How do you keep track of mileage on the trail?

[maddog5150]

Curious to see how everyone tracks mileage on the trail.

[Water Rat]

My method isn't listed, so I will say "other." I log my miles in two places - my hiking journal(s) and an overall hiking mileage list. My journal entries carry total trip miles, as well as daily miles, trip events, other things I want to remember, etc. My overall hiking mileage list holds total trip miles and location. Kind of a "miles at a glance" sort of thing. This is what I do for all the hiking adventures I go on - AT or not.

To be fair if I like a section I have most likely hiked it more than once. I only keep track of the miles for my own personal notes.

[One Half]

I generally use the mileage as stated on the map or in the guidebook and list it in my trail journal which is a written journal. None of that fancy online stuff.

[Kaptainkriz]

Garmin GPS. Gives me average speed, distance, altitude, and eta to next point of interest. Pair of AA gives me 24hrs of continuous use. I save the track files for later oogling. :)

[Water Rat]

My method isn't listed, so I will say "other." I log my miles in two places - my hiking journal(s) and an overall hiking mileage list. My journal entries carry total trip miles, as well as daily miles, trip events, other things I want to remember, etc. My overall hiking mileage list holds total trip miles and location. Kind of a "miles at a glance" sort of thing. This is what I do for all the hiking adventures I go on - AT or not.

To be fair if I like a section I have most likely hiked it more than once. I only keep track of the miles for my own personal notes.

Oops...meant to add mileage obtained from guidebook!

[rafe]

Paper maps and/or waypoint data in the ALDHA guide.

[nsherry61]

It varies hugely for me, from not keeping track at all, to details from a continuous gps track to tallies from maps and guide books to estimates based on time and terrain. I also Sinema use

[MuddyWaters]

Road crossings/data points on guide page

[Dogwood]

It varies also with me. Sometimes it's tracking total mileage in greater detail every 2-3 days from a map or guidebook location just getting a general daily mileage idea based on duration(time) hiked multiplied by my avg pace which I always know within .25 MPH. distance = rate x time. Sometimes it's looking at a map or guidebook many times per day. Sometimes it's in conjunction with map and compass navigation. At one time I wrote trail mileage for the wk and dailies to the 1/10 of a mile. That was when doing a daily 20 or 30 miler was a major ceiling defying feat. LOL. Simply too many other more worthy experiences and info to write about for the large part on a hike than micro accounting miles. FWIW, I'm beyond stringently adhering to hikes on trails or doing hikes that regularly cross roads/ANY roads I know where I am by them or doing hikes that even have guidebooks. Let the adventure begin.

[lonehiker]

Until I joined WB I didn't know people actually tracked their mileage. We just hiked.

[illabelle]

I mark our progress in a trail guide, on a multi-page elevation profile, on a wall map, and on www.atdist.com

[Gambit McCrae]

You can click on "at" in my signature, and it will take you to ATDIST.com (http://www.atdist.com/)which is by far the simplest and convenient way to via electronics. Other then that I mark off the thru hiker companion, and third I have the Rohlands AT by state (http://rohland.homedns.org:8008/at/at_menu.aspx), and by a good set of subsections which I have printed out and marked the mileages of each section. And behind the sections page I have printed off the elevation profile of the entire trail that can be found on this forum (green elevation one), and have all of that in a binder, I highlight it as its completed and after every trip, I write down my experience at a hostel, iconic spot, and shuttle driver experience. I know its overboard but I like it lol

[CamelMan]

I voted for guidebook because that's what I've done in the past, plus keeping track of averages, in a paper journal. I've become hooked on my Garmin, that I use religiously for day hiking, so I intend to use that this time around. Unless I purge my electronics at the last minute, which I might still do.

[Busky2]

I am the one that does not track mileages, I dont have to because I track everything but. I count a lot of things, hours and minutes on the move, I count days on the trail, days off trail, zeros and neros. I walk 10 miles a day everyday and know how many steps I take in a mile and in a tenth of a mile, on the level and up or down hill which helps finding things the guidebooks point out.

[flatgrounder]

I use MapMyHike to track miles hiked. I get points from my health insurance for mileage. Turn points in for gift cards ect.

[Gambit McCrae]

I am the one that does not track mileages, I dont have to because I track everything but. I count a lot of things, hours and minutes on the move, I count days on the trail, days off trail, zeros and neros. I walk 10 miles a day everyday and know how many steps I take in a mile and in a tenth of a mile, on the level and up or down hill which helps finding things the guidebooks point out.

We got a regular ol rainman on hour hands :-? lol

[Slo-go'en]

Keeping track of overall mileage is pretty easy with a guide book. You know where you started and where you ended.

Knowing how far you've gone so far today or how far you still got to go is a bit more difficult. The guide book gives you mileage to various landmarks along the way, but sometimes these are hard to identify or are scarce. The only way to know for sure is with GPS, all the other methods suggested are only very approximate (counting steps or how many hours since you started in the morning). Personally, I always estimate I've gone much farther then I really have. Wishful thinking I guess.

[rafe]

You can click on "at" in my signature, and it will take you to ATDIST.com (http://www.atdist.com/)which is by far the simplest and convenient way to via electronics. Other then that I mark off the thru hiker companion, and third I have the Rohlands AT by state (http://rohland.homedns.org:8008/at/at_menu.aspx), and by a good set of subsections which I have printed out and marked the mileages of each section. And behind the sections page I have printed off the elevation profile of the entire trail that can be found on this forum (green elevation one), and have all of that in a binder, I highlight it as its completed and after every trip, I write down my experience at a hostel, iconic spot, and shuttle driver experience. I know its overboard but I like it lol

That Rohlands link doesn't seem to be working....

[displacedbeatnik]

It all depends on how I hike. When it's a day hike, I use MapMyHike which I absolutely love. But that thing drains battery so I actually answered guidebook because if I'm going out overnight or more, I have better things to use my phone for.

[Busky2]

We got a regular ol rainman on hour hands :-? lol

Nope I hit up Kmart.... Hate judge TV shows and can drive in the real world.

[THEDON]

I ask my wife.

[gbolt]

I use MapMyHike to track miles hiked. I get points from my health insurance for mileage. Turn points in for gift cards ect.

+1 Will have to check into get health insurance points for mileage. Thanks

[Datto]

I use a FitBite. You hike a ways, it automatically calculatures your mileage for you. When it's time to eat you just show the morsel in front of the device, it snaps a pic, calculates the calories and tells me how munch further you can hike that day.

There's an add-on you can download to it that'll act like a concerned mother and tell you that's not good for you. "There are starving children in India and you have to eat that?!?"

Next year they're coming out with a new product called FitWife. You push the patented Bobbitt Button and the device predicts how things are going to turn out.


Datto

[CoolBobby]

Pace beads, old school. I'm rarely accurate, but I feel like Rambo.

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