You’re on an adventure having the time of your life, until all of a sudden you’re lost. You can’t find the trail, and you don’t have cell service. Whether you’re hiking, offroading, running, or biking, we’ve all experienced that moment of panic. In fact, that’s a large reason why Gaia GPS was born.
Don’t worry, Gaia GPS has a feature to save you from hours of frantically trying to retrace your steps in vein. In fact, you can find out where you are in seconds, even when you can’t get a cell signal. All you have to do is pull out your phone, open Gaia GPS, and locate yourself on the map. Here’s how to do it.
Plan Ahead — Download Maps for Offline use
In order to locate yourself on the map, there is one catch. You must have your maps downloaded for offline use. Thankfully, downloading a map is easy to do. You just need a Premium Membership. Then you can download maps for the entire region that you’re traveling to, or even an entire state.
Pro tip: Before you leave the trailhead, start recording your tracks so you leave a bread-crumb trail of your steps right on the map. That way you can always retrace your steps and find your way back.
Locate Yourself on the Map
Lost and have no clue where you are? Find yourself on the map in seconds thanks to the “Locate” icon. Simply open the Gaia GPS app, and tap the circular icon with the four compass points in the very center of the top toolbar in the app. The arrow icon (called the “Map Arrow”) now shows your exact position on the map. Zoom in or out and pan around the map to get a better sense of your bearings.
Pro tip: You can quickly see how far away you are from the trail or the trailhead. Simply tap your desired destination on the map, and a drawer will pop up on the bottom of the screen showing the distance to it.
Navigate Your Way Back
Once you’ve located where you are on the map, you can use Gaia GPS to find your way back to familiar ground. If you are recording your tracks, hold your phone out in front of you and turn your body until the map arrow points in the direction of your breadcrumb trail. Start walking along your recorded track and your arrow should move right along with you.
If you’re not recording your tracks, don’t despair. Examine the map to find the trail, trailhead, or a particular feature on the map you’d like to reach. Once you’ve pinpointed your destination, you can even drop a waypoint onto the map for easy reference. Using the map arrow as a guide, work your way back.
Unlock the Backcountry with a Premium Membership
Stay found on your adventures with a Gaia GPS Premium membership. Access the map even when your phone is completely offline and in airplane mode so you can locate yourself on the map, create routes, create and edit waypoints to mark important spots like campsites and water sources, and record tracks and follow them back.
A Premium Membership also gives you access to Gaia GPS’s entire map catalog. Download hundreds of maps, including National Geographic Trails Illustrated, high-resolution satellite maps, weather overlays, and government-issued topo maps like USFS topo, all the USGS quad maps, and MVUMs.
