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Methodology

Sourced or blank

This site publishes data, not opinions. Here is exactly where each kind of fact comes from and what the labels on a page mean.

The rule

Every factual field on a trail, station, or rule page carries a link to its source and the date we last checked it. If we do not have a source, the field shows Not yet verified or a dash. We never fill a blank with a guess or an average.

Sources we use

  • Distance, elevation gain, route type, closures: the managing agency, chiefly NYS Parks hiking guides, NYS DEC, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Distances published in miles are converted to kilometres and rounded to one decimal.
  • Trail lines: OpenStreetMap, fetched by relation or way id, which is shown on every map. Where a hike follows a long trail such as the Appalachian Trail, we clip the line to the hike area and say so. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
  • Elevation profiles: the USGS 3D Elevation Program point query service, sampled every 50 metres along the line. Gain and loss use a 3 metre threshold so sensor noise on flat ground does not inflate totals. Where we have an official gain figure from the agency, that figure is shown instead.
  • Stations and timetables: MTA station pages and the current Metro-North and NJ Transit timetables. We link to the timetable; we do not compute schedules.
  • Walk time from the platform: only when an official source states a distance or says a trail starts at the station. Distances are converted at 20 minutes per mile. If no source states a distance, the walk time is left blank.
  • Trail traffic: there is no clean public dataset. Where we compare trails we show raw counts and a stated popularity tier, never a rate, and we say “most reported”, never “most dangerous”.

Sources we do not use

We do not scrape or copy AllTrails, blogs, or any site whose terms prohibit it. We do not write narrative trail descriptions. A named contributor may add a short note; it is labelled as such.

Re-checking

Rules and closures are re-checked automatically every week. A rule whose official page changed or whose check is older than 45 days shows a “Re-checking” badge until a person confirms it. Trail lines flagged “under review” are lines where OpenStreetMap did not give us a single continuous route for the hike; the map is still useful, but distance and gain are withheld.

Corrections

Every tool page has a correction form. Submissions go to a review queue; we change a fact only when a source supports the change, and the page shows the new verification date.