I was just a little surprised to find that the results of the Surrey Tops 2020 are now available on the LDWA Results page.
Thankfully the results of the Surrey Tops 2017 are still there too (although it confused me for a while as I didn't at first notice the year against the 2020 results and there was of course no data there).

My photos of The Surrey Tops 2017 are now available https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_pp/albums/72157686865915380

The RD off Hydon's Ball seems clear: a bearing and an instruction to go to the left of Octavia's seat, then take the left fork. Unless you take the right fork, you can't go wrong.

Hi all,

Interesting reading!! Although I had thought the way off Hydons Ball was clear in the route description, the feedback suggests otherwise. One of the problems in these areas is that day walkers and dog walkers create lots of connecting paths which can confuse things considerably - particularly at night. I will take a look at this again for 2020.

There is much comment about GPX files. Just to say its likely we will issue a GPX track (as apposed to a route) for the next running of the event.

Apols to anyone that had trouble 'up there in the dark'.

Tony

Change the routing method to 'As-the-crow-flies'

I tried GPX Editor on the location in my previous post and tried to build a track along it.
I got some very peculiar results as can be seen in my screen shot.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_pp/36649244813

I have found an error on the OSM map which caused me to go wrong on the event. After descending Jelleys Hollow, the path descended southwards for a while. The RD said "at open ground below wires, turn right on enclosed path". Had I followed those instructions I'd have been OK, but the track that I created from the OSM has that path going through the farm buildings, which is wrong. On the night, I had to back track from the farm.
51.157035, -0.475159 is incorrect for the path junction

Helen, we lost time at Octavia's seat, eventually finding the correct route. The metre high cairn mentioned in the route description is at GR SU979-399

Helen,

Looking at the map, looks like you may have been correct, certainly the route heading west from the seat did not match the RD.

I also noticed a large number of people took the wrong way at SU887369, and carried on on the track rather than turning left.

=====================

As always thanks to all the volunteers for a great event!

If anyone is interested a link to the photos I took.

The main GPX editor I use is gpxeditor.co.uk

One limitation of gpxeditor is that it treats routes and tracks differently. If you want to edit a track then you need to edit the file it needs to be a route.

For building GPX files it is the best I have found as it allows you to go to a high zoom on the maps, uses the google aerial imagery, and OSM which can be particularly useful in woodland.

John - in BikeHike create coursepoints at the spurious points, then save a track. In a text editor you should see the waypoints at the beginning of the track file. Use the lat and lon to search for the spurious points and delete each point in the original file.

BTW at Hydon's Ball trig, both GPXs and others on the route (including myself navigating independently) forked left onto what ended up as a westerly track and reached a T-junction in half the distance but it appears the correct route may have taken a track on a 30deg bearing which reaches a T-junction in the expected distance and then turns L northwards and again L at a right angle on BWs, eventually re-joining the GPS route. Perhaps others can confirm and if so, a bearing in the RD would help as we were doing a FL from 20deg.

I have downloaded VIM for Windows, so hopefully I will now have more success.
https://vim.sourceforge.io/
Warning to anybody who is thinking of trying VI/VIM and who hasn't used it before. It's not like any other editor that you'll have used before, being command driven.

Andrew Todd: I woke up on Saturday morning thinking that what I could do would be to import your file into bikehike then export it as a gpx. That would probably work but obviously I didn't have time.
I used my own gpx but got lost once or twice when my interpretation turned out to be wrong. I recorded the route on my SatMap while walking. For some unknown reason, I lost the GPS signal around Puttenham for some minutes (somebody else later remarked that they had signal problems around that spot too) and four spurious waypoints were created in my recording many miles away. I could tell that during the walk, as my total mileage was twice what it should have been.
Once home I copied my track to my PC but because of the 5000+ waypoints, it wouldn't upload into bikehike. After reducing this count to 1000 using gpsbabel (incredibly difficult command-line-driven program) I was able to see my spurious four waypoints and correct them (on the bikehike map).
I now wanted to post my route on Strava. I didn't want to post my original file which had the four spurious waypoints. I obviously wanted to post my corrected file. Now Strava is incredibly fussy. It will accept the original gpx file from my SatMap (this with the four spurious waypoints) but it won't accept gpx files that come out of bikehike. Arrrgh....
I am now reduced to using Notepad++ to try to find those four spurious lines in my original gpx file. Any clues anybody.
Andrew, what editor do you use? Ideally I would use 'vi' in Linux but I only have Windows10 where I find Notepad++ to be the most useful.

