milage markers ?

[Puddlefish]

I think mile markers would annoy the crap outta me, "Yes I know...8 more miles, thank you"

I was hiking for a while with a guy who would whip out his phone every quarter mile and give me a mileage update. It was seriously annoying. I preferred to limit my mileage checks, using either the Guthook app, or the AWOL guide to once or twice a day. Maybe as a reward for finishing that fourth or fifth PUD, I'd check my mileage or see what's ahead. Maybe.

[importman77]

I use AWOL's guide and the ATC maps but by far my favorite tool is Guthooks app. It will show your location on the map and you can visually see how far you've gone and how far it is to the next point. Plus you can click on any point of interest and see photos and a description of what's there along with the mile marker and elevation. Plus now it has the online equivalent of shelter logs where people can post useful information about places such as water reports or facts like the shelter is overrun with mice or whatever the case may be. You can also look at the elevation profile to see what you're facing as well. But to me I really, really like to be able to pinpoint my location on the map. The only downside is, in my experience, the app is pretty hard on your batteries.

[rafe]

There are enough landmarks along the trail that you can usually know where you are within a mile or two, if not exactly. Get the AT Databook and you'll see what I mean. Shelters are generally 8 to 10 miles apart, but the databook also lists water sources, campsites, the summits of mountains, roads and many other landmarks. I never carried a watch, but I got to where I could guess the time correctly within about 15 minutes based upon where I was because I knew how fast I was walking. You will almost always have a general idea of where you are.

General idea is all well and good, but sometimes you need specifics.

[Bronk]

General idea is all well and good, but sometimes you need specifics.

You'll have a specific location each time you pass a landmark, which I found was every hour or so.

[rocketsocks]

I was hiking for a while with a guy who would whip out his phone every quarter mile and give me a mileage update. It was seriously annoying. I preferred to limit my mileage checks, using either the Guthook app, or the AWOL guide to once or twice a day. Maybe as a reward for finishing that fourth or fifth PUD, I'd check my mileage or see what's ahead. Maybe.

exactly......

[rocketsocks]

c'mon guys, really, there are **NO** mileage markers on the trail? you guys hike in some area where every few miles you **DON'T** come to a sign telling you how far it is to the next major road crossing or the next shelter or the next major mountain summit? really? I've never hiked there.

that said, it is definitely true, i think, that those signs, though they are definitely present, is not generally how hikers keep track of their daily mileage.

dosent PA have some, or am I thinking of state game land markers?

[egilbe]

sorry but ive hiked all of the trail from montebello, VA to Monson ME and this statement isn't true.

i guess it depends on your definition of what constitutes "regularly." unless you're in a designated wilderness area, i'd say you're like to pass a sign every 5 miles or so. sometimes might be every 3 miles, sometimes might be every 10 miles, but i doubt youd find 20 mile stretch of the trail anywhere that is signless. i've never seen one.

there are generally signs at shelters.

there are generally signs at major road crossings

there are generally signs at intersections with side trails.

any of these would give AT relevant mileage marks.

yes, it is more common in ANY sort of designated area (not just national parks- state parks, forests, recreation areas, you name it) than they are at other parts of the trail, but that doesnt account for much area where there isnt likely to be signs.

its really just in wildnerness areas that you wont really see them.

I, and others, are into taking pictures of all of the signs. i've uploaded a few over the years as parts of discussions, and others have uploaded entire libraries of photos just of mileahe signs. look around this website, youll find a zillion of them.

The mileage on some signs aren't very accurate. Somewhere within a mile is close enough, for me and apparently some sign makers

[RangerZ]

I was hiking for a while with a guy who would whip out his phone every quarter mile and give me a mileage update. It was seriously annoying. I preferred to limit my mileage checks, using either the Guthook app, or the AWOL guide to once or twice a day. Maybe as a reward for finishing that fourth or fifth PUD, I'd check my mileage or see what's ahead. Maybe.

The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail has mile markers. I kept doing time distance calculations and driving myself (more) crazy. Then I'd think that I missed one because it was "past due".

[penny b]

anyone use the " fitbit" or other trackers on the trail?

[tdoczi]

The mileage on some signs aren't very accurate. Somewhere within a mile is close enough, for me and apparently some sign makers

oh for sure,theyre often comically wrong.a fav game of mine sometimes is catching inconsistencies.ya know,like a sign at road A says roadB is 8 miles away,and when you get there the sign pointing back to roadA claims it is 7miles away.

that and i swear in the whites the mileages on all of the signs is wildly underreported. always seems like ive gone 8 miles and the signs insist ive only gone 3. its the darndest thing.

but all of this doesnt change the fact that the signs do exist.

