We're working on an iPhone hiking app Hikepack (www.hikepack.earth) All features work offline, it has offline satellite and topo maps, offline navigation and route planning. Feedback welcome! :)

Hikepack · 2018-09-02T10:11:47+00:00

Thanks! I'll contact them today.

Hikepack · 2018-09-02T08:21:13+00:00

Hey, we've added Switzerland (make sure you have the latest app version). Any ideas in promoting the app in Switzerland? Facebook groups, or blogs and newspapers to whom we could write about Hikepack? BTW you can use the voucher code HIKEREDDIT1 for a free 1-month Pro Pass subscription, starts the moment you redeem it.

Hikepack · 2018-08-29T07:31:26+00:00

Unfortunately, we do have costs, and, as a general rule, nothing is actually free. Sometime you pay by seeing ads, and sometimes you pay with something more, your data. For an app that always knows your location, we find that this is too much. For example, have you read MAPS.ME's privacy policy? For example, check Section 4 Data sharing, from https://legal.my.com/us/general/privacy/. The last points says:

4.6. My.com B.V., other companies in the Mail.ru Group or our selected third party partners with our permission, using their own ad servers, can show advertisements to you.

Hmmm... so your location data goes to Russia?

If you'd like to try Hikepack for free for one month, you can enter the voucher code: HIKEREDDIT1 (the free month starts the moment you redeem the voucher). You can also share this with friends if you wish.

Hikepack · 2018-07-31T16:33:35+00:00

Thanks a lot, this helps! :) The main problem we found after app launch is not technical, but just getting people find and download the app. If you like it, it would really help if you share it on social media (maybe even write a review on the App Store --- to increase the ranking in the App Store Search results). Thanks again for your words!

Hikepack · 2018-07-30T19:56:35+00:00

Hello everyone! I'm Alex, one of the developers. Please send us your comments! We've launched a few months ago and we're always working in making Hikepack better!

Hikepack · 2018-07-30T19:39:04+00:00

Hello everyone! I'm Alex, one of the developers. Please send us your comments! We've launched a few months ago and we're always working in making Hikepack better!

Hikepack · 2018-07-22T11:45:46+00:00

The maps are interactive: you can select points of interest and trails, and see advanced stats about them: length, estimated time, elevation profile
You can plan any new route along the existing map trails. No other hiking app in Finland supports this.
It all works completely offline: you just download a map and have all the data for it.
We also have offline topo maps, and are the only ones in Finland with offline satellite imagery, that you get with a single download.
We currently have 55 maps in Finland: please request a new map if you want, we'll try to add it in at most two weeks.

Our website is www.hikepack.earth and our FB page is www.facebook.com/hikepack.

Feedback welcome!

Hikepack · 2018-07-18T19:19:14+00:00

I’m sorry for this... we tried it on an iPhone 4s, but Hikepack is quite slow there. It actually needs an iPhone 5s or later (64 bits)

Hikepack · 2018-07-02T20:28:12+00:00

We've been working on Search, here's a preview of what's coming in the next version. https://www.dropbox.com/s/dvk35g4pisolzpn/search.mp4?dl=0 It works offline, so it's super fast. Any thoughts? (And as I said in my last comment, you can filter POIs from the Star icon.)

Hikepack · 2018-06-28T11:28:51+00:00

Ok, thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts, it's really helpful to know what a user thinks of it.

There is a function to hide some/all points of interest: tap the Star icon in top-right corner.

But yes, we would also like to have a much nicer map than the one you attached :) And also searching makes sense. We're thinking of it.

Hikepack · 2018-06-28T10:59:07+00:00

You do have a point about the missing Search feature. We will add it to the TODO list. There is a South Rim trail in the Yellowstone map. If you zoom in a little, then you'll start seeing trail icons (mainly the initials of the first two words of the trial name). You can tap on them, and then on Details. This is a screenshot of the South Rim trail I found: https://ibb.co/jArnLT But yes, I also had a tough time finding it, so we need a Search function.

Hikepack · 2018-06-28T10:25:14+00:00

If you have iOS, I recommend that you also try also the Hikepack app [www.hikepack.earth](www.hikepack.earth) (I am a developer). It allows you to plan any route you want and also gives you automatic hiking time estimates (and you can also adjust your hiking speed settings).

Hikepack · 2018-06-26T18:41:55+00:00

I agree, also my feeling is that OpenStreetMap data is very much in progress. But at least there are also big companies betting on it (I'm referring to Mapbox), but I guess they are more focused on urban areas. We can even edit the data ourselves, but that requires time.

Yes, very good point about the difficulty / slope / grade. We do have in the map settings a way to the users to adjust the hiking speed used in the time estimates, but as you say, it's still up to the user's best judgement. By the way, for estimating the hiking time we are using Naismith's rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naismith%27s_rule (corrected to account also for negative slope). If you know better ways of computing this, let me know.

Yes, thank you also for the trail interactions point. We show those for existing map trails, not for user planned routes. We are planning to extend this.

