What's happening at Wandrer
Congratulations to our yearly competition winners for 2022! Our top Wandrers for 2022 were graubünden (17,845 unique miles / 28,718 unique km on bike) and Pierre Paladin (3,312 unique miles / 5,330 unique km on foot). It boggles my mind to even contemplate traveling those distances by bike or on foot in a single year. This month we also highlighted two folks who use Wandrer and have done some impressive exploring, Bryan Bischof and Aaron Chamberlain.
Whether you’re approaching 99% for your region, circumnavigating your state, or ticking off a few extra local streets on a daily commute, the end-of-year is a nice time for reflection on what you did in 2022. For the first time, Craig and I collaborated to put together summary statistics for the year, available at https://wandrer.earth/history/2022. We really appreciate all of your positive feedback so far! We’ve heard from a lot of folks who are very interested in knowing more information about their “super unique” distance (the roads they traveled that no other Wandrer has traveled). We’re working now on building a map to show you where your personal “super unique” roads are. This feature is a bit tricky to implement, so we plan to include it as a perk to thank our subscribers.
Since our last update, we also added the ability to purchase gift certificates for the holiday season. Of course, we think Wandrer makes a pretty good gift at any time of the year. As a bonus, if you get more Wandrers in your area, the region will be worth more points in the monthly and yearly challenges. You can purchase a gift subscription here.
Map updates are happening pretty much every day. In the last two months, we’ve updated the map for 409 regions. In order to update a region, we update all of the activities within the region that contain a road that has been changed in OpenStreetMap. Bringing everyone’s data onto the newest map means an individual’s data will be more accurate and the comparisons on the leaderboard will be more meaningful (especially important for the monthly and yearly challenges, which we know you’re watching). We’re continually tweaking our map update process to try to streamline it and make it easier for you and easier for us. Doing so keeps the app working quickly and efficiently, which lets us give you faster page loads and new ride statistics at the same low subscription price. Is your region out of date? You can request a map update by clicking the ! icon on your map.
On a personal note, we are settling into parenthood. The early days were a bit wild. Craig took off three days or so while I was in labor and then post delivery, but even from the hospital room he was monitoring the site and responding to your emails as best he could. Now that our little nugget is 5.5 months old, she’s taking more consistent naps and I’m able to work a bit more on Wandrer again (although I often work with her asleep on my lap these days). And, as a fun adventure, we’re working on the go and bike touring Taiwan with the baby in tow. We’ve been documenting our trip on Instagram / Twitter, if you’re interested. If you’re looking for a place to bike tour, we enthusiastically recommend Taiwan. Please feel free to reach out to me or Craig with any planning questions.
Related Stories:
Wandrer December 2023 update: Hi from Hawaii 2
Hello from the Wandrer Worldwide Headquarters, currently located in beautiful Hawaii 2 in Waldo County, Maine, USA. Never heard of Hawaii 2? Well, it’s kind of exclusive. We don’t like people finding out about it really. Maybe think of it as an exciting sequel to normal boring Hawaii?
Read articleSummer 2023 Wandrer wrap-up
Well, we blinked and suddenly we have a one-year old and the days are getting shorter and cooler here in Atlanta. I honestly don’t understand how a year has already flown by since our little baby was born, but she’s taken her first steps, so it’s probably time to start her Wandrer account and begin tracking her progress around the world. She also started daycare a few weeks ago, which means I have time, glorious time for working on Wandrer again. Here’s an overview of what’s new at Wandrer from the last few months:
Read article