Which AT Guides Are Recommended?

[macdiver]

Hey guyz!

I'm starting a thru hike early next Feb. I have a Samsung S7 smartphone so could use apps like Guthook's or AWOL's app or buy the yearly book. The Antigravity Gear pocket maps full set is nearly 100 bucks but looks really good too.

What do you guys recommend? Please indicate whether you have actually hiked the AT and what you used and did you find it ok or would have preferred a different method if available such if you would rather have used a smartphone app but didn't have one, etc.

Thanks much!

[Engine]

Guthook's on the trail and AWOL's guide for town related resources and planning itinerary day to day.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Rain Man]

Engine is right, but I'll add that for $10 you also can join ALDHA and get their pdf version of the official ATC guide and put it on your smartphone. Also, on the WB home page there's a super deal for Attroll's guide for $3.

I have them all, plus the ATC's waterproof "paper" maps. I guess I cover all the bases? LOL

[rocketsocks]

Definely worth $3 bucks if only for the bars, banks, barbers and bus station for a quick getaway.

[Puddlefish]

AWOLs guide is great for everything. Where it shines over Guthook is determining where to get off the trail. Which trailhead has resupply options, how far from the trail, is a shuttle available, what hostels include what services.

Guthook is great as well. Where it shines over AWOL is knowing exactly where you are on the trail, how far you are from water sources (some of which are surprisingly easy to walk past,) and updated water source/information sharing between hikers out on the trail at the moment.

Get both.

[macdiver]

Thanks very much for the info!

[DownEaster]

A question to anyone using AWOL's PDF guide: are the names on the maps blurry when you enlarge them? Some of the names on the 2016 PDF weren't legible.

[macdiver]

I joined the ALDHA but didn't see anything about Attroll's guide. Can you send me the link?

I sent the e-mail to get the digital companion and I bought the sew-on patch.

Is the AT Hiker App from the ALDHA page worth the $60? The upside to it is if you are doing flip flops it will orient to either direction.

Or would the Awol's guide with the paper maps at $95 be better? Or are there better options? Those are the only ones I know of. EDIT: I just saw that PDFs are available for Northbound and Southbound for only 8.95 each.

I also looked at the ATC site but only found maps of individual areas, nothing concise or for a smartphone.

Based on descriptions of flip flops would the Harper's Ferry to Maine then go back to Harper's and go south be the best? Of all the descriptions that one sounds the best. Evidently it is because of the Harper's Ferry Flip Flop Festival starting on April 22. Odd that of all the vendors listed none of the big vendors are on the list like REI, Zpacks, ect.

EDIT: I decided to buy Guthook's thru hiker special for $60. Too bad I can't move it to my SD card.

Engine is right, but I'll add that for $10 you also can join ALDHA and get their pdf version of the official ATC guide and put it on your smartphone. Also, on the WB home page there's a super deal for Attroll's guide for $3.

I have them all, plus the ATC's waterproof "paper" maps. I guess I cover all the bases? LOL

[Rain Man]

I joined the ALDHA but didn't see anything about Attroll's guide. Can you send me the link?

Huh? ATtroll's guide is offered on the home page of WhiteBlaze and has nothing to do with ALDHA.

Is the AT Hiker App from the ALDHA page worth the $60? The upside to it is if you are doing flip flops it will orient to either direction.

This is news to me, so I'll just have to look. Didn't know ALDHA had a smartphone app.

EDIT: I decided to buy Guthook's thru hiker special for $60. Too bad I can't move it to my SD card.

I'd say contact Guthook about that and ask.

[dzierzak]

[QUOTE=Rain Man;2145744]This is news to me, so I'll just have to look. Didn't know ALDHA had a smartphone app.

It's listed on the same page as the Companion.


http://aldha.org/companion.html

[macdiver]

LOL the app that is mentioned on the ALDHA page IS Guthooks app. He is affiliated with Atlas Guides http://atlasguides.com/
At least that's where I purchased his app and the thru hiker's special. Maybe he sold the app to them and he updates it but they take care of the admin side, ordering and such.

