Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by maverick »

Zoom out several clicks.
Gracias Dave. :)
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by SirBC »

Very cool!

Strava has an API and I was able to get it to overlay on to a CalTopo map so you can combine it with your favorite CalTopo layers. I saved the Strava heatmap as a custom layer which can be viewed here:

https://caltopo.com/m/HJAL

If you are a CalTopo user you can add the Heatmap as a custom layer so that you can turn it on/off like any other layer. To do so select +Add New Layer from the left side of the screen, then in the popup select "Add Custom Source", then fill in the Name field with whatever you want and in the URL Template copy and paste this url (copy to the end of .png): http://globalheat.strava.com/tiles/both/color7/{Z}/{X}/{Y}.png For Max Zoom, select 18 and for Overlay? select Yes - Transparent Overlay. Then click the "Save To Account" link. Now that layer will be available to be turned on/off like any other CalTopo layer with the name you gave it in the above step.
Last edited by SirBC on Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:07 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by wildhiker »

SirBC - Thank you for the Caltopo custom layer instructions! I'm an avid CalTopo user and so happy I can see this interesting user data on real maps!
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by Wandering Daisy »

zoomed out and still cannot get the map to show up. Any other ideas?
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by SirBC »

Wandering Daisy wrote:zoomed out and still cannot get the map to show up. Any other ideas?
Try this link: https://caltopo.com/m/HJAL
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by commonloon »

Thanks SirBC!! Avoid the blue lines. Hehe. Very interesting.
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Thanks for the other link. That did work!
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Not sure exactly what this map shows. What is the time period this covers? Obviously lots of us have been to areas that appear to have no use. What is the volume of signal that is needed? The further discussion on how the map was made implies that "rogue" lines were deleted (by algorithms). It is called a "heat map", which implies infrared satellite data, but it also refers to an "app" or GPS data. Or is it a combination of both? You can mathematically pull out linear features from the general infrared signal but hard to say what it means.

After looking at the map over the Wind Rivers in Wyoming, I am less impressed. It appears that the map largely shows major trails. One glaring example of error is the standard approach route to Gannett Peak. Heavy use on the trail, then a blank stretch, then a lighter use line to the summit. Obviously those summiting had to go through the blank stretch. And in the Sierra large off-trail areas have no "heat" traces. It seems that the map's primary value is showing which trails are more heavily used, which really is not any surprise anyway. It does not appear to be a statistical sampling of anything, just an accumulation of incomplete data.

Not to say that it is not interesting and fun to look at, but hardly anything we do not already know. Hopefully further research and work will improve it.
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by limpingcrab »

Wandering Daisy, Strava is a GPS map app that a lot of people use to track their hikes/runs/bike rides/flights/etc. They took over a billion tracks that people have made using the app and overlayed them on one map.

Basically you're only seeing tracks from people with the app turned on and using it to track their trip, like you can do with many other apps and GPS devices.

Heat map can be a term used for maps where colors change with more layers (or observations), so the more overlapping tracks the darker the lines get, giving you an idea of how many overlapping routes you're seeing.

Hope that makes sense, and you're right that it's not a complete log of all hikers, just the app users.
Last edited by limpingcrab on Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Interesting strava heat map showing gps routes

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Thanks for the explanation! I have done a lot of remote sensing work with infrared data, and I just assumed "heat" meant that! So ignore some of my previous comments. I guess a lot of off-trail backpackers do not use the app, given the lack of any lines in most areas between trails. The map may be a good estimate of where the GPS users hike. LOL, I guess Wyoming is full of old hikers like me who do not use a GPS, let alone have an app.
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