atc_updates.json

{
  "_README": [
    "ATC's own Trail Updates, as reviewed by a person, keyed by ATC's slug.",
    "",
    "features/ATC_TRAIL_UPDATES.md is the design. export_atc_updates.py bakes",
    "this file into conditions/atc_updates.json, which the app reads as the",
    "ATC's word rather than as OurHike's (#459, #460, #461).",
    "",
    "EDITED BY HAND, AND THAT IS THE DESIGN RATHER THAN A STOPGAP. ATC",
    "publishes these as prose on their website, in NOBO miles from Springer -",
    "the same number as `closures.start_mile_marker`. Parsing that is easy and",
    "is already proven (spike_atc_updates.py: seven of nine live updates carry",
    "a placeable mile reference). What is not automatable is deciding whether",
    "a parsed range is RIGHT, and three specific things go wrong:",
    "",
    "  - A regex produces a confident wrong answer. `NOBO mile 1,503.6` read",
    "    without the thousands separator is mile 1: a Connecticut shelter",
    "    drawn in Georgia. It parses, it looks plausible, it is 1,502 miles",
    "    wrong, and no schema check catches it.",
    "  - Some updates END a closure. 'NC/TN: Iron Mtn Gap Reopened' means the",
    "    trail is open again. An ingest that only ever adds closures",
    "    accumulates barriers across trail people have been walking for weeks.",
    "  - One update can state several ranges, accumulated over months of",
    "    edits, and the current one is not mechanically distinguishable from",
    "    its own history.",
    "",
    "So: a person reads ATC's page, writes the rows here, and a merged pull",
    "request is what releases them - the same property DATA_RELEASES.md gives",
    "every other build input. #463 would open that pull request automatically",
    "one day; it is deliberately post-MVP and it proposes, never publishes.",
    "",
    "NINE UPDATES, EDITED ROUGHLY WEEKLY. That is what makes a human gate",
    "affordable rather than aspirational.",
    "",
    "WHAT A ROW CARRIES, and what it must not. Facts and a link: the mile",
    "range, ATC's category, the states, their headline, their own last-updated",
    "date, and the URL of their page. NOT their body text - that is ATC's",
    "writing, and sources.json's `licence` field on `atc_trail_updates`",
    "records why this file stops at the facts.",
    "",
    "  {",
    "    \"atc_id\": \"harpers-ferry-footbridge-closure\",",
    "    \"title\": \"Harpers Ferry: Footbridge Closure\",",
    "    \"category\": \"Detour\",",
    "    \"states\": [\"MD\", \"WV\"],",
    "    \"start_mile_marker\": 1026.7,",
    "    \"end_mile_marker\": 1026.7,",
    "    \"obstructs_trail\": true,",
    "    \"updated_at\": \"2026-07-31T19:54:12Z\",",
    "    \"source_url\": \"https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/harpers-ferry-footbridge-closure/\"",
    "  }",
    "",
    "A POINT rather than a range - a shelter, a footbridge - is the same mile",
    "in both markers. lib/closureSpan.ts reads that as a zero-length span and",
    "draws it, which is right: ATC publishes several.",
    "",
    "`obstructs_trail` IS THE ONE FIELD THAT IS NOT A FACT ABOUT ATC'S PAGE.",
    "It is your answer to one question: is a hiker stopped from walking",
    "through here? Only rows where that is true get drawn as a band across the",
    "trail; the rest still reach a hiker as a banner naming the ATC.",
    "",
    "It cannot be read off `category`, and the live page is why. Measured",
    "2026-08-12:",
    "",
    "  Connecticut: Limestone Spring Shelter Closed   Closure   obstructs: NO",
    "  Harpers Ferry: Footbridge Closure              Detour    obstructs: YES",
    "",
    "The only notice ATC files as `Closure` is a closed SHELTER, with the trail",
    "past it open - and the one thing that genuinely stops a hiker, the way",
    "across the Potomac, is filed as `Detour`. A rule reading the category is",
    "wrong in both directions at once. When in doubt, false: losing the band",
    "keeps the banner, and a warning that is only a banner is a smaller failure",
    "than a barrier that is not there.",
    "ignored. When in doubt, false: losing the band keeps the banner, and a",
    "warning that is only a banner is a smaller failure than a barrier that",
    "is not there.",
    "",
    "AN UPDATE WITH NO PLACE DOES NOT GO IN THIS FILE. Two of the nine live on",
    "2026-08-09 were like that and neither is a defect to fix: a region-wide",
    "severe-weather advisory spanning ten states, and a law-enforcement",
    "request that is not a place at all. Pinning either to a mile would be",
    "actively wrong. They are real information with no home on a map yet, and",
    "features/ATC_TRAIL_UPDATES.md leaves that an open question rather than",
    "inventing a screen for it.",
    "",
    "`reviewed_at` IS NOT OPTIONAL AND IS NOT THE BAKE'S DATE. It is the day a",
    "person last checked this file against ATC's page. An empty file with no",
    "`reviewed_at` says *nobody has looked*; an empty file WITH one says *we",
    "looked and ATC has nothing placeable*. Only the second is publishable,",
    "and export_atc_updates.py refuses to write an artifact without it rather",
    "than shipping the first one dressed as the second.",
    "",
    "`source_marker` is the ETag ATC's trail-updates feed carried at that",
    "review. check_freshness.py compares it against the live feed, so a",
