hiya from Canmore, Alberta—a hotel metropolis nestled around the toes of Canada’s Rocky Mountains. even as my partner works her manner thru a -week barren region wi-first-useful resource direction, I’ve been left to my own devices to wander the town, the woods, and the mountains that surround it on all aspects. Given my environment, I don’t think that there’ll ever be a better time for us to talk approximately the use of your iPhone or iPad’s GPS to navigate.
Apps like Apple Maps, Navigon, and Google Maps are amazing solutions for wi-findingwireless your manner around, supplied your adventures don’t involve straying farther than marked roadways, gasoline stations, or coffee shops. however wander out c084d04ddacadd4b971ae3d98fecfb2a or mobile variety, or cross someplace aside from a acknowledged road or well-worn footpath, and they sort of suck. They’re all varieties of terrible at showing the kind of topographical records that you’d wireless wi-fi on a hike.
canmore
Séamus Bellamy
Mountains are a terriwiwireless factor of reference, but having GPS to fall back on is constantly a win.
And at the same time as the GPS chip for your telephone or tablet can offer you with location statistics without the want for cellular or c084d04ddacadd4b971ae3d98fecfb2a, you’ll want maps and other positional information driven into your device from the interwebz on the way to make any experience of it. real, a few apps obtainable like Google Maps will permit you to download maps for offline use, but they’re a pain to use and don’t supply me the type of facts I want after I’m wandering out into the woods.
That’s why I hold Gaia GPS on my iPhone.
Gaia GPS doesn’t offer turn-with the aid of flip navigation and hasn’t got a clue approximately wherein the closest Starbucks is. but the app comes packed full of navigation features and orienteering options that everyone can take gainwireless of, whether they’re the usage of it within the center of nowhere on a three-day through hike or wi-fi their manner round a location where cell connectivity is prohibitively high-priced or clearly nonexistent.
gaia iphone
you can use Gaia GPS to track where you’ve been in addition to wherein you’re going.
An app for maps
A usual app, Gaia GPS is to be had from the iTunes App save for $20 (or on Android gadgets, if you have to.) regardless of what piece of hardware making a decision to throw it on, you’ll be furnished with a wealth of statistics. whilst you’re at the flow, Gaia GPS can provide information for your common speed, pace, the time you’ve spent shifting, how lengthy it’ll take you to get to your vacation spot, altitude, and the instances for dawn and sunset on your current place. at the top of the app’s interface, you’ll wi-fi virtual compass to help you get your bearings, while the bottle of your show gets eaten up by means of a row of customizable wi-fields that can be used to expose a spread of metrics and a shortcut for taking geotagged snap shots in an effort to appear as waypoints on your map. talking of which, maps are Gaia’s major enchantment.
maximum GPS apps have 3 ways to look the sector: road maps, satellite tv for pc imagery, and a hybrid of both. however Gaia GPS provides visitors with the capability to pick their map source. even as the use of the app in Canmore in mid-might also, I counted seventy four map assets and overlays from a wide type of global sources, which include a few which cater to cyclists, aviation, and maritime users. If that’s now not wi-ficientwireless flexibility for you, it’s additionally viable to go into TMS tiles from a non-public map server, or any you may come upon on on-line.
maps
Gaia GPS provides a extensive form of maps styles.
As I noted in advance, Gaia GPS doesn’t provide an extensive database of eating places, nearby points of interest, and places to save like Google Maps and different comparable offerings do. It does, but, come packed complete of statistics on places to shelter for the night time, factors of hobby in countrywide parks, and hiking paths around the world, making it easy to plot a month’s really worth of adventures or a day stroll with the circle of relatives.
All of those maps and records are to be had to get admission to at a second’s be aware over a wireless connection, that’s cool. however you understand what’s truelywireless cool? Being able to down load all of it to your handset or pill at sincerely any length to be used in regions and not using a wireless statistics. To download a map, open the My Maps menu, drag a container over the area you want so as to get admission to offline, and Bob’s your uncle. Gaia GPS puts no restriction at the the wide variety of maps you can download on your tool—so long as you’ve were given the garage area, you’re accurate to head.
gaia watch
allow your wrist lead the way!
perhaps my favourite feature of Gaia GPS is that it comes with an Apple Watch app which you may wi-finitely discover wi-fi. in place of hauling out my iPhone SE every short while to determine out in which i’m, a short glance at my wrist presents me with a topographical map for my on the spot vicinity, bearing, elevation, modern speed, and the way a long way and how long I’ve been hiking for. wiwireless of all, the app will will let you mark waypoints as you stroll, so that you can wi-ficultywireless discover your manner returned to the trailhead, campsite, or hostel after taking a wander thru the town. It’s quite top notch.
My handiest real criticism isn’t uniquewireless to the app—like every GPS app, Gaia GPS is a grimy, wi-filthy battery hog. at the same time as this could now not be a hassle if your adventures most effective take you faraway from a power supply for a few hours at a time, longer journeys without the potential to recharge your phone may want to depart you misplaced and unable to name for assist. bring alongside an outside battery or put money into a slick-searching battery case to slap to your phone—you may by no means have an excessive amount of electricity.
subsequent time: We’ll take a look at the Garmin Tactix Bravo. It’s a hard GPS wireless watch with a feature set that’s so robust it would make you want to cheat in your Apple Watch.