Personal projects and tracking trips

[dougieb]

There was a recent post where someone was looking for a nice wall map of the Sierra. Out of that came some related discussion of traditions around maps, like leaving a pin on places where they've been, or marking past routes with a highlighter. I do something pretty similar by keeping a record of all of my overnight trips in the Sierra on a caltopo map. I use it as a way to memorialize past trips and identify areas I have yet to go. I want to see it all! I have yet to find a place in the Sierra that hasn't been worth visiting. Here's an overview of my map.

The map also helps with planning a photo book project I've been working on. Here's a photo from my most recent backpacking trip to help brighten up the post. Bonus points if you can identify the lake...

So, fellow sierraphiles, how do you memorialize or catalog your trips? Diary, photo album, blog? What personal projects are you pursuing? Trying to visit all of the 14k peaks? Visiting the headwaters of all major rivers originating in the Sierra? Spending at least 2 weeks camping per year?

Cheers,
Doug

[c9h13no3]

Peakbagger is the main spot I track things, and I also write a blog post once in a while (but I’m not sure why).

[sekihiker]

So, fellow sierraphiles, how do you memorialize or catalog your trips? Diary, photo album, blog?

I put together a website at www.sierrahiker.com

[windknot]

I'm a data geek, so I keep a spreadsheet with notes for every lake I've visited (mostly of the piscine variety). Each lake is categorized by visit date, trip, wilderness area, and state, so that I can use pivot tables to summarize the data and answer questions about my activity that absolutely nobody except myself cares about, like which wilderness area I've visited the most often (JMW, 23 visits, but Desolation is close behind at 22 visits), or which year I visited the most lakes (2010, 103 lakes), or how many unique lakes I've visited per state (314 in CA and 47 in WA).

Perhaps ironically for someone who is so numbers-focused, I don't have any particular projects or goals. I like seeing new places, but I'm happy revisiting places I've already been, too. I like getting out when I can, but I'm more of a weekend warrior/two weeks of vacation per year kind of backpacker these days, so I certainly don't spend as much time in the backcountry as many of you.

I also keep a blog that I'm bad at updating. This is mostly because my memory is poor, and I often need to read back through a blog post to remember my state of mind during a given trip. Plus photos saved on a combination of Google Photos and a portable hard drive.

[wildhiker]

I also track all my hiking and backpacking trips on Caltopo and use it to plan new ones. I started using Caltopo for planning back in 2013 or so. I got the idea to trace all the trails and routes I have hiked when my adult daughter asked in 2015, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could have a map of all our family backpacking trips to put on the wall?". I realized I could produce this in Caltopo (using a "pro" subscription that lets me print off large sections as jpegs that I can then merge in Photoshop). So I set to work tracing out all the trails and xc routes we have done from memory, from photos, from marked-up paper topo maps, from old family calendars, etc. This also prompted me to make a master list of these trips which I now update and to keep updating the map with new trips taken. I ended up making a big map (rotated 30 degrees to put the crest top to bottom) sized 24 by 66 inches, using a large-format printer that I could access at work (sadly no longer available since I retired), covering all the trails our family had hiked from north of Lake Tahoe down through the Ansel Adams Wilderness south of Yosemite, between 1979 (carrying the first baby) and 2015, at a scale of 1:150,000. We did very few family hikes further south and I just couldn't make the map any longer (or any smaller scale which would make it less readable)! I got this done in time to give copies to my children as Christmas presents in 2015. The daughter who suggested it was really impressed and proudly displays it in her condo in D.C.

By the way, it's possible to extract summary information about total length of trails from a Caltopo map into a spreadsheet. If you select export, it first shows you a list of trail segments and markers you have created. Trail segments are all followed by their lengths. You can cut and paste this into a spreadsheet and clean it up and then let the spreadsheet add up the mileages for you. For that 2015 map, we had about one thousand unique miles altogether (of course, we have hiked many of those trails and routes multiple times). Adding other trails we have done in the southern Sierra, plus my solo backpack trips without family members, got the total up over 1500 unique miles. When I look at my map with my traced trails (in nice bright colors) and eyeball it compared to all trails (using the more complete OpenStreetMap trail data in Caltopo), I estimate there are about 5000 miles of trails total in the Sierra, so I have a ways to go! I know I'll never hike them all, so I try to visit some old places and some new places every summer.

My primary methods of memorializing my trips, besides the map, are photos and memory. I'm currently in the middle of a multi-year project to scan all my old color slides and negatives from pre-digital-camera days (1970-2003). Probably only a third done!

-Phil

[sekihiker]

"Wouldn't it be cool if we could have a map of all our family backpacking trips to put on the wall?"

What a great idea.

[dougieb]

Bill, I love your website and I'm pretty sure I've read all of your trip reports at least once and maybe twice through.

By the way, it's possible to extract summary information about total length of trails from a Caltopo map into a spreadsheet. If you select export, it first shows you a list of trail segments and markers you have created. Trail segments are all followed by their lengths. You can cut and paste this into a spreadsheet and clean it up and then let the spreadsheet add up the mileages for you.

I realized this as well Phil! I think after the two trips I have planned for August (Red Mtn / Bench Valley / Blackcap) and September (HST / Black Rock Pass Lollipop) , I will have done 1000 miles on Sierra backpacking trips.

Windknot, your lake project is very cool! I like how these projects can help extend the mountain experience when we get home... No shame in playing with the data.

c9h13no3, I checked out your blog. Thoughtful writing and some great shots from a variety of adventures. I still haven't done Berryessa Peak but I grew up near there and did some other nice hikes around there. Maybe this fall or winter I'll finally make it. Keep it up!