AT Sections List?

[perrito]

Is anyone aware of a list of the AT sections, as they appear in the guidebooks, anywhere?

[hontassquirt]

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31293

courtesy of bigcranky helping me find it...

[Hooch]

Said list is in every single guidebook that's published. Pick a starting point and pick an ending point. There's your section.

[10-K]

Yeah, there aren't "sections" like section 1, section 2, etc. as there are on some other trails.

The ones in the link above are arbitrary and were selected for creating the elevation gain and loss but that's all.

This is assuming I understood your question of course.

[perrito]

The section list I am looking for is the sections as they are called sections in the ATC guides. I'd like this because I'd like to create a list showing the elevation gain/loss as I've stated in the post mentioned by hontassquirt above. The section breakdown in this post is just an arbitrary breakdown.

I've taken the Trimble GPX data from the Backpacker Magazine site for the Delaware Water Gap to Millbrook-Blairstown Road (NJ6) section of the trail and turned it into a spreadsheet. There are 1335 data points, elevations included, for this 13.7 mile long section which averages out to a point about every 54 feet. Traveling in the northbound direction, the data shows a total elevation GAIN of 3306 feet and a total elevation LOSS of 2394 feet. Does this sound correct?

I have the spreadsheet set up to add up all of the elevation gains in one column and all of the elevation losses in another. Pretty simple to do.

It doesn't seem like an excessive amount of work to put this together. If this seems to be information that others would like, I could do it for the whole trail. I'd like some opinions before I go through the effort though.

So what does everyone think?

Well, I've downloaded all of the data and would like to break it up in manageable pieces and probably the most recognized order is the section breakdown from the ATC guides. I have the NY/NJ books and have found some of the ATC guides on Amazon where they allow you to view the first few pages to check them out. But it would be easier if there was a source online. I've looked but can't seem to find them.

I'd like to take on this chore and provide it to the Whiteblaze community as further information to draw on in planning their hikes. It would be a much more accurate indication of elevation gain and loss along the trail.

[10-K]

How is that going to be significantly different than this: http://parkaymaps.110mb.com/AT_CDT_new.html.

I believe even the state lines are marked on these.

Not trying to dissuade you from your project, just wondering what you're trying to accomplish.

[Bags4266]

10k, thanks for that link. I never saw that one before.

[10-K]

10k, thanks for that link. I never saw that one before.

Lot's more trails here... http://parkaymaps.110mb.com/


Great resource for sure.

[perrito]

How is that going to be significantly different than this: http://parkaymaps.110mb.com/AT_CDT_new.html.

I believe even the state lines are marked on these.

Not trying to dissuade you from your project, just wondering what you're trying to accomplish.

Lot's more trails here... http://parkaymaps.110mb.com/


Great resource for sure.

Yes, this is a great reference. Excellent. But what I'm trying to accomplish is an accurate reference of elevation gain and loss, in numerical form, along the trail.

When I plan a section hike with my daughter, if there is a lot of elevation change along the trail I may decide to do fewer miles due to the tougher hiking.

The data I've downloaded seems to have a data point taken every 50 feet or so. This will make for a much more accurate assessment of the ups and downs along the trail.

[Moose2001]

Are you talking about sections as they are broken up by the maps?

[Lugnut]

Why don't you just buy the ATC maps. It's all on there.

[10-K]

I'd be interested to see the data from a numbers perspective but I have a feeling it's pretty much up, down, up, down, up down.

[Moose2001]

might check the trail maintainer websites as well. Georgia ATC has elevation data and I believe some of the others do as well.

[perrito]

The sections as defined in the ATC guides.

[Awol2003]

I have elev/gain loss per day in the hike plans that are shown here: http://theatguide.com/HikePlans.html
I think I compute the number with fair accuracy and can do so for any segment of the trail. Let me know if you'd like numbers with which to cross-check your results.

[Jeff]

AWOL,

Never saw those HikePlans before. They are very well done and should save "first time" thruhikers quite a bit of planning.