Far — Methodology
How Far verifies its data
Far makes planning decisions easier by combining real trail geometry, gear specs, and weather data. This page states plainly where each piece comes from, how confident Far is in it, and — just as important — what Far deliberately does not claim.
Trail routes
Route geometry comes from OpenStreetMap contributors via the Overpass API (open data, licensed ODbL). Way members are stitched into one ordered line, simplified, and distance is computed as the great-circle length of the full-resolution line — not a hand-typed figure. Where a published distance exists (e.g. a guidebook or AllTrails' listed mileage), it's used only as a cross-check against the real geometry, never copied directly.
Named water sources, campsites, summits, and hazards on trail guide pages are real OSM features snapped onto the route — Far does not generate or infer points of interest that aren't in the source data.
Elevation
Elevation gain/loss is computed from real ground-elevation lookups (the Open-Meteo Elevation API) along each route, not estimated or interpolated from a low-resolution source. If that lookup fails, Far omits the elevation figure rather than showing a guess.
Gear catalog
Every catalog item carries one of five confidence levels, shown next to its weight in the app: verified against a manufacturer spec, verified against a retailer listing, sourced from community submissions, seeded by AI with no independent verification yet, or flagged for review after a source conflict. AI-seeded weights are never presented as more certain than they are — that label stays visible everywhere the item appears.
- Catalog items
- 320
- Manufacturer/retailer verified
- 92
- AI-seeded, unverified
- 228
Live count, updated automatically as items are verified — not a fixed number. As of 2026-07-19.
Weather and trail alerts
Forecasts come from Open-Meteo. Official trail alerts and closures come from the National Weather Service (US), the National Park Service, and Parks Canada — real government sources, checked directly, not summarized secondhand. Far also surfaces AI-inferred hazard notes for trails it has specific knowledge of; those are labeled separately and are never counted alongside official alerts. An AI guess cannot change an official alert count or trigger a "new alert" notice — that distinction is enforced in code, not just in copy.
What Far will not do
- Far never renders a go/no-go judgment on whether to take a trip — data, source, and what changed since you last checked, not a verdict.
- Far never presents an AI estimate with the same visual weight as a verified figure.
- Far never fabricates a rating, review, or price for a product that doesn't have one.
This page describes how Far's data pipeline works today. Verification coverage grows over time — an AI-seeded item today may be manufacturer- or retailer-verified next month. Data current as of 2026-07-19.