Heard a guy at a gear shop say he maps his route in 3D now

I was picking up some trail mix at REI and overheard this older hiker telling a friend he uses Google Earth to check elevation profiles before he even picks a trail. Made me realize I've been blindly trusting guidebook mileage without looking at the actual climb. Anyone else ever miss a huge elevation gain because they didn't check the map close enough?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_davis3112d ago

Depends on the hike honestly. A lot of the well-worn trails around here the guidebooks are pretty accurate about the climb. Only time it really bit me was when I took a shortcut between two trails that looked flat on paper but turned into a constant 500 foot per mile grind for 3 miles. That was my own fault for not looking at a topo map though. Google Earth feels like overkill for most day hikes unless you're bushwhacking or going somewhere totally new.

logan_mitchell12d ago

Oh man, that's EXACTLY the kind of thing that gets me. I did the same thing once on a trail that was supposed to be a gentle 2 mile loop and it turned into this ridiculous up and down scramble over loose rocks for what felt like forever. I was so mad at myself for not just checking the topo lines closer. Google Earth feels like a whole project for a day hike, but a quick glance at a contour map would've saved me.

john_fisher10d agoTop Commenter

On my last hike on the Mount Tammany red dot trail, Google Earth literally saved me an hour because I could see a small stream crossing that wasn't on the main map and rerouted around the worst of the steep stuff. If you're not using free tools to get a better view of the terrain before you go out, you're just rolling the dice.