Navigating a Route on the Trail

1. 1
   Open your saved route, scroll to the first map shown on the route page, and click Get Directions. This hands you off to driving directions for the trailhead itself, which is what you want before you’ve even parked.
   

1. 1
   Cell service drops out in the hollows on most of our trail systems, so open the route at home on Wi-Fi, toggle Save Offline, and it downloads for use with no signal at all. A map you can’t load at the trailhead isn’t much of a map.
   

1. 1
   Click Navigate on the route. Numbered waypoints along the line run in the order you’ll reach them, and a large white arrow shows the direction to go next.
   

   
2. 2
   Tap the compass icon to switch from keeping north at the top of the map to a heading that follows your own direction of travel instead, whichever you find easier to read.
   

A few other icons worth knowing while you’re navigating:

• Eyeball
  Temporarily hides the route line so you can see the map underneath it.
  
• Camera
  Takes a photo without leaving the navigation screen.
  
• Layers
  Switches to satellite view. It’s not ideal for navigating, so it’s fine to ignore this one.
  

1. 1
   Open Controls on iPhone or the settings caret on Android, and turn off Auto-rerouting (also called Auto replan), so the app doesn’t silently reroute the whole group off the planned hike if somebody steps off the trail briefly.
   

   
2. 2
   Turn Voice instructions on or off to your own preference.

• Android
  Open settings, press and hold Pause, click Finish, and follow the prompts to save your activity.
  
• iPhone
  Click Controls, click Pause, then click Finish, and follow the prompts to save.
  

Back to Navigating the Trails