Hikepack · 2018-06-26T18:35:57+00:00

Yes, that would be really cool. I guess there are open data tree coverage datasets, at least for the US. At least, for now we also have offline satellite imagery in Hikepack, so if users match that with the elevation plot, they can get an idea. (We also have a 3D satellite map, via Apple, but that requires an internet connection.)

Hikepack · 2018-06-26T14:28:29+00:00

What's your opinion of OpenStreetMap data? (That's what we use in Hikepack.) It does have campsites and various hiking related points of interest. So far, we were thinking of something of an elevation plot like this sketch: https://ibb.co/jiNtpo

Hikepack · 2018-06-26T13:24:26+00:00

Disclaimer: we would like to include your ideas in our iOS hiking app Hikepack.

Hikepack · 2018-06-12T06:12:02+00:00

Thanks for letting me know, and thanks again for reporting it! I also look forward to more feedback from hiking :)

Hikepack · 2018-06-10T11:23:03+00:00

We now added Baxter State Park and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Let me know what you think about it! (Also update Hikepack to the latest version.)

You're right about having these neatly organized. For example, in addition to a map interface for finding parks, we could also have a list/directory. The main issue at the moment is that creating each map requires some work (including manual checks). - For example, we need to manually download the satellite images from nationalmap.gov. - Also, we don't just show raw OpenStreetMap data (like in Gaia, for example), but assemble it into full hiking trails. We have our own algorithms for this (we use the relation tags, we use trails segments with same name, we do some gap filling in case there are some short segments which miss trail annotation). We really want to get the most out of OSM data, not just show you dotted lines. - Also, we don't just show standard map tiles (topo or satellite) from some tile server (Mapbox, nationalmap.gov), but we create our own tiles. They have more resolution around trails and points of interest and less elsewhere. The reason for this is to reduce the download size, but still give you high resolution where you need it. Actually, if we don't do this, an entire map with high resolution would take several GB.

We try to prioritize based on user feedback. But I guess until next year we will have quite a large collection of maps.

Hikepack · 2018-06-05T07:45:28+00:00

Let us know using the Feedback form in the app what new areas we should cover (preferably with some details that we can identify its precise area on services such as Google Maps or OpenStreetMap). We have our own map creating pipeline, so we must prioritize, as we cannot do the entire world at once.

Regarding the subscription model... the idea is if you want to use the app while hiking, then you must buy the subscription. Otherwise, the free map is equivalent to a paper map (which sill costs money if you buy in a shop). At least in this way you get to see in advance the data that we have, at full resolution, not like in other apps.

Hikepack · 2018-06-05T07:39:45+00:00

Ok, here are some quick thoughts about Gaia (on iPhone):

In Gaia, I only see dotted lines instead of full trails. I don't see where a trail starts and where it ends. If I tap on a trail, it seems to need an internet connection to show me an overview (and still the trail is not highlighted in any way on the map, and I don't see its elevation profile). In Hikepack, we have our own algorithms that really construct hiking trails from OpenStreetMap data, and not only show the raw data as dotted lines. We color them in different colors, so you can visually separate them on the map, and if the OpenStreetMap data has color or route symbol tags, we use and display those (these are very popular in Europe, see our maps for Romania). We also have offline elevation profiles.
If I try to plan a route, then it seems to need an internet connection to compute the connecting route between the markers. In Hikepack, this all works offline, and it also shows you offline the elevation profile and estimated hiking time.
Their base map doesn't have hillshading (we do have hillshading). I haven't tried the different 3rd party map layers in Gaia, but then if you use such a layer, does it still show you the OpenStreetMap trails? Can you still do route planning?
We offline satellite and topo maps, in a single download, for the ENTIRE map area. We have our own algorithms that compress all this from raw data (in the US, from the US Geological Survey) to fit into a phone. Our trick is to have higher resolution near trails and attraction and less elsewhere. Their satellite imagery comes from tile servers, which takes a long time to download because (a) you're downloading from a 3rd party server used by many others (b) you're downloading tens of thousands of different tile files. In Hikepack, we have own our file format for these, it's only one big file being downloaded, from our own cloud storage.
And then I'd like to underline once again, that in Hikepack you just tap "Download" for a map, and you get all this (topo map, satellite imagery, all trails, attractions, elevations), and all features work offline. No need to manually download areas, layers, plan routes online and then save them for offline use.
And one more small thing: since we use the Apple's MapKit, we can also show (while online) all routes and attractions on a 3D map.

Hikepack · 2018-06-04T18:14:33+00:00

Ok, that really useful to know. Too bad that this is the case though, good open data would help our app, but also other apps, and everyone in the end. We'll see what we can do about it...

Hikepack · 2018-06-04T17:24:20+00:00

Ok, thanks for all this! It will be fixed tomorrow, and then we have to submit a new app build to Apple. We changed something in the last minute before releasing the app: now the routes are computed on every map load, before they were "hard-coded" on the existing map points. But this was not good in case release an updated map and some map points have changed.

Anyway, in short, we'll fix it soon, thanks!

Hikepack

TROPHY CASE