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why is my Instinct solar 2 consistently overestimating distance on mountain hikes?

1432869 9 days ago

I have now done a handful of hikes with elevation (Utah and New Hampshire). My Instinct solar 2 constantly overestimates the mileage compared to the official maps.For example, a 6.1 mile hike should really be 5.2 miles and one that came in at 7.4 miles should really be about 6.4 miles. I am not going off trail, and it doesn't seem plausible that additional steps throw it off that much. The elevation gain seems pretty accurate with GPS knowing where I'm at and what trail I hiked. I did make sure that the GPS fully engaged these last two hikes.

Thanks for any insights!

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trux 7 days ago in reply to 1432869 +1

1432869 said:
I didn't have it enabled. I just found it, so I'll try that the next hike I take.

With the 3D option the distance will be even longer. If you post a link to one of your activities,…

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0 trux 9 days ago

Do you have the 3D distance option enabled? Could you post a link to the activity?

0 1432869 7 days ago in reply to trux

I didn't have it enabled. I just found it, so I'll try that the next hike I take. I also see in my Connect app info on my hikes an option to link the hike to existing trail maps. I will have to see if I can do that link before I begin my next hike to see if that also helps. Those maps are much more accurate in terms of distance. Thanks for your suggestion.

0 trux 7 days ago in reply to 1432869

1432869 said:
I didn't have it enabled. I just found it, so I'll try that the next hike I take.

With the 3D option the distance will be even longer. If you post a link to one of your activities, we can probably tell you what's wrong. Since it is not the 3D option, it could be GPS drift while you rest. Using the auto-pause (an option in the activity menu), or pausing the activity manually while you rest, will eliminate the extra distance due to the GPS drift.

0 1432869 7 days ago in reply to trux

Interesting, the mileage should not be longer. The description of GPS drift in the manual makes it seem like that probably the leading cause of the discrepancy. Thanks.

0 trux 7 days ago in reply to 1432869

1432869 said:
the mileage should not be longer

I meant that if the 3D distance option is enabled, it necessarily results in greater distance reported by the watch, than when only the default horizontal distance is used. In real world, the distance between two places is always greater if you include the 3D path with ascents and descents, than if it were on a completely flat surface.