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Sample GPX file: 5 km hiking loop in Acadia

5.1 km · +348 m gain · 1 h 11 m · 720 trackpoints

A 5 km loop on a carriage road around Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park, Maine — relaxed hike with a climb to a viewpoint. Parser smoke test, tutorial demo.

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About this route

A 5 km loop on a carriage road around Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park, Maine. The carriage roads are John D. Rockefeller's 1913-1940 contribution to Acadia: 45 miles of broken-stone roads built specifically for horse-drawn carriages, deliberately routed to avoid the steepest gradients and the motorways that Rockefeller wanted to keep separate from the park interior. Today the Jordan Pond carriage road is one of the most-walked sections — a flat-but-not-flat loop that hugs the pond's shoreline with a small climb to a viewpoint at the north end where the Bubbles (two granite domes) rise above the water.

The route is an out-and-back along the western shore, with a short side spur to the viewpoint and a return on the eastern shore. Total elevation gain is 348 m across 5.1 km, all of it concentrated in the viewpoint spur — the rest of the loop is gently rolling at near-pond-level. Two named waypoints mark the parking area at Jordan Pond House and the viewpoint at the north end.

What this file demonstrates

A short, low-stakes file useful for a parser's smoke test — 720 trackpoints across 71 minutes of moving time, named waypoints, modest elevation, single track, single segment. If your parser handles this file cleanly, it's ready for the mid-complexity samples (mountain-hike, road-cycling-50km).

Specifically useful for testing: dropzone UX (the file is small enough to upload instantly), elevation-profile rendering for shallow elevation ranges (a 348 m gain over 5 km doesn't stress most chart libraries but does exercise the y-axis range calculation), waypoint rendering, and basic stats display. Distance under 10 km also makes it easy to spot off-by-one errors in distance calculation versus a known reference.

Notes on the data

720 trackpoints from 1-second smart recording — about one trackpoint every 7 metres of distance, or one every 6 seconds of time. Timestamps are ISO 8601 UTC; the start is 14:00:00Z (10:00 local Eastern in summer). Elevation comes from SRTM with ±2 m noise simulating GPS-only altimetry on a clear day.

File size is 84 KB; well under any platform's upload limit, and small enough to view as raw XML without scrolling fatigue. The file has the standard topografix.com/GPX/1/1 namespace declaration and validates against the GPX 1.1 schema. No sensor extensions in this file — for HR/cadence/temperature test data, use the extensions-test.gpx sample instead.

Common questions about this sample

Is the Jordan Pond carriage road in this file accurate?

The route follows the general shape of the actual carriage road around Jordan Pond — west shore, north end viewpoint spur, east shore back to the parking area. Coordinates are plausible for the named region but the trackpoints don't trace the road exactly; the file is synthetic test data. Don't navigate by it.

Can I upload this file to Strava or AllTrails as a test?

Yes. The file is a clean GPX 1.1 with realistic timestamps and elevation, so it uploads as a valid Activity to Strava, Garmin Connect, AllTrails+, Komoot, or any platform that accepts GPX. Useful for exercising your import flow with a small file before testing with larger samples.

Why are there only 720 trackpoints for a 71-minute hike?

Smart-recording cadence at 1 second produces about that many points for a slow walking pace. A 1-second-fixed cadence would produce ~4,260 points (one per second of moving time); smart recording reduces the count by skipping points where the rate of change is low — typical for a steady-pace hike on a flat carriage road.

Does this file work as test data for elevation-profile rendering?

Yes — the 348 m elevation range across 5 km is enough to exercise y-axis scaling without being so dramatic it hides chart-rendering bugs. Files with very flat profiles (under ~1 m total elevation range) are a separate edge case worth testing, often handled poorly by chart libraries.

Where can I see this file rendered on a map?

Click the embedded viewer at the top of this page — the file is pre-loaded. The map shows the carriage road loop, the elevation profile shows the small climb to the viewpoint, and the stats panel shows distance, duration, and pace. You can also drop the file into the homepage viewer to compare it to your own GPX files side-by-side.

Download short-hike-5km.gpx114.4 KB · public domain (CC0)

What's inside this file

  • Trackpoints: 720
  • Waypoints: 2
  • Tracks: 1
  • Distance: 5.1 km
  • Elevation gain: 348 m
  • Activity duration: 1 h 11 m
  • Extensions: none
  • File size: 114.4 KB
  • Format: GPX 1.1 (topografix.com/GPX/1/1)
View as raw XML (first 30 lines)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gpx version="1.1" creator="viewmygpx-samples" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1">
  <metadata>
    <name>Jordan Pond Loop — Acadia</name>
    <desc>Easy 5 km loop around Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park, Maine. Mostly flat carriage road with a short rocky boardwalk on the eastern shore.</desc>
    <author>
      <name>viewmygpx samples</name>
    </author>
    <bounds minlat="44.32308906943579" minlon="-68.26198765877702" maxlat="44.3402" maxlon="-68.24500358280099"/>
  </metadata>
  <wpt lat="44.3231" lon="-68.2531">
    <ele>84</ele>
    <name>Trailhead</name>
    <sym>Trailhead</sym>
    <type>Trailhead</type>
  </wpt>
  <wpt lat="44.3402" lon="-68.2522">
    <ele>116</ele>
    <name>North end viewpoint</name>
    <desc>Views of the Bubbles to the north.</desc>
    <sym>Scenic Area</sym>
  </wpt>
  <trk>
    <name>Jordan Pond Loop</name>
    <type>hiking</type>
    <trkseg>
      <trkpt lat="44.32308906943579" lon="-68.25309205594151">
        <ele>84.12182492832653</ele>
        <time>2025-09-15T13:30:00.000Z</time>
      </trkpt>

How to use this file

Test a GPX parser. Drop the file into your code, library, or app under development to verify it handles real-world data — distance, elevation, timestamps, waypoints. The point counts and stats above give you expected outputs to compare against.

Demo content for tutorials. Use the file as a stand-in for a real user upload when recording screenshots, writing documentation, or filming product walkthroughs. The file is public domain, so no attribution is needed in your materials.

Test platform integrations. Upload the file to Strava, Garmin Connect, Komoot, or AllTrails to confirm your import flow works end-to-end. The route is plausible but unattached to any user account, so it won't appear in anyone's feed.

Drop your own file too. The embedded viewer above accepts any .gpx file. Use it to compare your file's structure against this sample, or simply to view your route without leaving the page.

License and attribution

This file is released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) — public domain. You may use it for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, with no attribution required.

The route is synthetic. Coordinates are plausible for the named region but do not trace any specific real-world trail, road, or ride. Use the file freely as test data; do not navigate by it.

More sample files

Browse the full set of 12 samples on the sample GPX files page, or jump to one of the related files below.