GPX

Download electronic route files here

From the table at the bottom of this page, you can download electronic files which contain all or parts of the route that I walked.

On this page, only a selection of files is shown, in order to speed up loading of the website.   A complete set of files is included on the “Detailed GPX files” page which can be accessed by clicking the link below (note, though, that because the page includes a lot of files, it will take a few moments to load)

>>> Click here to access a complete set of detailed GPX files >>>

Before you start downloading, you might want to read the “points to note”, below.

If you want to follow in my footsteps and hike all or part of my route, these files can be uploaded to handheld GPS devices, or smartphones with appropriate apps (like “ViewRanger” or “My Tracks“) and used with suitable electronic maps.

If you’re just interested in seeing where I went, the GPX files can be dragged and dropped into Google Earth or a variety of other freeware GPX-viewer programs.   Many of these allow you the option of zooming in and choosing satellite or map views.   I find “GPS Visualizer” a very good on-line tool.   Alternatively, just go to the “Day-by-day” page on this website and click “MAP” at the left hand side to view the relevant day’s track directly on this website.

 

A few points to note..

  1. File format
    The files are all in GPX format, which is a universal interchange format for GPS derived data.   There are two types, tracks and routes, explained below.   When you click on the button, select the “file save as” option if you want to keep it and transfer t to your own handheld device later, or “open” if you want to look at it.   You will need to install suitable GPS software (like GeoViewer for Windows 8) your PC if you want to view it.   On some mobile devices with an appropriate app installed, the file download will offer the “open in” option, to allow you to import it direct into the app (it may appear in the “organiser” section of the app, where it will be the first file in the list)
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  2. Tracks
    A Track is a GPX file which contains the trackpoints collected every few seconds by my GPS device (i.e. my iPad mini running ViewRanger) exactly as I walked.   Each trackpoint contains the GPS altitude, latitude, longitude and time of day, exactly as captured in real-time from the GPS satellites.   A track file is an exact record of my walk, including diversions into shops, paths walked in error, “GPS noise” around lunch stops, etc. (but excluding walks in the evening once I’d pitched camp).   A typical daily LEJOG track file has 3,000 trackpoints, i.e. one every 10 metres or so and is about 300KB.
    You can also download .GPX files of my daily tracks from the “MAP” pages accessed via “Day-by-day” or from the daily blogs pages, which can also be accessed via the “Day-by-day” page, or from the “Interactive map
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  3. Routes
    A Route is a GPX file which is derived from a track but has been smoothed slightly and then corrected by me to remove diversions into shops, “dithering” at lunch-breaks, and navigation errors (there were only two significant errors – one on the approach to Rhyader and one on the walk to Dornie – they are present in the .GPX track files but removed in the .GPX routes).   A route is made up of routepoints which generally only have latitude and longitude information.   A typical daily LEJOG route file has 300 routepoints, i.e. one every 100 metres or so and is about 70KB
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  4. Routepoint information
    I have modified the route .GPX files so that each routepoint contains additional information about cumulative distance walked from the start of LEJOG, distance remaining to the end, cumulative height gained, height gain left to the end and spot height.   Even though the route is broken down into daily sections, the waypoint numbers are labelled consecutively from the start of LEJOG, with WP00001 at Lizard and WP28013 at Dunnet Head.   This routepoint information can be viewed in apps like “ViewRanger” and can be useful in assessing overall progress.
    I have also added icons to the route files at regular (mile or km) intervals.   These show the distance from the start of the day’s walk and can be useful if planning a day’s hiking so you can identify suitable spots for breaks, etc., before setting off.   They are designed to be visible on the “ViewRanger” app – I am not certain that they will show up on other systems.
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  5. Metric and Imperial
    The “Metric” route files have routepoint information and BLUE distance icons in km and metres, the “Imperial” files have RED distance icons and are in miles and feet.   Note that the distance icons stop at 30 – which is fine for the “imperial” maps as there was only one day longer than 30 miles (and that was only 31) but does mean that on the longer metric maps (over 30km) there are no icons for the last part of the day’s walk.
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  6. Distances, altitudes and height gained
    Depending on whether you look at GPX tracks or GPX routes, the daily and cumulative distances and heights can vary.   The GPX track distance is generally the most accurate and the total GPX track distance for my LEJOG walk was 1,492 miles with 199,000 ft of climbing.   The route distances will show as shorter because they are “smoothed” with less detail.   Again, different software can show the same route having different distances and heights gained.   I think this is related to the map projection and calculation method used.
    To add a further complication, although GPS track distances are very accurate, GPS track elevations aren’t – because of triangulation errors with the GPS satellites.   But the “ViewRanger” app records both GPS height gained and also calculates height gain from the Ordnance Survey height database as you walk.   So the height gain totals shown in the daily blogs, etc., are the more accurate ones from the OS.
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Check the map below to work out which part of the walk you want to download (pinch and zoom the image if you’re viewing on a device with a small screen), then go to the table underneath it and click on the appropriate button to start the download.

NOTE: If you’re downloading these files on an Android device and viewing them using an app like “My Tracks”, you’ll find that the Route files won’t display properly.   Just use the Track files instead, which will be fine.

 

Overnights map

The table below includes daily track (Trk) and route (Rte) GPX files – the routes can be downloaded with either Imperial (Rte(I)) or Metric (Rte(M)) waypoint data.   The differences between these types of file is explained above.   Just press the appropriate button from the right hand columns of the table to download the file.

 

Route overview files

 

 

  Start/End Notes Track/Zip Rte(I) Rte(M)
  Overnight stops Shows WPs  at o/n points (“T” -see note below)  T I M
  Compressed route Shows WPs every mi / km n/a I M
  Complete route Big file (5.3MB / 25,000 WPs) n/a I M
Zip of all routes and tracks See sub-folders in zip file Z

Note: the overnight stops “T” file has been created by compiling the first trackpoint and the last trackpoint from the individual days’ tracks

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Sample Daily detail files

>>> Click here to access a complete set of detailed GPX files >>>

Route overview files

Day Start/End Mi/Km Trk Rte(I) Rte(M)
01 Lizard/ Marazion 25/41 T I M
45 Crook-lands/ Winder-mere 20/33 T I M
79 John O’Groats/ Dunnet Head 16/26 T I M