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My homemade GPS track for the John Muir Trail ended up 15 miles off
I spent 6 hours plotting my John Muir Trail route on a GPS app last winter, only to realize in August at Red's Meadow that I had missed a critical switchback near the Ansel Adams Wilderness. The digital map I used was from 2012, and trail reroutes had added 15 extra miles. Has anyone else found old GPS data causing big problems on a long trek?
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hollyc925mo ago
Honestly that's rough, I feel your pain. I've had similar stuff happen with old GPX tracks from forums that turned a 10 mile day into a 17 mile slog through overgrown trail. The switchback thing is especially brutal because you don't even realize the mistake until you're way past it.
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wilson.kelly5mo ago
Yeah but I gotta say, I kind of disagree with the GPX tracks thing. I've downloaded plenty from random forums and most of them have been solid, sometimes even better than the official routes because locals know the shortcuts or the good campsites. The problem isn't the tracks themselves, it's people uploading stuff without checking it first or marking it as "rough draft" when it's really just a half-baked path they took once. A little vetting goes a long way before you head out, you know? You ever find a hidden gem from a forum track that ended up being way better than the marked trail?
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the_betty5mo ago
Even worse when you realize you passed the turn two hours ago and the "shortcut" on the map was just someone's failed bushwhack attempt. I'm still bitter about the time I followed a "scenic detour" that ended up being someone's walk to their outhouse.
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