I could probably move the files with a hack using adb commands. My Samsung S7 is 32 gb and I have a 64 gig sd card in it but can only move maybe 10 apps to it. The internal space has 20 gig on it and the sd has only 14. Much more and I'll have to see if anyone has come up with a root for the thing and git rid of the junk on it. I was afraid of that when I bought the phone but expected to be able to move a lot more to the sd card. sheez. I have it set to send to sd everything that it can already so..... They only offered the 64 gig model in the Edge model but I didn't have the bucks for it.

Thanks everyone on your input. It's hard work being a noob


I think now that I'm going to start at Harper's Ferry after the festival next April. I asked about that earlier but no one responded about it. The app took precedence over it. hehe

No one answered DownEaster's question up at #7. If the PDF is blurred maybe I shouldn't get it. It calls to use Adobe Reader I think. You have that DownEaster?

[ldsailor]

I did a 532 mile NOBO section hike last year. I had Guthook, Awol's guide and maps. Guthook was indispensable for telling me exactly where I was and distances to water, shelters, roads, etc. Awol's guide was only used for preplanning the hike and information on town and hostel resources. I used the maps once to compare to Awol's guide for my hike through the Smokey's. It was unnecessary.

I'm going to do another NOBO, 500 mile section starting next week. No maps this time.

[Kaptainkriz]

from the front page:
https://whiteblazepages.com/

[Tundracamper]

This has been helpful. I had no idea that download version was available. Question: Can the pages be printed for a section I'm hiking?

I think between that and the ATHiker app, I should be good.

[Ethesis]

Engine is right, but I'll add that for $10 you also can join ALDHA and get their pdf version of the official ATC guide and put it on your smartphone. Also, on the WB home page there's a super deal for Attroll's guide for $3.

I have them all, plus the ATC's waterproof "paper" maps. I guess I cover all the bases? LOL

on this section hike I'm on I've been using Guthook for water (like I did for Georgia last fall) and the Whiteblaze book for almost everything else.

I also have some of the PATC map apps on my phone.

They show a lot lot of things off the trail (but on the paper maps).

Biggest downside is that I understand that the apps are going unsupported.

I also have AWOL in paper but left it home.

Ive been very pleased with what I have.

[ldsailor]

EDIT: I decided to buy Guthook's thru hiker special for $60. Too bad I can't move it to my SD card.

You can move the maps to your SD card if you already have the app. If you have not downloaded maps yet, you can download the maps directly to the SD card. I had downloaded maps initially to my phone storage. Later, I deleted the maps and re-downloaded them to the SD card on my Samsung S5. Easy!

[macdiver]

Rainman, I finally figured out where Attrol's Guide was after I reread your post. Duh!

ldsailor, thanks for the info on that. My phone is set to download to the sd card. I downloaded the map of Northern VA but can't find a folder for it on my SD card or system files. I copied and pasted Northern Virginia into the search bar for the system and SD card but didn't find the map. What is the path to it?

[JC13]

A question to anyone using AWOL's PDF guide: are the names on the maps blurry when you enlarge them? Some of the names on the 2016 PDF weren't legible.

On iOS, the enlarged map is only blurry for a second when I move around, as soon as I stop, it will auto-focus. This is with the 2016 pdf.

[CalebJ]

Same with Android. Only blurry momentarily while it processes the section you zoomed into.

[ldsailor]

ldsailor, thanks for the info on that. My phone is set to download to the sd card. I downloaded the map of Northern VA but can't find a folder for it on my SD card or system files. I copied and pasted Northern Virginia into the search bar for the system and SD card but didn't find the map. What is the path to it?

Yeah, the path is kind of hidden. You look for a "Guthook" folder, but there isn't any. Here is the path:

SD card/Adndroid/data/com.highsierraattitude.atcomplete/files/atcomplete_maps/feet/athiker04/

When you get to the last level, the file name might have a different number (mine has "athiker04") but at that level it should be easy to navigate the rest of the directory.