My GPS track showed I walked exactly 42 loops around the same lake in Colorado's Lost Creek Wilderness.

I was just reviewing my old route data and the number hit me because I'd always thought of that trip as one big loop, not realizing how much I'd circled back on myself exploring side canyons, so has anyone else had a route surprise them like that when you looked at the stats later?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sarah3mo ago

Remember my friend's story about his "straight line" desert hike? His GPS map later looked like a ball of yarn, showing he'd actually wandered in huge, lazy circles for hours without knowing it. The data can really show you a different story than the one in your head.

adams.barbara3mo ago

@the_sarah how many miles did he actually cover?

paul_mason1224d agoOG Member

Did you read that piece in Outside magazine about the guy who tried to walk across a salt flat in Bolivia? He swore he went perfectly straight for two days, but when they pulled his GPS data it looked like a drunk spider had drawn the route. The human brain just doesnt have good internal compass, especially when theres no landmarks. I remember hearing a scientist explain that without visual cues, people naturally walk in circles because one leg is slightly stronger than the other. Its like your feet are fighting each other without you even knowing it. Makes you wonder how many hikers are out there thinking theyre on a direct path when theyre really just making a big weird loop.