Map Tech

Over 10 years mapping apps have continually evolved. My phone has more mapping apps than I have cups of tea in a day.

Gaia
My go-to app when I want map detail and to record offroad (hiking, biking, skiing) travels. There is a good choice of detail maps to cover the world. All my ibiza mapping is now done with gaia and I’ve also recorded routes in morocco, cambodia and ski adventures. Gaia is fine for recording and following routes but no good for navigation.
Osmand
I’ve only started using Osmand a year ago. It is superb at downloading or creating complex routes and then following them. Examples are:
– I downloaded the offroad ACT Portugal 5 days route and followed it on adventure bikes.
– Ang/I did a week of remote roads in the Pyrennes on the Africa Twin and I planned and created each days route, typically with 6 or so waypoints to then follow it.
Navmii
My navigation map for cars and bikes. I download maps for countries so it is offline
Google Maps
My least favourite mapping app but it is useful if you want to find a place eg shop, bar.

PC
Occasionally I need a track viewer and editor on the PC. It turns out that gpx files are mixed in quality and may need cleaning up. I have tried ‘GPX Editor’ which was ok, but a bit complicated and used google maps. I’m currently running with ‘GPS track Editor’ which seems a cracking piece of kit. It uses public Openstreetmap and allows viewing, editing, cleaning …
I also occasionallyuse google earth

I found a new trick to video your route on google earth (see the mtb page for an example). You need google earth pro .. but search for how to get the app and a license.  Process is – get a gpx track of the ride with MotionX on the iphone or suunto watch – edit the track with GPS-tracks-editor on a PC- video the route with google-earth-pro- edit the video (to tune the video, add audio, compress, convert to mp4)  … I use videopad from NCH software- upload to youtube -HEY- this is el-primo faffing