CalTopo

“this is my ultimate no BS guide on navigating how to find Trails how to navigate offline what apps and devices to use how to read a map avoiding potential mistakes if you like going outdoors I promise that this video will be useful to [Music] you for finding some hiking trails to follow I realistically recommend only two websites alt Trails if you're from North America and wikil loock if you're from anywhere else all you need to do is log in with a free account select hiking as the main activity zoom into the area where you want to be hiking and start looking for different hiking trails when you find a hiking trail that you like simply download the GPX file for this Trail which you'll need later for actually navigating it I recommend doing this on your PC because you can get the GPX files on there completely for free if you'll try doing that on your phone using either of these two hiking apps then you'll need a premium account when it comes to actually navigating the trail you can navigate using your phone a map and a compass a GPS watch or a GPS unit nowadays I would say that the cheapest and easiest solution is using a navigation app on your phone because your phone has a pretty accurate built-in GPS which doesn't need an internet connection and it doesn't need any self-service to work most smartphones nowadays are pretty reliable but of course something could happen to them so you always need some kind of a backup if you're in a budget one option that you could do is use your old smartphone for this simply upload all the maps in it before you leave while you're still at home keep it in a Ziploc back bag while you're hiking and also bring a power bank in case you need to charge it another really good way to navigate is payer maps and a compass one downside for this is that you'll be navigating at much larger scal so there won't be as much information on the map and also it is a bit easier to get lost because you'll always have to guess your current location based on the trrain to get paper maps for free for certain areas I would recommend the web version of caltopo you can upload a GPX file on there for free select all the information that you want to see in the background of the map and then download and print it completely for free two months ago korus sent me my first ever GPS watch and honestly when I first received it I thought that I wouldn't probably use it that much I thought of it more as a luxury item but now it's totally become an essential item for me which I use every day when I'm Outdoors that's because if I'm navigating just using my phone I have to take it out of my pocket every few minutes to make sure that I'm still on the trail but using this thing I can just raise my hand and quickly glance at the screen and make sure that I'm still on the trail and my phone can stay in my pocket now I need to take out my phone only when I want to look at a bigger map because realistically this screen is a bit too small to find out potential water sources potential detours and so on using your phone is still much better for that so to sum up you don't really need a GPS watch you can just navigate using your phone but I think that getting a GPS watch is a very useful upgrade which makes your life easier GPS units in my opinion nowadays are pretty much useless of course they are much more accurate and much more reliable compared to your phone however the accuracy on the GPS on your phone usually is accurate enough for hiking and to offset the reliability you can just bring another phone that you aren't using right now I'm trying something new I'm not accepting any sponsors on this channel including this video it doesn't have any sponsors so the best way that you can support this channel if you want to of course is by checking out my own posters that I make together with my wife on trail goals”