New Features

Welcome to the future of hiking folks. We’re delighted to introduce the Gaia GPS Trail Finder on gaiagps.com/map/

Trail Finder Snaps to Real Trails, with Elevation Profile

Jesse showed off his Trail Finder demo one recent morning, and seeing it in action astounded our whole team. You simply click where you start, and click the points you want to visit, and the tool will map out the trail for you. Check out this demo video, plotting a trail in Yosemite.

I used this to mark a trail for a recent hike, and it takes no time at all. You get an instantaneous elevation profile graph and other stats as well – very useful to find a trail that matches how strenuous you want the hike to be. Here is the route I make in the video below.

Automatically Sync with Gaia GPS

When you use the Trail Finder on gaiagps.com, it will sync to your Gaia GPS app automatically. In the backwoods, you can select these routes for guidance, and Gaia GPS will highlight the trail for you, tell you how far off trail you are, and other stats. You can share the trail with your companions as well, and they can sync easily to their Gaia GPS, or download data for any app they use.

Also, the Trail Finder works well with the Download Maps For Track feature in Gaia GPS. Find a trail on gaiagps.com/map, then press Download Maps For Track in the app, and go. You can do this for multiple map sources as well, such as topos and imagery.

Here you can see the route in the app, the route details on the left, and the route overlaid on a USGS topo on the right.

A route showing inside the Gaia GPS iOS app.

Open Data and Software

The Gaia GPS Trail Finder uses open data and open software.

The data comes from OpenStreetMap, which many of our maps are based on – when you plot a trail, you see trails on the map get highlighted by overlaid vectors.

The software uses the Valhalla routing engine to generate routes, and the Pelias geocoder to lookup names for points. Valhalla and Pelias were both developed by Mapzen, an open-source mapping lab dedicated to building open mapping tools that run on open data.

All routes between 60°S and 60°N include elevation profiles that are generated from SRTM digital elevation models. The digital elevation models were obtained from the Open Terrain project, who provides easy access to terrain data that is freely available from US government sites, but hard to access.

Open Beta, Later GaiaPro

This summer, we’re making the Trail Finder available to everyone as an “open beta,” but this feature will eventually only be available to GaiaPro users. We have made a few website features GaiaPro (such as printing), which gives us good incentive to keep building and improving the online tools, since the website is otherwise free (and ad-free).

Future Directions

With some additional work, we’ll be able to get this working in the Gaia GPS app on iOS and Android. We can also add voice guidance features, like warning you of impending trail splits, and that will be cool indeed.

Disclaimer

You should not trust these routing directions with your life, nor should you 100% trust any map source in Gaia GPS. Gaia GPS is just one tool to help stay safe in the woods, and you should also:

• research the area you are visiting, and talk to the local park or forest ranger
• carry and know how to use a paper map and compass
• bring a friend, especially when visiting unknown territory
• review and download multiple map sources and aerial imagery
• bring the right gear and supplies

Today we’re proud to announce Gaia GPS v9.2, featuring a more intuitive track recording interface. Thanks to dedicated user participation on our Idea Forum, we had some good ideas on how to redesign the tool.

With your input in mind, we worked hard to come up with a user-friendly design. The new interface has a clear way to finish a track, and makes it easy to see whether you are recording. Take a look:

Gaia GPS v9.2 includes these additional fixes:

– Fixed intermittent map freezing on iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
– Fixed recording a new track occasionally resuming last track
– Fixed issue with GaiaPro subscription renewals
– Fixed freeze on exporting to email
– Fixed bugs that caused occasional app crashes.

We now support TileJSON files for adding new map sources, too.

Gaia GPS v9.2 is now available on our App Store page. If you enjoy Gaia GPS, please consider leaving us a positive review.

Check out the updates we made to the Knowledge Base, and as always, please feel free to email us at support@gaiagps.com if you have any questions or feedback.

In response to the release of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the iOS 8 update, we’ve launched updates to all three of our iOS apps this past week which include some general fixes and overall improvements.

Gaia GPS 9.1.3, Offline Topo Maps (OTM) 5.0.2, and our marine navigation app Skipper 2.0.2 are all derived from a common code base, so most of the changes made apply to all three apps. Also, the OTM code is now fully up to date with that of Gaia GPS, meaning the In-App upgrade functions more smoothly than ever.

To see a full list of the changes made to each app in their respective updates, or to complete the update, check out the App store from your device or visit the the iTunes page for:

– Gaia GPS 9.1.3
– Offline Topo Maps 5.0.2
– Skipper 2.0.2

Many thanks to all of you that have written in with valuable bug reports and feature suggestions. Your feedback has helped us make Gaia GPS, OTM, and Skipper what they are today, and we love knowing that our labors of love serve users of all types from backpackers and hunters, to scientists, search and rescue teams, ATV riders, and more.

If you have ideas or suggestions for us, please visit our Idea Forums. There you can submit ideas and vote/comment on existing ones. This feedback helps us make decisions for future releases, so your input counts!

– Visit the Gaia GPS & Offline Topo Maps Idea Forum
– Visit the Skipper Idea Forum

If you are experiencing issues with our apps:

1. Check our Knowledge Base for detailed explanations on many features, including step-by-step screenshots. (Vast improvements to the Skipper Knowledge Base coming soon.)

2. If you don’t find your answer in the Knowledge Base, please contact support. For the fastest service, please include details like device type, operating system and Gaia GPS version information, along with a description of the issue you are experiencing.