This planning tool is designed to generate a consistently paced route given the information you provide. The more information entered, the more "accurate" the resulting itinerary will be. However, if you don't know (or care) about a specific field, feel free to leave it blank and the tool will determine a reasonable value.
Generate Route
Change the unit of distance to
mi or
km by switching the toggle in the upper right corner. Note: this does not simply switch the labels, it converts all
values to the selected unit.
Select the
Start and
End Trailheads from the dropdown lists, or let the tool select them for you by selecting
No Preference at the top of each list.
Set
Days and/or
Distance / Day by typing the desired number in the input field. If you previously selected both a start and an end trailhead, then only one of these fields is applicable. Otherwise, you can set both. You can also opt to defer these fields by setting the value to "0". If neither are set, the tool defaults to a random ranged distance / day.
Set the
Start Date when route will begin by clicking on the calendar.
If the trail is a loop, radio buttons labeled
Loop Direction will be enabled. These inputs determine which direction your route will travel around the loop, either
Clockwise (CW) or
Counter-clockwise (CCW).
The
Short hike-in and
Short hike-out checkboxes will force the resulting route to include a short day at the beginning or end of the route respectively. If
Short hike-in is checked, the first night will always end at the first possible destination leading away from the start trailhead.
Likewise for
Short hike-out, the final night will always be the last possible destination before reaching the end trailhead. The remaining days will still be generated according to normal inputs. These checkboxes are useful if, for example, you are starting your route late on a Friday after work and you do not have the entire day available.
When you are finished, click
Generate Route to view your optimized itinerary. The distance of each day will be as consitent as possible. Keep in mind that due to unpredictable and irregular spacing of destinations, the resulting itinerary will rarely be "perfect".
Days will always match (if set), but
Distance / Day is simply used as a guideline to select the closest option. Rest assured that your route will be as similar to the provided input as statisically possible.
Click
Reset to clear the generated route and reset the inputs back to their default values.
Modify Route
For each day of the route, find the option to
Modify Destination. Selecting the
green,
closer destination option will move the end point closer, shortening the current day and lengthening the next. Selecting the
red,
further destination option will move the end point further away, lengthening the current day and shortening the next. Modifications cannot be made to the start or end trailheads (for this, generate a new route). Furthermore, a route cannot go "backwards" by covering fewer than 0 miles on the current or subsequent day.
How It Works
Depending on the supplied input, a variety of algorithms are used to generate the itinerary. To generate a route for a certain number of days, the app looks at the daily mileage of all possibilities, calculates the standard deviation of each, and selects the lowest value. That is to say, it prioritizes the route with the most consistent daily mileage. So, at least from a purely mileage perspective, the optimal route is planned every time.
When fields are missing, the app does its best to fill in the gaps. Typically, this is done by finding all of the reasonable options, then selecting one at random. If you generate multiple routes with No Preference on the trailheads, you will likely see different outputs each time. Play around with different inputs to generate new routes!
