The A.T. Guide vs GPS Trail Map

Since 2010, The A.T. Guide®, a.k.a. “The Awol Guide,” has been the guidebook of choice for hikes of any length on the Appalachian Trail. The book contains thousands of landmarks such as campsites, water sources, summits & gaps. The trail’s elevation profile is included & every landmark is aligned to the profile. Hikers using this guide know where they are on the trail, what views, streams & campsites are ahead & whether they’ll be hiking uphill or downhill to get there. The A.T. Guide answers all of your questions about how to get rides, where to stay, & where to get supplies. There are 95 maps of towns on or near the trail showing where to find these services & detailed listings for businesses. The A.T. Guide is the most innovative trail guidebook ever developed. EASY INSTALLATION Sign into your theatguide.com account through the PDF app & your purchased PDF will automatically download. CLICKABLE PHONE NUMBERS & EMAILS Contact listings instantly from your mobile device w/a simple tap of a phone number or email address. CLICKABLE LISTING URL Not only does The A.T. Guide contains links for most of its listings, our awol.site system utilizes short urls which saves space & allows us to adjust links behind the scenes so that links stay current throughout the season for PDF & printed guide users alike. MILEAGE LOG Choose a start & end mileage for the day & record it to your mileage log. Great for keeping track of your progress as well as planning your future hiking days. CLICKABLE GPS COORDINATES TO PARKING AREAS Tap a set of GPS coordinates to load them into the default maps app on your mobile device. HIGHLIGHTS & ANNOTATIONS Highlight features & make notes throughout the PDF. Great for marking confirmation numbers or even remembering what happened during your hike. NO CELL SERVICE OR WIFI NECESSARY FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURES Have complete access to read, navigate, & make notes to your PDF even when WiFi or cell data is not available. WiFi or data is only needed for external URLs, phone numbers, email addresses, & GPS coordinates. PRINT A.T. GUIDE PAGES TO ANY WIRELESS PRINTER This is a feature you can’t get w/traditional apps. Mobile devices fail. Printed pages or maps are important to bring along w/you on the trail. With the PDF reader you can have the best of both worlds. Use your PDF as an interactive app & print the pages needed to take w/you as you hike. PORTRAIT OR LANDSCAPE VIEWING The PDF is optimized for viewing on a mobile device. Rotate to landscape mode to make the most of your screen’s real estate. Use a two finger spread gesture to zoom in & pinch to zoom out. INTERNAL NAVIGATION & DOCUMENT SEARCHING Cruise throughout the PDF w/just a few taps. Tap from trail to town & back. Go to Table of Contents & navigate from state to state. Look for a specific location w/the search tool. Getting around is snappy & intuitive. ACCESS TRAIL, MAP, & LISTING UPDATES FROM WITHIN THE APP Stay current on the latest updates to the guide right within the app COLOR CODED The A.T. Guide is color coded making it easier to quickly locate the information you need. Whether hiking NoBo (green), or SoBo (blue); looking for a shelter (red), state line (aqua), or parking area (dark green); hikers can now easily locate the mileage & information they need. THE A.T. GUIDE CONTAINS 2625 Trail landmarks w/cumulative NoBo & SoBo mileage 1139 Water sources 347 Campsites 319 Shuttle services 259 Shelters w/distances to the last 3 & next 3 shelters 973 Service listings 903 URLs for service listings 445 Lodging services 351 Resupply points 297 Parking areas w/GPS coordinates 69 Post offices w/hours of operation & phone numbers 95 Town Maps Countless services not included in full text listings 97 Post offices w/hours of operation & phone numbers Major road & trail crossings GPS Coordinates & magnetic declination 232 Color Pages 47 Service icons Information from state parks & trail clubs Safety & best practices Flora & fauna identification

Turn any Trail Map into a "GPS Trail Map" and follow your location as you move anywhere on the map. A Trail Map is converted to a GPS Trail Map by adding at least two geo-location “pins” to the map as you walk the trail. Additional pins improve the accuracy of the GPS Trail Map and correct for any artistic ‘errors’ in the Trail Map. Trail Maps used to make a new GPS Trail Map can come from three sources: the iPhone camera, the Photo App and any website image or pdf. Once made, GPS Trail Maps can be saved on a World Map and become available to all users of the app. Expect to see more and more fully functional GPS Trail Maps on the World Map and available for your use. The app requires an inexpensive Token to locate your position on a GPS Trail Map. A Token allows you to follow your location for 12 hours after it is used. The app comes with 5 free Tokens. Additional Tokens can be purchased in a package of 10 Tokens using an In App Purchase. GPS Trail Map uses a least squares fit to position, orient and stretch the map onto GPS coordinates using geo-location pins placed on the map. It then projects your current GPS location onto that map favoring nearby pins with a 1/(r+∆)^3 weighting factor for each pin. Screenshots: 1) GPS Trail Map showing your location and the pins used to position, orient and stretch the Trail Map photo 2) GPS Trail Map constructed from website pdf of Princeton University Campus map. 3) The methods of sourcing a GPS Trail Map 4) GPS Trail Maps stored on the World Map around Princeton, NJ (the home of the app developer). 5) The Trailhead photo used to construct the GPS Trail Map in #1