I’m lucky to live right on the edge of the Peak District, but despite that, when I’m planning a trip, I always feel the urge to travel to the Dales, the Lakes or Snowdonia. I feel like I’ve “done” the Peak District, but really I know that isn’t remotely true.
To give me ideas for new areas to visit, I’ve decided to visit every single 1km2 grid square within a defined area of the Dark Peak. I’m calling it my “Peak Challenge”.
During the 2020 lockdown, whilst not being able to go further afield, I’ve enjoyed exploring the residential streets of my town. I’d like to continue that spirit of “local exploration” by selecting an area of the Peak District near my house, and trying to visit every 1km grid square in that area at least once.
I wanted some kind of diagram to track my progress. The simple solution is to print out the map and colour in the squares. But I didn’t do that.
My finished challenge tracker.
Instead, I decided to use a Mapyx Quo project file to track my progress. When I’ve visited a new area, I will import my route, and keep track of my progress by changing the colour of the grid squares that have been “ticked off”.
It sounds simple, but it ended up being quite difficult. This article explains how I did it.