How does following a hiking track work?

WaltS48

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Dec 4, 2021, 6:45:35 PM12/4/21

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I can draw a track on an online topographic map taking advantage of the
landscape contours to perfectly plan the route along the crests and valleys.

I can then export the resulting hiking plan to a gpx file on the phone.

Once on the ground, what offline back country app can I use while trying to
reproduce that hike on the ground?

It would be nice if the app can talk to me while I'm hiking to tell me when
I stray off that planned gpx track?

If the app can't talk to me can it at least simultaneously show both routes?
[1] the complete planned route
[2] the actual route in progress

Or does it just show a compass to the desired track if I'm no longer on it?

sms

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Dec 4, 2021, 7:40:22 PM12/4/21

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You can import a GPX file to Alltrails and as long as you've also
downloaded the Alltrails map for the area you would be able to see when
you're off-route. However it's not going to speak to you when you
deviate from the route.

Roger Mills

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Dec 5, 2021, 12:47:08 PM12/5/21

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You can now get SatMap functionality on Adroid devices without needing
to buy a dedicated SatMap device. It ain't free though.

See https://www.satmap.com/pages/xplorer-gps-app

--
Cheers,
Roger

sms

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Dec 6, 2021, 12:16:41 AM12/6/21

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OMG, I tried that app. The app installed okay but downloading the maps
was not possible. It would stop at 25%, or stop at 75% and then hang.

I tried on the iPhone too. The maps finished loading but the app would
not respond. Ads fill the bottom third of the screen and there's some
sort of bizarre payment system involving the purchase of tokens but no
way to buy tokens--you go to the "Buy Tokens" page and there's no way to
buy them and no pricing.

WaltS48

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Dec 6, 2021, 3:40:59 PM12/6/21

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On 12/6/2021 12:16 AM, sms wrote:
>> You can now get SatMap functionality on Adroid devices without needing
>> to buy a dedicated SatMap device. It ain't free though.
>>
>> See https://www.satmap.com/pages/xplorer-gps-app
>
> OMG, I tried that app. The app installed okay but downloading the maps
> was not possible. It would stop at 25%, or stop at 75% and then hang.
>
> I tried on the iPhone too. The maps finished loading but the app would
> not respond. Ads fill the bottom third of the screen and there's some
> sort of bizarre payment system involving the purchase of tokens but no
> way to buy tokens--you go to the "Buy Tokens" page and there's no way to
> buy them and no pricing.

I tried it too even though it has a 0 rating in the google play store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.satmap.xplorergps&hl=en_GB&gl=GB

That satmap.xplorergps app needs to log into an online account to work so it
doesn't meet the offline requirements that any back country app must meet.

Ideally you want the desired track to show up on the offline backcountry map
and then your current position to show up alongside that desired track on
the offline countour map.

Psyberia All-In-One Offline Maps was the best I found so far but it only
adds what it calls waypoints manually onto its free landscape contours map.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.psyberia.offlinemaps&hl=en_GB&gl=GB

It's too much work to add every waypoint to the Psyberia map one by one to
manually create a track. But once you do that then Psyberia works because it
can also display your current position along with all those added waypoints
on its offline contour map.

Instead I added the track gpx to caltopo which then output a geospatial pdf.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.caltopo.android&hl=en_GB&gl=GB

I used the offline Avenza Maps app to import that geospatial pdf containing
the drawn desired track. Avenza displays the track & the current position.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Avenza&hl=en_GB&gl=GB

But it's not ideal to have to save a geospatial pdf out of caltopo for every
location that I will be hiking just to get a track & current position shown.

So I'm still looking for a backcountry contour map app which will read in a
gpx file and display that track along with the current position on the map.

