Trip planning software

[wildhiker]

Caltopo.com has been my goto planning tool for several years now. I used to have National Geographic Topo! (the Mac version), but it stopped working after an operating system upgrade. Also, it never really worked that well. I exported my Topo! files, used GPSBabel to convert them to GPX (lost all the text annotations, unfortunately) and imported into Caltopo. I liked it so much that I signed up for the Pro subscription, which lets you create your own layers from the base data and print off maps of any size. Since I had access to a wide-format photo printer at my last job (now retired), I was able to make a 24 inch by 66 inch map of the northern Sierra with all our family backpack trips marked on it as a present for my daughter. The interface is spartan, but once you get used to it, Caltopo is very powerful. You can auto-trace multiple kinds of lines, including Forest Service trails, OpenStreetMap trails, your own trails you have previously made, and water features. Editing lines is easy. The lines you make can be semi-transparent - I use this to "highlight" my route in yellow for a planned trip and then print off that section to leave at home. Elevation profiles are really nice. There are advanced features I have never used that are intended for Search and Rescue teams, such as being able to display what you would see on the horizon from a selected vantage point, and ability to compute and display (in colors) slope angles. You can overlay data from multiple sources with any level of transparency you want - the vendor keeps adding more data, such as the frequently updated high resolution satellite imagery from the Sentinel program that everyone has been raving about this summer. Most of these features are available in the free version, too. And, as others have noted, with a subscription, you can link your mapped routes in real-time to Google Earth.
-Phil

[blaybelay]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this but Maps 3D Pro. I download GPX data through caltopo.com and upload it into Maps 3D Pro. It really helps visualize what kind of incline or decline to expect within any given rout you're planning. I'm not sure if its available for Android though.

[SirBC]

I like GAIA, but I have been encountering some serious flaws--sometimes the Gaia GPS does NOT show lakes. I've seen this happen on both the GAIA app and also the GAIA web site map.

This can create real problems if you are relying in GAIA GPS for navigation. I guess it's just shows that the only thing you can rely on is a paper map.

See the attachments. These are screenshots from my desktop computer. The first one is from Caltopo.com and the other is the same area shown on the GAIA web site. Caltopo shows all the lakes. But on the GAIA map, only Lake Italy and two other lakes are visible. About 20 or so other lakes are missing! This would make it very difficult to use these maps for navigation.

Like I said, I've encountered the same issue in the backcountry using the GAIA app. On the west side of Muir Pass.

The GAIA GPS app also hangs at random times on my phone, even though I have a new high-end phone (Samsung Note 9). This is a real nuisance, but I've always been able to solve it by force quitting the app and restarting. Sometimes I have to do this more than once before it starts working again, but this has always worked so far.

Like Caltopo, Gaia GPS also has many different map layers you can use. One of those is the USGS, so you can use that map source and it will show everything that the USGS map does. It also has NatGeo, USFS Roads, public lands, etc.

Screenshot_2019-08-20 Topo Map, Hiking Trails, Satellite Map.jpg

[schmalz]

I need to get more familiar with Gaia. I still use CalTopo for planning Sierra trips, but when I'm trying to plan dayhikes on trail systems, I use AllTrails a lot. My brother used to work for them so I scored a lifetime subscription, and there map builder feature is fantastic. You can basically click on a few trails and it combines their gps tracks. It gives me fairly accurate mileage, elevation gain/loss, and elevation profile info for hikes that I put into it. I've put together a handful of 20 mile loops in my local mountains with the help of it.