Community Forums

Bigd9 · 06-07-2018, 02:35 PM

When we travel we always look for a campground with hiking opportunities to stretch our legs and get our pup some needed exercise. I've used a few hiking apps over the years, but none of them seems to really hit the spot. I need a app where I can download a map into the phone to be used when we get too far away from the cell tower. My current app is called Locus Map. It works OK except for the downloading maps part. They use a monetary exchange called LoCoins and I would much prefer a program that uses credit cards.

Any hikers out there with a great program you use?

RickNC · 06-09-2018, 07:29 AM

Hiking Project by REI is the one I use most for finding hikes when traveling. I like Backcountry Navigator for actual navigation on the trail or on the water(kayaking)

BZTS561 · 06-09-2018, 07:53 AM

Alltrails. You can download the trail maps ahead of time so when you are out of coverage area you can keep tracking to the trail map.

Bigd9 · 06-09-2018, 10:51 AM

Great ideas. We used to use Alltrails a long time ago then we got a notice indicating they were stopping any further updates and to switch to another app. I may give it another try since we found out the hard way having maps downloaded is a good thing!

Backcountry Navigator and the Hiking Project sounds interesting. Didn't know there were apps to find trails.

Thanks All

tinkerreknit · 06-09-2018, 11:45 AM

GAIA GPS is pretty good. The free version let's you download maps for offline use, but lacks some features you might want. I think there are 2 levels of the pay version.

Bigd9 · 06-09-2018, 01:37 PM

I looked at GAIA several days ago. Highly rated and your right about wanting to upgrade to the next level. Looks like $20 per year or $40 per year for hard core hikers. At Sharon's age

we consider any hike where I don't get back in time for my afternoon coffee break is "hard core"!

We did get lost once on Mt Hood early one spring day. We did everything right. We had provisions for an emergency overnight if we had to, we had a trail map, and we timed ourselves so at a certain time we would turn around and head back even if we didn't hit the overlook we were aiming for. On the way back we missed the sign for our trail to the parking lot where it diverted off the main trail. It was starting to get dusk and by the time we spotted a landmark we could identify on the map we were several miles off course. We made it back to the car at Dark Thirty, and I swore I would have a gps that would leave breadcrumb trail after that.

Now several GPS's later, I'm migrating to a cell phone GPS for hiking. Our hikes are still enjoyable but considerably shorter. Two years ago we were hiking in the southwest during a heat wave to a overlook up a trail a few miles long. On our way back we encountered a older than us couple who were lost, stumbling, thirsty, confused, red faced and jabbering nonsense. We forced our emergency ration of water on them to drink and applied water from our backpacks to soak towels for their heads. (they didn't have any water at all and no hats!!) I used my GPS to convince them which way was down to the parking lot, otherwise they would have headed back in the wrong direction again! It took us 3 times as long to get down because we kept stopping to resoak the towels. Oh well, I kind of wandered off topic. Sorry about that.

Thanks for the suggestions!

tinkerreknit · 06-09-2018, 02:31 PM

I've also used Maprika. In recent years I hiked a lot of the Appalachian Trail alone, and had an app that recorded my track and would send the breadcrumbs in Google map format to my wife's email address. Itcshowed where I checked in last in case I didn't contact her for too long. It was in a different phone and I cant remember the name. Maybe someone can.