PCT Distance and Elevation Data for Washington?

[Greg Mihalik]

Can anyone point me to an online data set containing the distance and elevation data for northern Washington? I'd like to build a profile for Snoqualmie Pass to Rainy Pass.

Regardless of the form, as long as it is digital, I can stuff it into a table for an Excel plot. I know there are paper versions. I'm looking for the data.

Thanks

[Frank T]

Elevation data is included in the GPX files, here:

http://www.pctmap.net/gps-url-loading/

So WA sections J & K for your needs.

[Greg Mihalik]

Frank,
I don't have the skills or tools to convert lat/lon deltas to distance along the trail.

I need trail miles versus elevation.

Thanks for the try.

[Ken Thompson]

http://postholer.com/databook/elev.php

[Greg Mihalik]

Ken,
Yes, I found those.

Maybe I'm missing a data link, but all I see are graphics.

I photoshopped them into this –

I also found Bearcant's Profile , which is better aligned with trail miles than Postholers, but his mileage scale is weird. Even so, they might suffice.

But I'm hoping for a distance/elevation data set I can plot.

[Ken Thompson]

Could you get the data from here?

scroll down two thirds

http://www.guthookhikes.com/apps

[Greg Mihalik]

He, like others, is selling applications, not data. I understand that. Folks worked hard to collect that data.

I'm hoping some old school guy put a data set together "pre-apps" as a text table or some such. I have one for the JMT. And as a result, I have a profile I can mess with as I please. I find it very useful for planning, and would like to do the same here.

Anyone have a National Geaographic State Series Topo! of Washington that runs on XP?

[Frank T]

If you're willing to settle for 1/2-mile granularity, you can use the "GPS Waypoints (landmarks)" version of the GPX files. Each waypoint has a "name" and "ele" tag. Most of the waypoints are associated with mileage points in 1/2-mile increments and the "name" tag will be in a numeric format "wxyz" (for whole miles) or "wxyz-5" (for half-miles). There are other waypoints with names corresponding to their type, e.g. camp sites ("CSwxyz"), water sources ("WAwxyz"), trail junctions ("WhiteRiverTr"), etc. Again, every one of these has an elevation; note that it's in meters in this version of the GPX file.

These waypoints exactly match what's on the printable PDF maps available at http://www.pctmap.net/maps/.

How you get the data into Excel is another story. You (or someone you know) could write a script. I think you can convert it using Google Earth, but don't know the steps. Keeping the waypoints "in order" may be a challenge, and integrating the 1/2-mile data with the highly granular data may be very challenging.

[Frank T]

I found a way to get the GPX files into Excel very easily:

1. Rename the file extension from "gpx" to "xml".
2. Open Excel (I'm using 2010), click the Data tab, click the "From Other Sources" pulldown in the "Get External Data" section, and select "From XML Data Import".
3. Browse to your file, select it and click "Open".
4. You'll probably get a warning that some schema cannot be mapped. Click "Yes" to continue.
5. Click "OK" to put the data into an XML table in existing worksheet.
6. You now have the data in Excel. Save it.

There will be a lot of extraneous fields (columns) that you can delete, or hide.

I'm looking for ways to merge the two data types together (high-sampled lat/lon only and 1/2-mile sampled with mileage), and list them in order so they come out that way when imported into Excel. I don't think Excel can do that very easily. It may require a 3rd-party GPS application. Since they don't have time stamps, I think it will be very difficult.

[Eli Zabielski]

I think this is way easier than it seems here. Halfmiles maps have a summary for mileage and elevation gain/loss at the beginning of that set of maps.

Washington Section J – 74 miles
Start – Highway 90 [Snoqualmie Pass], mile 2402
End – Highway 2 [Stevens Pass], mile 2476
Elevation Gain +18,773'
Elevation Loss -17,711'
Elevation Change +1,062'

Washington Section K – 123.3 miles
Start – Hwy 2 [Stevens Pass], mile 2476
End – Hwy 20 [Rainy Pass], mile 2599.3
Elevation Gain +31,441'
Elevation Loss -30,641'
Elevation Change +800'

For an actual profile, wouldn't pctplanner work?

[Greg Mihalik]

Frank T –
Thanks for the tips and tricks –

… via Halfmile's Waypoints and Excel. I used 1 mile intervals between the I-90 summit and Rainy Pass, and have full control of the output.

So I'm a happy camper.

Thanks all.

[Greg Mihalik]

Eli –
This is why I like to be able to create profiles –

– when I can match elevation and distance scales it helps me compare, contrast, and plan.

[Frank T]

My pleasure, I like tinkering with stuff like that.

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