Nikolaj Lazic

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Dec 6, 2021, 7:08:58 PM12/6/21

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Dana Sat, 4 Dec 2021 19:45:19 -0400, WaltS48 <sch...@invalid.net> napis'o:

https://osmand.net/features/trip-planning

Thomas

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Dec 6, 2021, 10:19:43 PM12/6/21

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Jerry

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Dec 7, 2021, 9:44:11 AM12/7/21

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On Mon, 6 Dec 2021 16:39:30 -0400, WaltS48 wrote:

> So I'm still looking for a backcountry contour map app which will read in a
> gpx file and display that track along with the current position on the map.

I tried to find your psyberia app but my search found a different free and
$12 app from the same psyberia than the psyberia countour map app you said.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=psyberia.alpinequest.free
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=psyberia.alpinequest.full

WaltS48

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Dec 7, 2021, 3:07:05 PM12/7/21

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I prefer the psyberia "All-In-One OfflineMaps" which is similar but not the
same as the $12 app. There is also "AlpineQuest Lite" app which is similar.

I don't know why Psyberia has three confusing similar apps on Google Play.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Psyberia&hl=en_GB&gl=GB

These are the free two apps from Psyberia which are almost the same app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.psyberia.offlinemaps
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=psyberia.alpinequest.free

Each has a different web site but the apps seem to be almost the same.
https://www.offline-maps.net/
https://www.alpinequest.net/

There is a forum and a web site where you can ask these questions.
https://www.alpinequest.net/forum/

But I think I found the differences between the two free apps in their faq.
https://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/faq
http://www.alpinequest.net/compare

Their "All-In-One OfflineMaps" app can "store complete areas for offline
use" which the almost similar but different "AlpineQuest Lite" app can't do.
http://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/maps/on-demand-store-area

And their "All-In-One OfflineMaps" app can "Add maps from the community".
http://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/maps/on-demand-install

The "All-In-One" also can set waypoints which "AlpineQuest" doesn't do.
http://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/landmarks/local-set-create#how_to_create_a_set_of_waypoints

The "All-In-One" has Details & Statistics which "Alpine Quest" doesn't do.
http://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/landmarks/statistics

And the "All-In-One" has a routing feature to draw a path on a road.
http://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/landmarks/auto-routing

About the only thing "Alpine Quest" has that "All-In-One" doesn't is the
ability to "Display AQM/PGD maps" which the "All-In-One app won't do.
http://www.alpinequest.net/en/help/v2/maps/file-based-select

The $12 "AlpineQuest Off-Road Explorer" does everything though.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=psyberia.alpinequest.full

Thomas

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Dec 7, 2021, 9:27:26 PM12/7/21

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Peter <occassional...@nospam.co.uk> wrote:

> If your willing to do some trip planning there is no better way than this.
> https://caltopo.com/
>
> Click the "Start Mapping" button which takes you to the trip planner.

USGS is another solution for free united states geoenabled outdoor maps.
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#

Choose any area of the country to download official outdoor geoPDF, geoTIFF,
geoKMZ or geoJPEG topo map files of 250K, 100K, 63K, 48K, or 24K resolution
from the official united states outdoor mapping department.
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#12/43.8125/-110.6883

These gpsvisualizer maps are intended to supports all possible map formats.
https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

Here's what they say about their many free outdoor maps at gpsvisualizer.

GPS Visualizer can read data files from many different sources, including
but not limited to: GPX (a standard format used with many devices and
programs, including Garmin's eTrex, GPSMAP, Oregon, Dakota, Colorado, & Nuvi
series), Google Earth (.kml/.kmz), Google Maps routes (URLs), FAI/IGC glider
logs, Fugawi (.trk/.wpt), Furuno, Garmin Fitness (.fit), Garmin Forerunner
(.xml/.hst/.tcx), Garmin MapSource/BaseCamp/HomePort (.gdb), Geocaching.com
(.loc), Google Sheets, iGO (.trk), Lowrance (.usr), Microsoft Excel
spreadsheets (.xls/.xlsx), NMEA 0183 data, OziExplorer (.plt/.wpt), Suunto
X9/X9i (.sdf), Timex Trainer, TomTom (.pgl), U-blox (.ubx), XML feeds, and
of course tab-delimited or comma-separated text.