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Workflow: Multi-day-trip report

Trigger: "plan a backpack trip with peaks over several days" — a trip with a pack-in, peaks bagged from a basecamp (or moving camps) across multiple days, and a pack-out.

Output: docs/trips/<slug>.md + CalTopo map + docs/maps/<slug>.png.

This is the most complex flavor: it's a day-trip report per day, wrapped in trip-level logistics (camps, water, gear, pack weight, weather windows).

Checklist

Source rigor (all three sources, confirmed logged-in) on every peak in the itinerary, plus:

  • [ ] Itinerary design — group peaks by day from the basecamp(s); balance daily gain/distance/class
  • [ ] Pack/move days are REAL days (Kyle, 2026-07-12) — the At-a-glance day list numbers EVERY calendar day: pack-in, climbing days, camp moves, pack-out. Entries in approach:/packout:/days_detail take an optional day: N so two legs can share a day (e.g. a morning summit + afternoon camp move); without it each entry auto-increments. The header's "N-day trip" derives from the sequence (frontmatter days: keeps its gate meaning: climbing days with routes). When building the report, decide — and RECOMMEND — where camp moves and pack legs fall: stack a move with a moderate climbing day when both halves are easy and it saves a night; give it its own day when the adjacent climbs are the trip's crux (keep Class 4+ on fresh legs).
  • [ ] Basecamp selection — its own report section (Kyle, 2026-07-10) — a "Basecamp — options & considerations" section listing every viable camp (elevation, pros/cons table) plus water/marmots/exposure/LNT notes. The recommended camp is what the pack-in stats and day stats assume; the options are there for parties who choose differently.
  • [ ] Pack-in / pack-out in "At a glance" (Kyle, 2026-07-10 — ALWAYS for backpacks) — frontmatter approach: {label, dist_mi, gain_ft, loss_ft} and packout: {…}; gen_quickstats renders them as their own lines around the per-day list, plus a trip total (mi · ft) in the summary line, auto-summed from pack-in + days + pack-out so it can't drift from the components. Stats measured to the RECOMMENDED camp; body text covers the alternatives.
  • [ ] One recommended route per LEG (Kyle, 2026-07-10 — the map must show the whole trip) — a magenta line for the pack-in, each climbing day from camp (not TH-composed — that redraws the approach and misplaces the day), every camp move, and the pack-out. Exception: when pack-in and pack-out share a corridor (Vestal/Molas), ONE corridor line suffices. Recipes live in peaks.yml: days: entries take an optional track: (verbatim recorded from-camp track) and a legs: block defines non-climbing legs ({label, track} verbatim, or {label, target: <camp-wpt gpx>, start: "lat,lon"} composed point-to-point when no recording covers the full leg). All built by build_trip_day_routes.py; every leg's stats come from its measured line + DEM. Sanity-check leg ENDPOINTS connect (GPS recordings often start late — compose those). Keep frontmatter dist_mi/gain_ft equal to the component sum (they feed the index table).
  • [ ] Water sources along approach and near camp (mark on map)
  • [ ] Per-day peak stats from GPX (each day's loop from camp). Peaks at different trailheads → don't auto-route one loop; run build_recommended_route.py per day-area and set days_detail + a per-day-sum dist_mi/gain_ft. (Build the recommended route right)
  • [ ] Weather — peaks ≤6 mi apart: one weather: NOAA link for the central peak. Peaks >6 mi apart: a wx: NOAA link per days_detail day (forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=&lon= for the day's central peak).
  • [ ] Gear notes — group + personal + technical (rope/axe/crampons if any day needs it)
  • [ ] Weather-window strategy — which day for the hardest/most-exposed peaks
  • [ ] Bailout/escape routes from camp
  • [ ] Single CalTopo map + PNG showing camps, water, pack route, and each day's loop

Body sections (multi-day flavor — v2 format, Kyle 2026-07-12)

Fixed order, --- between sections; exemplar: Jupiter, Pigeon & Turret. At-a-glance is the ONLY home for day stats (headings carry class only); provenance detail lives only in the map-box note + Trip reports section.

  1. Danger box (if Class 4/5 / genuinely sketchy — ≤1 line per hazard)
  2. Peaks covered — intro sentence (style · hardest move · access · days/nights; absorbs the old trip-at-a-glance table) + table with names linked to 14ers.com/peaks/<id>
  3. Itinerary options — when more than one option exists, EVERY option gets a day-table with the same columns (Kyle, 2026-07-12 — not prose for A and a table for B); the recommendation + stacking rationale follow as prose. Settled decisions get one inline line pointing at Other considerations
  4. Getting there — train/access/trailhead + the clickable drive-from-home link
  5. The days, in order — ### Day N — … strictly chronological (pack-in = Day 1, pack-out = last; a shared day gets "Day N, morning/afternoon")
  6. Camps & water — camp options table + water + regs merged
  7. Gear & season — gear + season window + monsoon strategy + bail-outs merged
  8. Other considerations (optional) — judgment forks with full rationale (direction, alternate access…)
  9. Trip reports & GPX — grouped by source; sweep counts live here
  10. Sources checked footer

Notes

  • Reference implementation: South San Juans 3-Day (Bennett + Conejos + Summit/Montezuma/Unicorn trio). It's a car-camp / move-camp-by-vehicle trip, not a backpack — so the "pack-in/basecamp" sections become vehicle relocations + dispersed car camps near each day's trailhead. Adapt the template to the trip's style (backpack vs. car-camp).
  • Driving route on the PNG + directions links (Kyle, 2026-06-07/08). For multi-day trips, show the road connecting the camps/trailheads on the overview PNG and give clickable directions between approaches. build_drive_route.py --slug <slug> routes the actual road (OSRM) through the kind: trailhead landmarks in peaks.yml order and writes <slug>_drive.gpx; make_overview_map renders any *_drive* file as a reserved black dashed line (a color not used on the CalTopo map, so it reads as "road", not a GPS track), and gpx_to_caltopo skips it (PNG-only, never uploaded). The same script also prints clickable Google-Maps directions links per leg — drop them into a "Driving directions between approaches" subsection under Logistics (standard for every trip report). build_report.py runs build_drive_route automatically when a trip has ≥2 trailheads.
  • Only summiting tracks on the map (Kyle, 2026-06-08). A track belongs on a report's map (PNG and CalTopo) only if it actually summits a researched/objective peak — passing nearby is not route beta. Enforced in two places: caltopo_mytracks.py drops bbox tracks that don't top out within ~240 m of an objective_ids summit, and make_overview_map.py applies the same summit filter at render time (objectives from peaks.yml via peak_db). This also supersedes the old centroid/near-cluster clip.
  • Camps/water/pack-route are first-class map features here (unlike day-trips). The objective box for the PNG should span the basecamp + the peaks, not just the summits. For trips whose zones are far apart (e.g. ~17 mi), the single PNG is a regional locator (peaks small, drive route shown) — per-area route detail lives on the interactive CalTopo map.