While I am on the AT I plan to record certain data daily so I can analyze them at the end of my hike for my own entertainment and to give other hikers information. Here are some of the things I want to track. If you have any other interesting ideas please leave them in the comments.
Weather
- will record temperature daily
- how many days did it rain a significant amount?
- per month
- % of total hike
- # of days below 32 degrees
- # of days below 20 degrees
- # of days above 85 degrees
- average temps for different sections
- highest temp on the whole trail
- lowest temp on the whole trail
Milage and Elevation
- Miles hiked per day
- including Zeros
- Excluding zeros
- Hours spent hiking (gaining milage on the trail) per day excluding stopping time for food and resupply
- longest amount of days between zeros
- total miles hiked off trail ( to and from town or to and from a shelter)
- Total elevation gained
- Total elevation loss
- average daily elevation gain
- average daily elevation loss
- day of highest elevation gain
Personal thoughts
- Days I felt like quitting
- Days I felt overall miserable
- Days I felt overall great
Physical Aspects
- Days I slept well
- Days I slept terrible
- Maximum # of calories eaten in a day
Logistics
- nights I spent camping with others
- nights I spent camping alone
- nights I spent in a hostel
- nights I spent in a hotel
- days I took a shower
- longest amount of days I went without a shower
- # of resupplies
- longest # of days between a resupply
- nights with cell service at camp
- # of zero days
Gear
- Pairs of shoes used
- how many miles the shoes lasted
- total amount of fuel used on trail
Other things
- # of bears seen
- # of tick bites encountered
- first date and mile marker that I encounter a SOBO thru hiker
Des Hikes Thru 
I’ve been thinking of collecting data as well. My list is similar to yours, however, in some respects more specific. Some things on my list might contain:
Temperatures at night and how I felt with the sleep system I was using or how I used my sleep system (did I sleep only in my liner, etc.).
What clothes I wore for what conditions.
What Food I ate and did I enjoy it or was it too much or too little.
Data on trail magic I received.
Data on Shelters including condition, privy, water source, shelter, tenting spots, number of people, etc.
Water resupply conditions, locations, how much carried, etc.
Number of Timber rattlers encountered and where.
I might have more, but that is all I can think of at the moment.
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I like these ones! Thanks for giving me ideas! how do you think you will track it?
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Hi Des, found this blog through your recent post on the trek. As a fellow data addict, I’d be interested in average hours of sleep per night, the time you settled for/left camp, and also the times/hours you hiked during the night, and maybe a difficulty rating for the different sections?
Some more qualitative entries might also be fun, like highlight of the week/oddest occurrence/best entry from a logbook/funniest trailname/current mood in one word…
Anyway, enjoy your hike and have fun!
– Steff
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Hi Steff,
Thanks for reading!
I like the idea of qualitative entries! I’m planning on keeping a more recent trail journal on my personal blog here and doing summaries on my trek.co blog!
I might add the qualitative trip superlatives like “funniest trail name” and “best log book entry” to an entire trip summary at the end!
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