beyondtracks.com Bushwalks in NSW

[andrewharvey]

Hi,

I've been working on (yes, yet another) website which lists details of bushwalks in NSW.

Check it out at beyondtracks.com

I'm looking for feedback on the site (I know there is still a lot unimplemented, and there are many walks not yet featured, but we're getting there).

Cheers,
Andrew

[Pika]

I like it.

The layout and the information is set out well.

[north-north-west]

Nice, easy to navigate. But the Alps don't exist as yet . . .

[timmo567]

A lot of potential. My suggestion would be to expand the scope beyond the Sydney region, and let users submit a their own walk for approval. That way you can increase the number of walks (and across all of Australia) but still maintain the high quality that you have so far.

Also the Otford to Burning Palms Return climb is stated as 6,357m, that seems a tad high.

[tom_brennan]

A few things
- Climbs generally look way high. For example, I have Colliers Causeway as 200m climb, you have it as 918m! And while the routes are not identical, they're similar enough.
- Likewise times look way low (and overly "accurate"). I don't think you would get many people doing the Castle in 3hr 13min! (or even 3 ½ hours). I know times are based on 4km/h, but it's not really worth putting info like that as it doesn't have any value
- Distance also look on the high side, though not as much as the climbs - eg 16.5km for Pulpit Rock, when it's probably around 12km. Though the chart down the bottom only shows 13km? (Pulpit Rock also has 2,722m of climbing!)
- Ratings are all 4.5 stars?
- Transport is all Public? Doesn't seem right for something like the Castle or "Mt Cloud Maker" (should be Mt Cloudmaker)
- Are there notes or is it just GPS logs?

[andrewharvey]

I like it.

The layout and the information is set out well.

Thanks.

Nice, easy to navigate. But the Alps don't exist as yet . . .

A lot of potential. My suggestion would be to expand the scope beyond the Sydney region, and let users submit a their own walk for approval. That way you can increase the number of walks (and across all of Australia) but still maintain the high quality that you have so far.

Agreed.

I'm adding more tracks quite frequently, however it's mostly walks I've done myself. I know this doesn't scale, but I'm not 100% sure what the best solution is. There is track information from OSM but often it's the local knowledge about which segments to connect that is valuable. I'm not looking to support unmoderated user submissions at this stage, but if people want to submit GPS routes of walks then that would be appreciated and I can go through and add them.

I'll add the capability for users to upload GPS tracks or possibly trace out a route on a map for submission.

Also the Otford to Burning Palms Return climb is stated as 6,357m, that seems a tad high.

Yes thanks for picking that up. As tom also noted, the climbs are generally too large. This has to do with the fact that I'm failing to take a best fit of the GPS elevation data resulting in a lot of noise and hence a greater cumulative climb. I've tried to apply a temporary fix by just using a smoothed DEM instead of GPS data for elevation. This isn't without problems but at least the numbers should be a bit better while I work through a better solution. In the future I would like to use GPS data where I have it as it is usually more accurate.

A few things
- Climbs generally look way high. For example, I have Colliers Causeway as 200m climb, you have it as 918m! And while the routes are not identical, they're similar enough.

I agree, the numbers are a bit off. See my note above. I'm still not happy about this and I am working on improving it.

- Likewise times look way low (and overly "accurate"). I don't think you would get many people doing the Castle in 3hr 13min! (or even 3 ½ hours). I know times are based on 4km/h, but it's not really worth putting info like that as it doesn't have any value

I totally agree that these times aren't that accurate. I do want to have a time though, but rather calculated based on the terrain rather than a flat average speed.

- Distance also look on the high side, though not as much as the climbs - eg 16.5km for Pulpit Rock, when it's probably around 12km. Though the chart down the bottom only shows 13km? (Pulpit Rock also has 2,722m of climbing!)

I don't have the GPS track for this walk, so the elevation is derived from a global elevation model. If you look at the map/profile you'll see the track goes over many small peaks, hence the high climb.

The distance was actually a 3D distance rather than a flat 2D distance, which when you have a really large climb/descent will add a bit of overhead to the distance.

- Ratings are all 4.5 stars?

I really should have pollished off things before publishing. It should be fixed now.

- Transport is all Public? Doesn't seem right for something like the Castle or "Mt Cloud Maker" (should be Mt Cloudmaker)

Fixed the transport thing.

I haven't done Mt Cloudmaker yet, planning to in the next two months or so, as such I haven't been able to verify the name from signage. I've based the name of OpenStreetMap.org data. OSM has "Mt Cloudmaker Track" for the track and "Mount Cloud Maker" for the peak. Please feel free to update OSM with the correct information.

- Are there notes or is it just GPS logs?

What do you mean by notes?

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!