About Logs Kept Simple

Who is behind this

My name is Andrew Davis. I live and hike in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, one of Australia's most varied outdoor playgrounds. The sandstone canyons, ridge walks, waterfall circuits, and river paddles that run through this region have been my training ground for more than four decades.

Over that time I have hiked serious multi-day routes, paddled rivers and lakes, led climbing and abseiling trips, and planned more overnight camping expeditions than I can easily count. Most of that time, the record of what I did lived on paper, in notebooks, or not at all.

I wanted a logbook that actually matched how I think about a trip: the route, the conditions, the time between waypoints, the notes I made at camp. Nothing out there did that, so I built it.

Logs Kept Simple is a solo project. There is no team or startup behind it. Every line of code, every design decision, and every feature has come from my own experience in the field and my own frustration with the tools that existed.

Where the discipline came from

My Scouting life started young. I came up through the ranks as a Scout, then a Venturer, then a Rover. In my Venturer years I earned my Queen's Scout Award, the peak achievement in the Venturer Scout program, and one I am genuinely proud of. Through all of it, the outdoors was the point. The time in the bush, on the water, and in the mountains shaped how I think about planning a trip, leading a group, and making sense of what actually happened once you got back.

I stepped away from Scouting for a period, the way most people do when adult life takes over. Then my kids joined Joeys, and that pulled me back in. Returning as a leader gave me a different perspective. I was now the one responsible for the planning, the safety assessments, and the record-keeping. And it became very clear very quickly that the tools available were not up to the job.

The Scouts movement demands proper documentation: activity logs, risk assessments, planned routes, participant lists, post-trip debriefs. You do not just go bush and come back. You document it before, during, and after. That discipline taught me what a good log actually needs to contain. Not just distance and time, but leg-by-leg breakdowns, rest stops, terrain notes, weather observations, and a comparison between what you planned and what actually happened. The gap between the plan and the reality is often where the most useful learning lives.

Logs Kept Simple carries that thinking into every activity type it supports. The planned route versus actual track comparison, the segment analysis, the rest stop detection. These are not features added for completeness. They come directly from how a serious outdoor leader thinks about a trip.

What Logs Kept Simple actually does

The platform is built around GPS-based activity logging. You go out, the app records your track, and when you get back you have a detailed log that you can review, annotate, and store. Beyond the raw GPS data, the system supports:

The planned route comparison is the feature I am most proud of. You set your waypoints and expected leg times before you leave. After the trip, the system matches your GPS track to each leg and shows you the difference: where you were faster, where you slowed down, how long your rest stops actually were vs what you planned. That is the kind of analysis that makes you a better navigator and a more realistic planner.

One developer, a good support crew

Logs Kept Simple is a one-person development project. There is no venture funding, no growth team, and no pressure to add features that do not serve the actual use case. When something gets added, it is because I needed it in the field, or because someone who actually logs their trips told me they needed it.

That said, I am not doing this completely alone. Behind the scenes I have a group of friends and like-minded people who share the same passion for the outdoors. They test new features on real trips, give honest feedback, flag things that do not work the way they should, and remind me of what actually matters when you are out there. They are not a corporate advisory board. They are people who hike, paddle, climb, and camp, and who care about having a proper record of it.

The downside of a small project like this is that development is slower than a funded startup and support is limited. The upside is that nothing gets added for the sake of a roadmap. Every feature has been through real use in real conditions before it ships.

If you have a genuine suggestion from your own experience logging outdoor activities, I want to hear it. Email us at support@logskeptsimple.com.au