I’m looking for an Android application that will be good for hiking. I’m usually in Santa Barbara or Mammoth Lakes, CA or Park City UT. I’ll be out of range for cell phone towers for the most part, so I’d like downloadable maps for offline use. I’d prefer it to be free, but don’t mind paying money if it’s worth it, especially if there is a free version that let’s me get a feel for it.
I’ve got an HTC Sensation with not a huge screen, although my service contract is coming up and the next time my phone goes on the fritz, I’ll be getting one with one of the larger screens. I also have a Kindle Fire, so if I can look at larger maps (NO GPS, unfortunately) that is also a consideration.
I’d like to try a hand at GeoCaching, although that’s not really my thing. I rarely go cross country (off trail), so something with local trails would be almost absolutely necessary.
I travel often enough, so good support for various National and State Parks would also be a plus. I also go off-roading in a high clearance 4WD sometimes so something with support for off highway vehicles and maps would be great.
My impression has been that smart phones make poor hiking navigational aids mainly due to battery issues, but also due to inability to capture satellites in rough terrain. There are applications that claim to do what you want, and they’re probably good for relatively short hikes. But an all day journey will kill a phone.
A dedicated GPS (Garmin makes some very highly rated ones) would be more appropriate for geocaching, IMO.
Agree with Telemark, however check out GPS Essentials, it has a bunch of neat stuff that you can use to record tracks and view the various data your phone can gather. Not sure if it’s a lot of help with maps though other than importing/exporting KML.
I use Trimble Navigator on my cell for backcountry route tracking. It gives times, speeds, directions, etc. The track that it saves can be uploaded to Trimble’s web site for later use/review. It can overlay road maps and satellite photos as well. I believe its the same maps and photos as Bing maps use, not Google.
I only use the free version, I haven’t splurged for the full version. I’m pretty happy with it.
I love, love, looooove my Garmin wristband GPS unit. All I have to do when I get home is pop it into its USB charging cradle, and within 30 seconds all the data from that day is uploaded and overlaid in Google Earth.
Satellites are directly (mostly) overhead. Unless you are underground, you should easily be able to pick up three satellites from a cell phone. Other than the software, there are really no differences between smart phones with GPS and something like a Garmin.
In heavy tree cover, in canyons, ravines, and very rocky terrain it’s pretty easy to lose signal. It happened so often with my GPS watch that I stopped bringing it with me on hikes. Some units are better than others, but phones definitely have the problem.
This is what I’m using, and it’s just fine. I found it in a search for “Best GPS Hiking App.” It was well-reviewed, and, hey, it’s free.
I end up moving all the hiking data files to my home computer, putting them into Google Maps as overlays, and using Excel to create elevation charts. Fun.
I live in the Pacific Northwest and I’ve taken my smartphone and a handheld GPS unit geocaching. If I remember correctly, a few times the smartphone lost its tracking altogether but the dedicated handheld was able maintain its reception.
What about antenna design/sensitivity? WAAS support?
Or, not directly related to accuracy but still important: Water/shock/dirt resistance, readability under sunlight, usability with gloves on, temperature tolerance, ease of replacing/recharging batteries?
These may or may not be important differences depending your application, but they do exist.
I recently bought one of those Nike GPS watches so that I can track my pace and distance while training for runs. It is totally cool to plug it in and see my route superimposed on a map of town! I took it on a mountain hike just today and it worked just fine.
It doesn’t seem like the Nike GPS watch is terribly accurate in tracking your pace in real-time though. It tells me I am running x minutes per kilometer, so I ease up to maintain my goal pace, but after a few k I notice that it has been way off and I screwed up my run by listening to it. I think I might take it back and try another brand. But still, the map thing is awesome.
My use is hardly taxing for it, just casual walks etc, and My Tracks does that with ease. It’s simple and easy to use,but on lower end Android phones it has a bug on the new version, data shows in landscape but bugs out in portrait, its a known bug and it does that on my cheepo phone, still works though.
My favourite mapping/GPS app is ViewRanger. I use it on iPhone but it is available for Android, too. You can download topo maps for lots of different countries and use them with no data/mobile signal.
It’s exactly what I long wanted to have but wasn’t available even in expensive GPS units - a full colour Ordnance Survey map in the palm of my hand with a big red You Are Here indicator.
I used to use a Garmin handheld for hiking/geocaching but now I just use my iPhone. I’ve never found it to be less accurate or have trouble tracking satellites.
[QUOTE=urban1a]
Satellites are directly (mostly) overhead. Unless you are underground, you should easily be able to pick up three satellites from a cell phone.
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Nitpick. GPS receivers require 4 satellites to compute a solution.
Thanks for the answers. I’m going to download a bunch of free apps and play with them. I’m not concerned about tracking my activity so much as trying to figure out where the trail is. Most of my hiking has pretty good access to the sky. I’ve used myTracks before but haven’t used it on this particular phone. I’m sure it’s improved in the years since I’ve used it.
This last weekend we went out looking for the world’s tallest tree. I used Gaia GPS on my Android and it worked really well. I imported a bunch of GPX coordinates and it guided me towards them overlaid on the 1:24,000 USGS topo map.
The nice thing about the app is that it integrates some 10-30 different map providers right inside the app – everything from the generic US government topo maps (which have great terrain but few trails) to things like hiking routes on OpenStreetMap and you can view them online or download large areas for offline use.
However, the touch screen, battery life, and general fragility of the smartphone still bugged me a little. If I could afford a standalone GPS I probably would get one.
ETA: It also supports georeferenced image overlays, meaning you can find a trail map from the agency that runs it and add it directly to the Gaia GPS app.
