It's not increasing at all... but there's a very specific reason for that. :)

I got to 13x13 this week. 3 squares gets me to 16x16 but they're spread around and can't be connected. Some of my future targets take me into squares for which even Geograph has no content.

gone from 8x8 to 13x13 since getting VV, and enjoyed it too

Up to 14 should be ok, higher is going to get harder!

I've been stuck at 9x9 for a while. There should be 10 or even 11 to come pretty easily but I've been filling in odds and sods slowly in pursuit of the long game!

As the subject came up again in another thread...

...how would you guys deal with areas that basically have no roads / tracks / anything in them? I have jumped a couple of fences to get to squares nearby, but that's only really helpful for the ones you start close to. I'm guessing you could hike to the ones further afield, but you'd be guessing how to get there on the fly as satellite imagery doesn't tend to be much use in these situations.

I need someone with a helicopter!

So far I've only had to do one "cheeky" square. Here in the Dales, roads and legit tracks/bridleways are surprisingly close together even though it doesn't feel like it at times. It's now getting to a point where the remaining squares are either going to be very cheeky or in the case of open access land done on foot. There's a couple of big areas that will be very awkward: one is part of an estate who aren't predisposed to public access, the other is an MOD live firing range which might be more problematical

Probably the best way is to slowly home in on stuff - go for a ride/walk where you think you'll pick up some squares then work out afterwards where you should have been. Not the most efficient way I grant you.

I tend to plan mine in advance, gotta be about that efficiency. It gets interesting when you're actually at the place and realise it's private land / road / military base / angry farmer with shotgun etc though...

Richard G wrote:...how would you guys deal with areas that basically have no roads / tracks / anything in them?

The clues in the title: Explore

In my mind its also about style. Its not really about 'collecting' squares, its about visiting new places.

Richard G wrote:I tend to plan mine in advance, gotta be about that efficiency. It gets interesting when you're actually at the place and realise it's private land / road / military base / angry farmer with shotgun etc though...

Well I do plan stuff but then I get sidetracked (see what I did there?) or get lost by taking the wrong lane.

Sure, it's definitely about going new places, but these places I'm talking about are pure wilderness. Have never really ventured into such areas.

I know Strava captures all types of activity, but does VV show the activities when you're walking etc?

The reason I ask is I quite like the map showing where you have been when you open up VV. But I've done a couple of cool walks that haven't shown up. They would have no bearing on my max square, but it would be a nice record of where I've done outdoorsy things. Anyone been able to get that to show?

The knock on consequence is being able to add to max square tiles if you're not on a bike

At the top of the activities map is a "filters" drop down - check to see that that shows both "ride" and "run". There's also "config" which offers "all", "ride" or "run" - I've mine set to "all"

I think you might also need to change a setting to ensure that they get synchronised.

I use Strava/VeloViewer to record and view all my Activities; riding, walking, running, paddling, skiing etc. My VV Explorer tiles show all of these in one image and they all count towards the Explorer Square.

I'm not sure what the issue seems to be about going "off-piste". I just go for a walk or a run into places I've not explored if it doesn't look like it's worth taking a bike. I've found some great wee spots for bivvying, amazing ancient juniper bushes, lots of ruined buildings and astonishing, quiet corries that seem quite unvisited.

The legality in Wales confuses me at times. I've never really ventured from rights of way.

Generally I just ride and tiles collect themselves, now and again you get the odd one that needs grabbing to up your score.

Conditions were as good as they'll get so it was time to head over to Marsden to collect one "special" square
If you'd have told me it was June this afternoon i'd have believed you. The mission was to cross the hill in the background.

...how would you guys deal with areas that basically have no roads / tracks / anything in them?

Like this....


A spot of deathmarch across the moor without any form of track to guide me, except a pink line to take me from one side to the other.
The "specialness" was due to it being one of the 2 squares thats currently blocking me in and has preventing me from expanding further.

Job, Jobbed and up to 17x17

I actually got sunburned today. Crazy.

I've got a pretty good adventure planned for tomorrow. Going around a RSPB site and along the coastline. Going to stop off at the Severn Bridge tolls because... why not? :D

Words from some of the big hitters
http://blog.veloviewer.com/meet-the-explorers/

Those are some crazy numbers. Fair play.

Blimey, those are big numbers

And what is more impressive is until you start trying to add to your max square, you don't realise just how hard it is to get to numbers that big. Plus the amount of time/commitment/planning to do it

I got to 18x18, then moved house. Currently on 5x5 locally.

I've quite a spread of squares but it's filling in the occasional blocker that's limiting and it depends on how cheeky you want to be. There's some squares that there's no way I'll manage and some I don't really want to go to - the sink estates of the towns and cities along the M62 corridor for example.

Still it's nice (in a nerdy way) to see the holes marking missing squares/tiles shrinking.

I've cycled through some real shitholes to get squares. Made me quite nervous in one case as I was on my fancy bike.

Mine is still stuck at the 9x9 it's been since shortly after starting it.

That said, I've been attempting to fill in all of my local OS map which means I'm getting pretty close to having a lot of equally sized squares making up a rectangle.

Cross bike has been lovely for nipping in and out of the little bits of woodland that sit in between suburbia heading north into london.

I've found some nice little spots tucked away in places I wouldn't have expected them- incredibly tight singletrack (on cross bike bars as well) that was actually a bridleway) well past the point where I thought any interesting green had given up to urban sprawl and several lovely quiet lanes well inside the M25.

On the other hand, to the south, which should in theory be nicer, I've done a lot of chugging along fairly featureless hedged in roads and some field edges that would have made Stu proud in the way they slowed forward momentum.

Explorer function alone still well worth the veloviewer subscription.

I've just imported all my strava rides to get involved with this.
My score is 7x7 at the moment but I think I can get up 10x10 with a carefully planned ride tonight.

Filling in the first few blanks should be quite easy but it's going to become difficult quite soon. Living on the coast means that I'm limited in which directions I can expand my square.