sure it is too late now, guess you satmap cant cope with the waypoints, which you could remove by just editing the file in a text editor and deleting the waypoints.

You will find the track in the GPX file after the waypoints.

Andrew Todd: Oh dear! I don't know how you created your GPX file (complete with Way Point names which are the RD instructions) but it threw my SatMAp completely, even causing SatSync to hang.
Each Way Point (RD instruction) had been loaded as a separate file, which I then had to delete. There was no sign of your GPX file.
So unfortunately I will have to revert to my own GPX file.
My GPX file
" <rtept lat="51.146437" lon="-0.646368">
<ele>80.65</ele>
<time>2017-09-20T23:15:52Z</time>
<name>pt0</name>
</rtept>"

Your GPX file
"<wpt lat="51.14548" lon="-0.64613">
<name>ahead along Right edge of Rec</name>
</wpt>"

Has anybody had problems with your GPX files in the past?

I log all walks I do (mostly so when I get back home I can see where I went)

Started logging back in 2011, although the technology back then was no where near as reliable as it is these days.

At least the weather is looking good!

Andy

Thanks for that Andrew Todd. Yes, as I said I hadn't been able to work out the route across Hankley Common, but much of the rest looks much the same.
Do you have a library of GPX files from other walks?

I can see a few errors in that GPX, link below is mine based on the one I recorded from 2014, modified for where the route has changed/navigation errors

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-23ShshxurZRHNobkcyUjBESXc/view?usp=sharing

IIRC the dogs are at the only house on the section @ TQ 06814 42452

Don Arthurs, I can't tell from the Route Description or any map, how far down Jelleys Hollow the farm (with killer dogs) lies.
Can you give an estimate of how far from the top it is, or a grid ref.? I may look at bypassing that bit.

I have spent many hours creating a GPX file from the Route Description.
Here is a link to it for you to download.
On several sections I was unable to work out on the map where we are actually supposed to go. The section (paragraph) after Kettlebury Hill was particularly difficult so this appears on the GPX plot as a straight line.
Later paragraphs from 40 miles onwards (where we'll be in the dark) are also suspect. We're going to have to be very good at counting paces in the dark for much of the route (despite this GPX file).
Use at your own risk!!!!!
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Asd4IWPtg5AzjTZbrh_so_gtEUj5

Just looking at the new RD and had to smile at the Jelley's hollow reference

"(NB Dogs can be heard behind fence.)"

I walked past here with a friend during night-time about a month ago, are you referring to the two vicious Doberman attack dogs who left both of us in no doubt that it was only the fence which was stopping us getting out throats ripped out?

I was concerned at the time whether the fence was going to be strong enough to hold them back, or if that night would be the night they finally found a bit they could jump over or part of it would give way. If the two of us were enough to get them that angry then I'm not sure how they're going to be with a constant stream of people passing by!

The Surrey Tops on the 23rd/24th Sept is now open for entry at:

https://www.ldwa.org.uk/Surrey/W/4817/surrey-tops.html

Tony

Although we managed to miss the Strider print deadline the Surrey Tops (Part of the Southern Triple Challenge) is definitely on this year. The date is Sept 23rd/24th. Full details at:-

https://www.ldwa.org.uk/Surrey/W/4817/surrey-tops.html

Tony