The maps on Gaia GPS are topographical, and they display peaks and points of interest. Like and Topo Maps Canada (discussed below), it shows a huge range of trails that aren’t necessarily the marked route which is really helpful, but use those with caution if you are not experienced. If you’re an experienced backcountry hiker with route-finding skills, someone who likes to adventure on less well-known trails that often aren’t well marked, this is an especially helpful app, but it’s really useful for all levels of hikers. There is a small fee to get member level access, which you need so you can download maps for offline use, but it is the best money you’ll ever spend on an app as a hiker. In my opinion, Gaia GPS is the best hiking app out there, the one I use to help me to research trail details and navigate on trails. It’s also cool to share with friends and family when doing races so they can track my progress. It offers a great sense of security to have my partner see where I am when I’m out hiking or running without him in case there’s ever an emergency in which I need assistance.

When enabled, it allows you to share your activities as they happen in real-time with anyone you choose.

The coolest feature I love about it is called LiveTrack. Like some other apps, you can connect with other users, set and track challenges, and it can pull and share data from/to other apps like Apple Health and Strava. It also tracks health data like sleep, stress level, steps, weight, calories, and more. In addition to standard stats like mapping, time, pace, distance, elevation and calories, it also tells you things like VO2 Max, training effect, heart rate, life left in gear, and it analyzes your stats to automatically give you personalize insight such as how you compare to other similar users, your level of effort, how to improve, etc. Photo by Connect is an all-encompassing app that uses your Garmin tracking device to record all physical activities from hiking and running to cycling, swimming, kayaking, snowboarding and more. Scrambling Downton Creek area wearing my Fenix 3 HR watch.

Relive hiking app