How I keep my AI-built hiking guides accurate, season to season
Before a hiking guide of mine goes on sale, a second AI checks it against official sources. Each season the dated facts are checked again, free for buyers.
I make long hiking films for YouTube, and this fall I turned the routes into hiking guides, built with AI from my own films, GPS tracks and notes. How they're made is in an earlier article. This one is about the part that never ends: keeping them right.
My trip doesn't change. The world around it does. Huts move their booking dates, buses get winter timetables, bridges close, parks put out new rules. A guide is only useful if those facts are current, so every guide gets checked before it goes on sale and again each season.
The check, in 6 steps
- Built from my trip. Claude writes the guide from my films, GPS and notes (the earlier article has the details).
- An independent audit. A separate Claude session that didn't write the guide checks every fact that can change against current official sources: park services, hut websites, ferry and bus companies, emergency services. It also checks the numbers against my GPS and every quote against my films. New guides get a second opinion from Gemini too.
- Every source re-opened. The auditor's word is never applied blindly. For every serious finding, the main Claude session opens the official source itself before changing a line.
- Fixed, or held for me. Plain facts get fixed. Anything about my opinions or my story, a price, or removing a section comes to me instead. So do facts that are unclear or that sources disagree on.
- Every season, checked again. The time-sensitive facts are checked again before each new season.
- Audited again. The refresh gets the same independent check, then a new edition goes out.
This has been the rule since September 30: no guide goes on sale without passing the audit, so I don't have to read every guide line by line myself. The jobs live in KraigOS, the database we built to run my work, as tasks Claude can pick up on its own, on a schedule.
Kesugi Ridge: a park report one day old
The Kesugi Ridge guide is the newest example. It follows my 2020 film, two days on the ridge above Denali State Park in Alaska, and went on sale on October 10.
The draft said the trail looked open, as far as it could find. Its source was the state parks status page, last updated September 17, which listed every campground in the park as open. The draft even said it found no bridge outage on the trail.
The audit ran on the morning of October 10. It found a newer source the draft hadn't used: Alaska State Parks' Denali State Park conditions report, dated October 9, linked from its park condition reports page. That report changed several things:
- Snow on top of the ridge, with muddy sections and cooler temperatures on the trails.
- K'esugi Ken Campground closed for the season. The draft had listed it as open.
- Byers Lake Campground's loops, Denali View North and the Little Coal Creek trailhead facilities closing October 19.
- The Outlet Bridge on the south side of Byers Lake closed, so the full Byers Lake Loop, one of the guide's shorter options, can't be walked as a loop for now. The north shore, which my route uses, wasn't affected.
- Upper Troublesome Creek, the far south end of the trail system, now described by the parks as a wilderness route where travel is not advised. The draft had only said it was often closed, as reported by others.
Before fixing anything, Claude re-read the park report itself, and every quoted line matched. The audit also found smaller things: GPS distances a little off, a lake in my film that was almost certainly the one the guide named a few lines later, and two lines that went further than what I'd actually said. Gemini caught one more. The guide had me saying "30 miles," but the title card in my film says "30 mile hike." Thirteen findings in all, every one fixed, and the guide went on sale that morning.
Three 2027 editions in one morning
On October 11, Claude refreshed three of the most popular guides for the 2027 season. Each one was re-checked against its official sources, then a second, independent Claude session checked every change and the rest of the travel and safety sections. I said yes, and all three were live by mid-morning.
Alta Via 1: hut bookings and buses
The Alta Via 1 guide follows my film of seven days hut to hut through the Dolomites. Hut bookings open months ahead, and those dates moved:
- Rifugio Vazzoler moved its 2027 booking day from October 5 to November 1, 2026, at noon (the hut's site).
- Rifugio Carestiato opens 2027 bookings on November 2, 2026, online only (its site). That was new to the guide.
- Rifugio Coldai had no 2027 date at all, just a note that it's closed until June 2027 (its site). The old guide said mid-October, so now it says no date was posted as of October 11.
The ride home changed too. The bus from La Pissa, where the trail ends, to Belluno got a revised winter timetable from October 12, one day after the check: a 10:33 bus moved to 10:32, there's a new 17:24 on weekdays, and there are still no Sunday buses (Dolomiti Bus timetable). The second check added that winter runs take 28 minutes, not 26.
At the start, the Cortina Express bus from Venice airport moved its Cortina stop from Piazza Roma to Piazzale Revis on October 1 (Cortina Express notice). The second check also found the ride takes 2 to 2.5 hours on the October timetable, not about 2. My own line about a "2-hour FlixBus" stayed as I said it.
