Books, sits, Apps and tools for trail navigating

[DannyLlama]

What does everyone use for trail navigation?

I have two apps, one that's called Back-Country Nav. It took me a while to figure it out but it's useful with the right add on's

The other is called Avenza Maps.. this one is not a full blown map. You download a PDF and the apps places GPS coordinates on the PDF, its a different concept but cool.

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I downloaded an overlay that is somewhat helpful but I want to explore books and other locating trails and more so unmarked camp sites.

What ya'll use and recommend?

 

[MAST4R]

I use the Charlie Wells and Peter Massey 4x4 guides, TrailDamage.com (CO, UT), JeepTheUSA.com (AZ), Latitude 40 maps, and Magellan 5 offroad navigator.

Wells is great all around, Massey adds numbers and covers more regions than Wells but is long in the tooth, Trail Damage has phenomenal coverage of UT and CO, Jeep the USA covers much of AZ and also UT and NV but has very terse descriptions. Latitude 40 is only for Moab and Ouray.

I like them all but for different reasons. The only controversial purchase among all those for me (JeepTheUSA is free) is the Magellan 5 which is a stand alone street/offroad navigator. As a street navigator, it is awful. As an offroad navigator, it depends.

The offroad navigator is pretty awful as a search tool. It just dumps on you thousands of trails uploaded from some maybe forest service maps so you get everything possible with no idea what is what. Second, you can distinguish between trails and tracks. Some come with ratings that random folks made very subjectively. If you have a critical mass, they will even out to a reasonable average but this is not the case from what I have seen.

On the bright side, you can download GPX tracks from TrailDamage or Wells who now sells those in addition to his books and then the Magellan 5 is a gem. You can ask for directions to trail head (voice and map) and then on trail, in either direction (map only). The second good thing about the Magellan 5 is that shows legal routes that are NOT on Google maps (Google shows a ton of closed or completely gone trailsl). Third, Magellan 5 covers all states. Fourth, you can create your own tracks. I have never bothered but that can be a big draw for others.

I don't care for phone apps for nav. I prefer print or GPX through a nav unit.

Btw, can I download GPX files to the factory nav? If so, how?

EDIT: also, MVUMs when available.

 

[DannyLlama]

Good stuff! thanks for the info.

 

[ElectroBoy]

For hiking on trails I also use the Avenza app on my iPhone. It’s sometimes a pain to find the free area map you need in their “store”. The USGS topo maps are too old and basically useless. You have to look for park and forest service type maps. I sometimes buy the maps I need.

I also use Gaia GPS. After trying the free version I paid for a 2 year subscription to have access to all the downloads and map overlays. It’s a great app.

Another one I like is MotionX-GPS. It works real well. The only problem is that the map downloads take a LONG time if you want a lot of detail. A big map area with lots of detail takes hours, like overnight.

You need to experiment with them to get familiar with all the features and quirks.

 

[DannyLlama]

Maybe part of this thread, we can collect a .GPX data dump of various regions

 

[Charlievee]

TC 3-25.26 Map reading and Land navigation.

 

[TallVM]

The coolest navigating app I've ever faced with is called Waze. I've found the description of it here and I still use this application. It's very convenient, all the car crashes and traffic jams are shown there. Nice stuff for choosing the most appropriate root.

 

[Starsky]

+1 for Gaia. I also have a Garmin Explorer+ GPS for in a pinch.

I like paper maps a lot; and out West, publiclands.org is a great website for printed maps and other trail information. The National Parks/Forest Service as well as the State Park system wherever you live are also worth a website visit.

In CA, certain Counties have great outdoor resources and also offer local information on trails and other off-road recreational opportunities - Inyo County is one example. It's probably similar in many states.

 

[repo]

Gaia Premium on a 8" tablet linked to my verizon phone through wifi. I also have Torque Pro and the FSM PDF files on there. For regular street driving I use google maps on the phone.

Strava is pretty good for finding hiking and biking trails, especially the heatmaps.

 

[bnorton00]

I use a combination of Gaia and OnX Hunt. OnX Hunt is excellent because it shows land ownership, ie. national forest, preserve, private...etc.

I use Bluetooth on my Garmin Inreach out of the vehicle, and Bluetooth GPS from from my Icom ID-4100 in vehicle.

 

[brennafullen]

I use a combination of Gaia and OnX Hunt. OnX Hunt is excellent because it shows land ownership, ie. national forest, preserve, private...etc.

I use Bluetooth on my Garmin Inreach out of the vehicle, and Bluetooth GPS from from my Icom ID-4100 in vehicle.

Really cool navigator, can you tell me where you can buy it?

 

[whiplashtx]

Some good info here. I've been surprised how many trails show up on my navigation GPS.

 

[bnorton00]

Really cool navigator, can you tell me where you can buy it?

Which one?

Gaia and OnX are apps that can be had through your App Store. I purchased the InReach through a group buy here on T4R, and Icom is a dual-band radio I got from HRO. If you check HRO, you can usually get a used or open-box radio at a good price.