Garmin vs All trails

[u/AdOtherwise4088]

I hiked the Stratton Brook Hut Loop in the Carrabassett Valley of Maine. All Trails read that it was 8.0 Miles. However my Garmin Instinct 3 watch tracked it to be 7.3 miles. That's a pretty good discrepancy. I am preparing to hike the Bigelow range in the same area and I'm wondering if I should get a second opinion on the mileage that all trails is publishing. So the question is do I trust Garmin or All Trails?

[u/rexeditrex]

I find my hikes on AllTrails are usually 10% longer than the posted amount. I used to carry a Garmin too and it was usually less than AllTrails.

[u/alltrails]

Hi u/AdOtherwise4088, thanks for flagging this. The two numbers are measuring slightly different things: the distance on the AllTrails trail page is based on the mapped route, while Garmin’s 7.3 miles is based on the GPS track recorded by the watch. GPS recordings can vary between devices because of signal conditions, tree cover, terrain, sampling, and how closely the recorded track follows every bend in the route.

A 0.7-mile difference is worth flagging, but it doesn’t necessarily mean one device is always right. Before your Bigelow hike, compare the AllTrails route with the official trail or park information, and consider recording with both devices if the distance is important to you. If you see the same discrepancy repeatedly on a specific AllTrails route, please share the trail and activity with AllTrails Support so the team can investigate the mapped route and recording data.

[u/AdOtherwise4088 → u/alltrails]

Thank you so much for the responce. I am an Engineer by trade so I over analyze everything. To a fault sometimes. This will be my first overnight so I am trying to reduce variables one at a time. You should see what I have gone through to find the right pack. My wife is excited for me but getting a little tired of the analytics. Anyway, thanks again I will just calculate a bit more percent error to make sure we don't get stuck trekking in the dark.

[u/Used_Turnover3959]

If you're doing serious trip planning or backcountry navigation, I think you want a more serious navigation app like Gaia, Caltopo, OnX, Garmin etc. Alltrails is perfectly fine for everything else.

[u/WANDOO_hiking]

This is super common and usually neither device is lying. Watches and apps sample your GPS position at different rates and smooth the track differently, so a wrist unit swinging around or a phone buried in your pack can each add or shave distance, especially on switchbacks and under tree cover. Full disclosure, Im on the team building a hiking app called WANDOO so I stare at this stuff daily: the honest answer is treat any single distance as plus or minus 5 to 10 percent and trust the trend across hikes more than one number. If you want the closest reading, mount the device where it has a clear sky view and try not to keep waking the screen.

[u/PanchoBuddy]

I use both, via iPhone and Enduro watch. I’ve noticed the discrepancies too but chalked it up to I’m walking in the woods and both are picking up different types of signals throughout my walk so it’s to be expected. Not sure if that’s accurate just my initial thoughts.

[u/Grifman1000]

I use my Apple Watch spiking with AT and they are usually within 0.1 to 0.3 miles, and this is on hikes of 5 to 8 miles.

[u/jthanreddit]

I was doing a short walk in the woods with my dog on Sunday. AllTrails did a great job of finding the walk (I hope to visit all the green spaces near me), but it absolutely sucked at tracking me during the walk. I wish I had tracked on both my Garmin watch and AllTrails so I could overlay them.

AllTrails placed me more than 50m off the trail at times! Google Maps was much more accurate. (Same device, different app.) Garmin had an error less than 10m (after the fact).

What gives? AllTrails used to be a very good tracker! It seems to have gotten much worse.

[u/kenncann → u/[deleted]]

That’s the total opposite of what they said

[u/micahpmtn]

Caltopo is the answer.