Hornstrandir: an emergency number
The Hornstrandir guide covers my four days alone in Iceland's Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, where there's almost no phone signal. The most important fix was small. The guide gave a number to call Iceland's emergency line from a satellite phone, taken from SafeTravel's hiking page. The second check went to the emergency line's own site, 112.is, which says that number is for calling from abroad, and lists a different one for satellite phones. SafeTravel's page still prints the old number. When two sources disagree, the one that runs the service wins.
The rest:
- The boats. There are no roads in the reserve; I went in and out by boat from Ísafjörður. None of the three boat companies (Borea, Hornstrandaferðir and West Tours) had posted 2027 timetables or prices by October 11, and the guide now says so, with the date, so you know to check before you book.
- Flights. Icelandair had planned to drop its flights to Ísafjörður after summer 2026. A state contract now keeps them until at least August 2030.
- Polar bears. A new line: very rare, but one came ashore in the reserve's Jökulfirðir in September 2024. Call 112.
Lofoten: a closed hut and the camping rules
The Lofoten guide follows my six days across Norway's Lofoten Islands this summer.
- Munkebu, the small red hut I walked past on Day 2, was still listed as closed on October 11 (its page on ut.no), so the guide says to check that it's open for your dates.
- Timetables. The Reinefjord boat's summer 2027 timetable isn't out yet, and the guide now says so with the date. The Bodø to Moskenes ferry has only its winter timetable posted (Torghatten).
- The no-tent zones. The second check read the regulation itself (Lovdata) and found that two of the zones in Vågan, toward Svolvær, Kalle and Rørvika, are only partly closed to tents. The guide had listed them as whole zones.
- Fires. The camping rules now include Norway's general fire ban, April 15 to September 15 (Visit Lofoten).
How I plan my own trips, in my own words
I usually do a lot of research on a trail, but it's hard to find specific information about the places you stay. Usually I can just see the type, whether it's a campsite, a hut or a refuge, and maybe a photo or two. So I often go into these hikes completely blind, and I'm usually pleasantly surprised. Over the years I've come to understand the different kinds of huts: what to expect at different elevations and from where they sit on the map. I read the AllTrails map to get a sense of what the experience will be like. Now I know that if I'm sleeping in a valley, sunrise and sunset will probably be lackluster compared to a more remote hut higher up, on the edge of a cliff or on a peak, where the light keeps hitting me until the sun goes down or after it comes up. When I'm after good views and good footage for a film, I plan around those sunrise and sunset shots.
What happens when nothing is known yet
A lot of 2027 isn't published in October. Hut prices, summer timetables, Coldai's booking day. The rule is to never guess. The guide keeps the last confirmed facts with their year, and where something isn't out yet it says so with the date it was checked. Each refresh also ends with a list of what to watch before the season: on Lofoten, the summer 2027 ferry, boat and bus timetables and whether Munkebu opens; on Hornstrandir, the 2027 boats and a new Icelandic law that lets the reserve's agency charge for some services, with no fee announced yet. Those become the next check.
Nothing in these three refreshes needed me. No opinion, price or removal questions came up, so nothing was held.
Free updates for buyers
Every guide's cover now carries its edition, like "2027 season edition, updated October 2026", and dated facts inside say when they were checked. If you've already bought a guide, the new edition comes to your download link for free. Every guide page says so next to the buy button.
What I learned, and what's next
Official sources update quietly. A park report one day old changed half of a page, and a bus timetable changed the day after the check. A second AI that didn't write the guide, made to show its source, catches what the first one misses. And checking that source again before a fix keeps the auditor honest too.
Next: checking the dates on each watch list as they're published, and the same 2027 refresh for more of the guides.
FAQ
Who checks the guides, a person or AI?
AI. A separate Claude session that didn't write the guide audits it against official sources, and new guides also get a pass from Google's Gemini. The main session then opens the source for every serious finding before changing anything. Anything about my opinions, my story or a price comes back to me.
What does the audit check?
Anything that can change: opening dates, hut bookings, timetables, closures, rules, emergency numbers. It also checks distances and climbing against my GPS and every quote against my films.
How often are guides updated?
Before a new season, starting with the most popular guides. Hornstrandir, Alta Via 1 and Lofoten got their 2027 editions on October 11, 2026.
I already bought a guide. Do I get the new edition?
Yes, free. New editions come to the same download link.
How do I know how current my guide is?
The edition is on the cover, and time-sensitive facts are dated in the text. Each guide also has a "Before you go" list of things to check close to your trip.
What if something isn't announced yet?
The guide says so, with the date it was checked, instead of guessing.