    "STALE verdict on `atc_trail_updates` means *a person should re-read",
    "ATC's page* - the one source in that check no automated run can clear.",
    "Get it with:",
    "",
    "  curl -sI https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/feed/ | grep -i etag",
    "",
    "WHAT IS IN HERE NOW, reviewed 2026-08-12 against ATC's live page. Nine",
    "updates were posted; six are here. The three that are not are not",
    "omissions:",
    "",
    "  NC/TN: Iron Mtn Gap Reopened     the trail is OPEN again, and it states",
    "                                   five different ranges accumulated over",
    "                                   months of edits. An ingest that only",
    "                                   ever adds closures would have barred a",
    "                                   trail people are walking.",
    "  NC - VT: Severe Weather          eleven states, no mile reference. Real",
    "                                   information with no place on a map.",
    "  New York: Help Identifying...    a law-enforcement request. Not a place",
    "                                   at all, and pinning it to one would be",
    "                                   actively wrong.",
    "",
    "Of the six that are here, exactly ONE obstructs the trail: the Harpers",
    "Ferry footbridge. Two bear warnings, a closed shelter, a yearly flooding",
    "reminder and the Helene advisory are all real and none of them stops a",
    "hiker walking through, so they are dots on the map and a banner rather",
    "than barriers across it.",
    "",
    "The VA Creeper closure that features/ATC_TRAIL_UPDATES.md quotes",
    "throughout was gone from ATC's page by 2026-08-12. That is the staleness",
    "argument in this document arriving in three days rather than in theory,",
    "and it is why `reviewed_at` and `source_marker` are not decoration."
  ],
  "source": {
    "key": "atc_trail_updates",
    "title": "A.T. Trail Updates",
    "url": "https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/",
    "provider": "Appalachian Trail Conservancy",
    "attribution": "Appalachian Trail Conservancy",
    "licence": "Facts and a link only - see sources.json's `atc_trail_updates` entry for the full statement and #458 for how it was settled."
  },
  "reviewed_at": "2026-08-12",
  "reviewed_by": "Claude Code, against appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates - confirmed at merge",
  "source_marker": "\"3d304d545f77af86936a9b3e6704f029\"",
  "updates": [
    {
      "atc_id": "great-smoky-mtns-np-bear-warning-for-silers-bald",
      "title": "Great Smoky Mtns NP: Bear Warning for Silers Bald",
      "category": "Animal",
      "states": [
        "NC",
        "TN"
      ],
      "start_mile_marker": 195.8,
      "end_mile_marker": 195.8,
      "obstructs_trail": false,
      "updated_at": "2026-08-12T13:00:04Z",
      "source_url": "https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/great-smoky-mtns-np-bear-warning-for-silers-bald/"
    },
    {
      "atc_id": "sw-va-bear-activity-at-rhododendron-gap",
      "title": "SW VA: Bear Activity at Rhododendron Gap",
      "category": "Animal",
      "states": [
        "VA"
      ],
      "start_mile_marker": 500.2,
      "end_mile_marker": 500.2,
      "obstructs_trail": false,
      "updated_at": "2026-08-11T16:30:29Z",
      "source_url": "https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/sw-va-bear-activity-at-rhododendron-gap/"
    },
    {
      "atc_id": "harpers-ferry-footbridge-closure",
      "title": "Harpers Ferry: Footbridge Closure",
      "category": "Detour",
      "states": [
        "MD",
        "WV"
      ],
      "start_mile_marker": 1026.7,
      "end_mile_marker": 1026.7,
      "obstructs_trail": true,
      "updated_at": "2026-07-31T19:54:12Z",
      "source_url": "https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/harpers-ferry-footbridge-closure/"
    },
    {
      "atc_id": "vernie-swamp-area-trail-flooding-standing-update",
      "title": "Vernie Swamp Area: Trail Flooding, Yearly Reminder",
      "category": "Detour",
      "states": [
        "NJ"
      ],
      "start_mile_marker": 1346.3,
      "end_mile_marker": 1346.3,
      "obstructs_trail": false,
      "updated_at": "2026-07-20T17:55:27Z",
      "source_url": "https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/vernie-swamp-area-trail-flooding-standing-update/"
    },
    {
      "atc_id": "connecticut-limestone-spring-shelter-closed",
      "title": "Connecticut: Limestone Spring Shelter Closed",
      "category": "Closure",
      "states": [
        "CT"
      ],
      "start_mile_marker": 1503.6,
      "end_mile_marker": 1503.6,
      "obstructs_trail": false,
      "updated_at": "2026-07-24T13:06:50Z",
      "source_url": "https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/connecticut-limestone-spring-shelter-closed/"
    },
    {
      "atc_id": "helene-storm-damage",
      "title": "Hurricane Helene Storm Damage",
      "category": "Alert",
      "states": [
        "NC",
        "TN",
        "VA"
      ],
      "start_mile_marker": 239.4,
      "end_mile_marker": 637.8,
      "obstructs_trail": false,
      "updated_at": "2025-09-23T17:51:09Z",
      "source_url": "https://appalachiantrail.org/trail-updates/helene-storm-damage/"
    }
  ]
}