[Another Kevin]

oh for sure,theyre often comically wrong.a fav game of mine sometimes is catching inconsistencies.ya know,like a sign at road A says roadB is 8 miles away,and when you get there the sign pointing back to roadA claims it is 7miles away.

that and i swear in the whites the mileages on all of the signs is wildly underreported. always seems like ive gone 8 miles and the signs insist ive only gone 3. its the darndest thing.

but all of this doesnt change the fact that the signs do exist.

Yeah, the signs do exist.

But just as they might well be plus-or-minus a mile or two over a day's walk, they may literally be plus-or-minus a hundred miles over the length of the Trail. I pass signs with "mileage to Springer" that vary by that much.

The answer that most people rely on guidebook mileages is correct.

Sometimes I wind up using GPS, carefully watching RMS error and dilution of position, and estimate median positions from walking a section in both directions. Just as back in the day, I'd estimate mileages from the turn count on a wheel or even from chaining. Because I'm coming up with mileages that go INTO the guidebook. That's most often, nowadays, from some sort of GPS log rather than from wheeling or chaining out the trail. It's a lot faster, and one guy can do it rather than needing a crew of at least four - one to sight and record, one to hold the sighting rod, and two to work the chain or tape. You might be able to get away with three with a wheel. I think it's a wonderful luxury NOT having to hump a plane table. (FWIW, I haven't done any of that on the AT. A lot of the field work that went into http://www.nptrail.org/?page_id=59 had my boots on the ground.)

[JC13]

I use AWOL's guide and the ATC maps but by far my favorite tool is Guthooks app. It will show your location on the map and you can visually see how far you've gone and how far it is to the next point. Plus you can click on any point of interest and see photos and a description of what's there along with the mile marker and elevation. Plus now it has the online equivalent of shelter logs where people can post useful information about places such as water reports or facts like the shelter is overrun with mice or whatever the case may be. You can also look at the elevation profile to see what you're facing as well. But to me I really, really like to be able to pinpoint my location on the map. The only downside is, in my experience, the app is pretty hard on your batteries.

It runs for quite awhile if you are in airplne and low power mode. I went 5-6 days between charges, that included photos, video, .pdf guide and guthook.

anyone use the " fitbit" or other trackers on the trail?

My wife an I both used Misfit trackers but unless you move them somewhere other than your wrist, they don't read correctly when you use trekking poles. YMMV

[Alligator]

There are periodically signs to tell you how far something is, but not your actual mile point on the trail. The trail length changes pretty much every year so the exact mile number is most times going to change. Relative changes between points are more static unless there has been a relocation between the sign and the point ahead.

When planning a trip I use the guidebooks but on the trail I use the profiles on the maps for daily planning.

[tdoczi]

The answer that most people rely on guidebook mileages is correct.

dont disagree with that at all. ijust thought it was funny that some one stated there were no mileage signs on the AT and then 3 people agreed with that.i guess they were all imagining signs that literally stated what mile# you were at like on a highway.

i will also add that, in a sense, i DO depend on the signs and imagine others do to an extent as well. if i come to a road crossing and it says the shelter i am heading for that night is 6.4 miles away, i more or less believe it. i dont get out my map and make sure it isnt actually 6.2 or 6.7. i have a feeling others do the same.

the other thing is, unless you are at one of those special places where there is likely to be a mileage sign anyway, knowing exactly where you are by reading it off of a map is not always straight forward without having legit map skills. and certainly reading it out of a guidebook is, more often than not, not possible if you arent a landmark, and many landmarks have signs at them.

[MuddyWaters]

Theres signs that occassionally say how far it is to X, but there isnt "mile markers" is the distinction.

The signs often have distances that conflict with guidebook or other signs, by 0.1 to 0.5 miles. Sometimes its as if someone simply guessed at the distance for the sign.
A sign says X is 0.4 miles, you walk 10 minutes and another sign says X is 0.3 miles, etc.

[LIhikers]

Somewhere in New England, Mass, Vermont, or NH there's an obelisk type marker with mileage numbers on the front and back. Of course the numbers are wrong because of trail reroutes.

[AfterParty]

That will be cool to see

[tdoczi]

Somewhere in New England, Mass, Vermont, or NH there's an obelisk type marker with mileage numbers on the front and back. Of course the numbers are wrong because of trail reroutes.

NH, a little north of the dartmouth skiway parking lot.

[Jeff]

Somewhere in New England, Mass, Vermont, or NH there's an obelisk type marker with mileage numbers on the front and back. Of course the numbers are wrong because of trail reroutes.

I once asked Bill Ackerley (The Ice Cream Man) who put the obelisk there. It's not far from where he lived. Bill had no idea nor has anyone else I have asked.

[Another Kevin]

I once asked Bill Ackerley (The Ice Cream Man) who put the obelisk there. It's not far from where he lived. Bill had no idea nor has anyone else I have asked.

It's a typically lame Dartmouth Outing Club joke, just like the "Scenic Overlook - Beware Of Tourists" and "Speed Limit 20" signs.

(ETA: Spoken as a former DOC trail maintainer...)