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TonyDedo
04-08-2015, 23:41
I will begin section hiking this spring, and I'm looking for ideas to track my progress. Beyond the classic red marker, what are some of the more creative or technologically enabled ways people track their progress?

I'm a bit of a stats nut and expect to record my time on the trail with one sort of GPS enabled device or another (smart phone, Garmin watch, etc). It would be great to have some sort of software where I can upload and save all the data and see it displayed out on a map. Any suggestions?

Thanks
-TD

Studlintsean
04-09-2015, 07:58
ATdist.com has a feature that allows you to track your sections. That is what I use.

Chive
04-09-2015, 10:26
I agree. It would be cool to take the features of ATDist.com and something like an interactive Google map of the trail that you could "color in" or somehow graphically represent what part of the trail you've tackled. Add in some kind of journaling feature that when you click on a particular segment you've colored in where you could add notes, pictures, etc.

I imagine a hiker with web development experience visualizing a business opportunity! :-)

Kerosene
04-09-2015, 12:09
I agree. It would be cool to take the features of ATDist.com and something like an interactive Google map of the trail that you could "color in" or somehow graphically represent what part of the trail you've tackled. Add in some kind of journaling feature that when you click on a particular segment you've colored in where you could add notes, pictures, etc.

I imagine a hiker with web development experience visualizing a business opportunity! :-)Definitely. One of my retirement tasks (if I ever get there) will be to take my substantial trail logs and pictures (now in big MS-Word documents) and create a website with this type of graphical interface.

bigcranky
04-09-2015, 12:48
I have the original circa 2000 Databook that I started using when I got serious about doing sections. I use a highlighter to mark off the sections, with a note in pencil with the date and who I was with. It's cool watching it fill up.

Tipi Walter
04-09-2015, 12:49
Look behind you as you walk and see where you came from. Stop and look ahead to the next white blaze. Tracking complete.

twilight
04-09-2015, 13:27
I use graph paper and pencil. Have logged almost 1500 miles that way. I also use the AT national park to mark my progress.

Twilight

tagg
04-09-2015, 14:24
I have one of those 4 feet high maps of the trail on a large bulletin board in my man cave, and mark each night I've spent on section hikes on the map with a pin. After 6 years, you can finally see the trail of pins crawling up the map from a respectable distance. I'm also a bit of a stats geek, and this helps me keep track of how many days it has taken me to get to where I am (43 days, 702 miles). To add an additional layer of geekness, I use three different colored pins to indicate whether I "stealth" camped (25), camped in or near a shelter (14), or stayed at a hostel (3).

MuddyWaters
04-09-2015, 21:31
What's the best way to track your section hike?


Are you saying you are unable to remember where you have hiked, and where you havent without help?

After you walk it, you will remember it. Maybe not every mile, but you will remember more than you think you can about thousands of miles of trails. 100 miles isnt that far. 1000 miles really isnt that far either. You will be able to spout distances between towns on the trail off, because you were there, you did it.

No Directions
04-09-2015, 21:35
I mark the date for each section I hike in the AWOL guide book.

tiptoe
04-10-2015, 09:43
My simple retro solution is to record my daily progress in a notebook: start point, end point, approx. miles hiked, weather, and noteworthy events. I also take photos. I agree with Muddy Waters that after you walk it, you remember it pretty well. But then again, I'm not into recording and trumpeting my life on Facebook, and I don't do selfies.

bigcranky
04-10-2015, 11:17
What's the best way to track your section hike?


Are you saying you are unable to remember where you have hiked, and where you havent without help?


For section hikes spread over fifteen or twenty years? Yup, that's what I'm saying.

egilbe
04-10-2015, 12:02
ATdist.com has a feature that allows you to track your sections. That is what I use.

The GF and I have done 34 miles, but we've done it NOBO and SOBO. AT this rate it will takes us 90 years to complete the trail, haha.

illabelle
04-10-2015, 13:26
I color in the sections as we do them in the Companion, color it in on a 4' wall map, color it in on a 29-page profile map of the trail (wish I still had the link), and keep up with it on atdist.com.

I also use atdist.com in another browser to keep up with the sections we haven't done. I like watching the numbers shift as we fill in a section.

Astro
04-10-2015, 13:41
I color in the sections as we do them in the Companion, color it in on a 4' wall map, color it in on a 29-page profile map of the trail (wish I still had the link), and keep up with it on atdist.com.

I also use atdist.com in another browser to keep up with the sections we haven't done. I like watching the numbers shift as we fill in a section.

Mark my current AWOL Guide each night. Also have the ATC map hanging on my office wall where I mark where I finished with a stick pin, and mark my goal of finishing on my next trip with another stick pin.

JumpMaster Blaster
04-11-2015, 19:02
If you carry a smartphone, you can download Backcountry Navigator, and it will track what routes you've taken. Then, you can export the data into Google Earth. Pretty cool- that's one of the ways I track what I've done. I also have an Excel spreadsheet with just about every waypoint,shelter,trailhead, and road crossing, with the mileage for each. All I do is highlight what section I've done, and can see from a glance what I should be doing next & how best to plan for it.


30537 30538

Cookerhiker
04-12-2015, 13:04
My section hike of the entire AT began in 1977 and ended in 2005. I kept paper journals for most of the hikes prior to 1987. Where I had no journal, I had my calendars showing the dates and sections that I hiked. I'll add that because I lived in MD not far from the half-way point, my section hiking was random, i.e. not in contiguous order. Some stretches were NOBO, some were SOBO. Most were in PA, MD, and VA although I also hiked the 100 miles of the AT/LT overlap in VT plus all of the Whites.

In 1987, I bought my first computer and developed a spreadsheet. I had all the ATC-published data books and used them to record the mileage between points. In nearly every case, I used the data book current for the year of the hike.

The spreadsheet kept growing. I assigned fields for state and major section within state (e.g. Northern VA vs Central VA) and kept two files - one sorted chronologically, the other in S-N order. Later when 3-D spreadsheets were developed, I used two pages instead of two separate files.

When I finished the AT in '05, I sent the ATC both versions of the spreadsheets along with a 2-page summary of the highlights from 29 years of hiking.

FlyPaper
04-13-2015, 09:50
Here is what I've hiked as tracked on atdist.com

http://www.atdist.com/logview?l=FaixhrbjjkkjulAMwtG7WZ&h=6da697

RockDoc
04-13-2015, 15:39
If you use a robust GPS it records tracks. Save them and write them on Googlemaps when you get home.