking. Steepness would increase difficulty, but level or rocks, roots, water, mud, exposed terrain, etc. would all play a part. You could even setup a website that would allow hikers to grade sections for you, taking an average of responses or using them as input to your experience.

I will be purchasing your app for the JMT before I go in Fall 2016. Best of luck.

[guthook]

I have one of your AT section apps and have run into one glaring and troubling "error." You mix metric and American measures.

Why in the world you'd use miles for one reason and meters for another is lost on me.

The metric contour lines on the map were because I didn't have access to a good base map in feet. But the new map sets in the updates will give you the ability to choose between a metric base map and an American base map, so that will finally be taken care of.

The other place where metric always pops up instead of American is in the GPS information with "x meters away from trail", and that is totally the fault of my laziness. I just added a fix for that to the "to do this month" list :-)

If I missed anything, just let me know and I'll right that as well!

[Sly]

Chair Man, do you have any specific areas where you're noticing that? I mark water sources where I find them, but in some places the water sources are very seasonal, even in a good year. There are places up here in Maine and Vermont where a creek that's gushing almost a foot deep in June is bone dry by July or August, so I'm bound to miss some water sources depending on the season when I walk the trail for the map.

Ryan, unless you can label every seasonal water source with reliable availability, I think you're better off leaving them out. If a hiker ends up carrying a liter of water when they reach a source, it's better than arriving empty to a dried up source.

[Sodium]

Tried one of your apps on an AT section hike - it's excellent! One issue I had was that if you set it to SOBO the distances aren't always consistent. i.e., some screens the numbers are for SOBOs, but other screens continue to use NOBO distances.

Any chance of a discount if buying the set for the whole trail?

[guthook]

Ryan, unless you can label every seasonal water source with reliable availability, I think you're better off leaving them out. If a hiker ends up carrying a liter of water when they reach a source, it's better than arriving empty to a dried up source.

Sly, I agree. I try to list ALL water sources in areas that are relatively dry, but for wetter areas I prefer to list only the most reliable. Obviously places like Maine and Vermont aren't a huge deal for water. Pennsylvania and New York and New Jersey are another story. When I mapped NY and NJ, it was April, so water sources were very different from when most hikers will be there, I imagine. It's always a work in progress :-)

[guthook]

Tried one of your apps on an AT section hike - it's excellent! One issue I had was that if you set it to SOBO the distances aren't always consistent. i.e., some screens the numbers are for SOBOs, but other screens continue to use NOBO distances.

Any chance of a discount if buying the set for the whole trail?

Sodium, the PCT and AT app both have a "through-hiker special" as of this past April.

As for the SOBO mileage problem, I hadn't heard of it-- could you send me some screen shots and/or tell me of specific waypoints where that's happening so I can figure out what's going on?

[Sodium]

As for the SOBO mileage problem, I hadn't heard of it-- could you send me some screen shots and/or tell me of specific waypoints where that's happening so I can figure out what's going on?

Just trying it again quickly now, the mileages when you use the search option always show NOBO mileage in the search results even when configured for SOBO direction.

The other thing that was annoying was when you've gone to a location page (say, for Erwin TN), if you then click "Show on Map" or "Show on Profile", there doesn't seem any way back to your location page. If you click the back button you go to the "Guide" page with its full list of locations, not the location page you were on previously. This is on the Android version.

[rickb]

How do updates work? I see there is a reload guide/update tab. Does that give me access to your most recent version of maps and data forever?

[Chair-man]

Chair Man, do you have any specific areas where you're noticing that?

To give an example, the AWOL guide book shows a unreliable spring on Frosty Mt @ mm 4.3 on the Springer approach trail but it's not on your map.

I mark water sources where I find them, but in some places the water sources are very seasonal, even in a good year. There are places up here in Maine and Vermont where a creek that's gushing almost a foot deep in June is bone dry by July or August, so I'm bound to miss some water sources depending on the season when I walk the trail for the map.

I understand the difficulty of mapping a unreliable water source if the water isn't running but I do believe the unreliable water sources should be marked as well, and here's why. If I'm thru hiking a section of trail, I kinda know how much it's been raining in that area the last couple of weeks and I would have a pretty good idea if the unreliable sources are running or not.

By the way, I'd still buy your app the way it is and I look forward to your new release. I just looked at the app store and it looks like you pulled the old AT apps off.

[guthook]

Just trying it again quickly now, the mileages when you use the search option always show NOBO mileage in the search results even when configured for SOBO direction. The other thing that was annoying was when you've gone to a location page (say, for Erwin TN), if you then click "Show on Map" or "Show on Profile", there doesn't seem any way back to your location page. If you click the back button you go to the "Guide" page with its full list of locations, not the location page you were on previously. This is on the Android version.

Oooh, good catch. I just tested it out on iPhone, and see what you mean about the data book view while southbound. Added to the to-do list. This one may take some tedious work to fix, but shouldn't be particularly hard.

As for the android issue, would you mind emailing [email protected] with the details of that? That's Alice's email address-- she does all the android programming, and she is reading this thread but might be able to pick out the problem better if you can discuss it with her.

[guthook]

How do updates work? I see there is a reload guide/update tab. Does that give me access to your most recent version of maps and data forever?

Hey Rick, updates are free and automatic. We basically see this as a case where the people who hike again and again get a better deal over time, and hopefully appreciate the apps enough to recommend them to friends.