Favorite App for Tracking Hikes

I use 3. Main one is Strava for hiking, running, and biking. Simple to use and keep track of. I don't believe I can import GPX files on this. Lots of friends using this, which helps motivate me at times.

MapmyRide is a good app. I like plotting out hikes on it on my computer and have it ready to go on my phone. The call out feature every X number of miles is nice when I'm on a fast hike or running/biking. Not many friends use this, so I really don't use it much myself.

GPSKit is for times I won't have cell coverage, but still need to look at the map. Great app with lots of neat features. Can import GPX files directly, which is really nice. This is my go-to for going deep into the woods. But I also use a Garmin etrex as well.

I use the free Google developed My Tracks for hikes and cycling. The stats don't exactly match my cycling computer but are good enough for my purposes. It uploads to Google docs for simple sharing and uses Google maps for mapping.

GaiaGPS has worked real well for me

thanks for the feedback! all of these apps are totally new to me and it's been fun checking them out. Strava got me thinking about how it might help me train if I had frieds on there pushing eachother on. Gotta look into that! My Tracks is definitely the app for us though, as a family. you can see your elevation profile in real time as you go which is going to be fun for my daughter. she's actually learning a few things about navigation from these apps. now i gotta find an actual GPS app for navigation, i'll check out gaia!!

Okay My Tracks is my favorite app so far for tracking mileage, elevation, calories, pace. However, after our first run with it, the elevation gain came out to 2,300 feet!! Wow, no wonder my 10 year old was tard!

Either this is very inaccurate, or I'm misunderstanding the stat. By looking the the elevation profile and manually counting feet dropped and gained, I'm only coming to 950', which is pretty much in line with what I would have guessed based on my experience.

But then the stat shows 2,300? Any ideas? Am I missing something? Even if the GPS was off and produced some weird elevations, that would show on the elevation profile, but the profile looks pretty accurate.

ok, so i just did a quick test sitting at my desk, for 22 seconds. All the stats seem accurate, showing 0 for distance, moving time, calories, and pace. However, the elevation show 177 feet for minimum, maximum, and for gain! So that does not seem like a GPS accuracy issue but a bug in the app.

The elevation value is the least accurate of the positioning by a GPS, as far as I know. It definitely has a tendency to jump around.

In case its helpful to anyone here…

The latest version of Google My Tracks (2.0.7) incorrectly handles elevation gain. When you start recording your hike, you will immediately be credited an elevation gain equal to your current starting elevation. For example, If I'm at 1,000 feet elevation, and I turn on tracking, immediately the elevation gain reads 1,000 feet before I've even started hiking.

2.0.6 apparently had this issue also. I rolled back to 2.0.5 and it's working fine but I dont get a calorie counter.

If it's a short hike or MTB ride, I'll use the iPhone but otherwise it's the Etrex 20 or Edge 510, but all my data goes to Strava, so that's the iPhone app I mainly use for track recording, mind you I've got Gaia which I use for navigation, GPS kit and few others which have track recording ability but I don't use them for track recording.

I use customs maps in the iPhone and the app are very specialized and few and far between but, I found one a few days ago and it allows you to adjust the track points recorded, I can set the point recording intervals to a wide range of seconds or metres apart, so I'm not sure if that will prolong the phone battery life, if it does, I might use that on longer walks.

http://www.builtsoft.com/diy-map-gps/

Thanks for pointing out the elevation bug. I use the app primarily for flat bike rides so missed it. It's good enough for distance and speed but I don't need high degree of accuracy. Hopefully we'll see a fix soon.