Navigation isn’t the only reason to use a map while hiking. Often you want to get an idea for how far you have traveled and how far you have left to go. Should we stop for lunch now or wait until we get to the lake? How much farther do we have left until we get to the top of this brutal up hill? Should we stop here for the night or push on to the next campsite? While you could use the Topo Maps+ record feature to record your hike to know exactly how far you have come, it will not tell you how far you have left to go and if you are on an extended backpacking trip you probably don’t want to drain your battery with GPS constantly running to record your hike. Using trail segments along with progress along a trail now lets you easily answer these questions without recording your hike. It is awesome (and a bit magical feeling) to have this information while hiking deep in the backcountry.
Trail Segments
Topo Maps+ will automatically analyze a trail to create segments from trail junctions, waypoints, and photos. A trail segment is a portion of the trail between two locations of interest on the trail. For this example lets look at hiking Cady Ridge to Blue Lake in the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness (this was the first place I tested trail segments in the backcountry). I have already joined all of the trails together for this route. It is the trail in blue.
You can access the trail segments by selecting the trail and then selecting the button in the upper right corner of the elevation graph.
This will bring up the trail segments. At the top of the trail segments is an elevation graph and it will tell you what point the distances are relative to. In this case the distances are relative to the trailhead. As you scroll down you can see each segment. The distance to the left of the segment is the distance from the trailhead to that point by following the trail and the vertical distance listed on the green line between the points is the distance for that segment. So in this case you can see that the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail is 6.11 miles from the trailhead and that the segment for the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail to the junction with the North Fork Skykomish Trail is 1.29 miles.
I can add my own segments simply by adding waypoints to the map by the trail. Here I added a waypoint for a good place to stop and eat lunch, a possible campsite by Dishpan Gap, and our final campsite. Now when I go to the trail segments, I can see these waypoints in the list. I can see that the location I picked for lunch is 5.68 miles from the trailhead and it is 2,726 feet of elevation gain to get to it. When you add a waypoint close to trail it is automatically added to the list of segments, you don’t need to do anything else.
I can change the point the distances are relative to. I can change the distances to be relative to the lunch location by tapping on the icon for that segment. In this case I will tap on the green lunch icon. This will let me see what the distances will be like after lunch. So now you can see that the junction with the Bald Eagle (Curry Gap) Trail is 1.71 miles after lunch.
If you want to look at this in more detail you can select the row from the list. This will highlight the portion of the trail you are looking at on the map and it will give you an elevation graph for this portion of the trail. Here I selected the Junction with Bald Eagle (Curry Gap) Trail with the distances relative to the lunch break.
If you have hiked this trail before and have taken pictures along the trail, they will also show up as segments.
You can select which types of data you want to show up in the trail segments by selecting the settings for this trail segment. You can also reverse the direction of the trail from here.
Progress on Trail
While you are hiking you can use the trail segments to see your progress along the trail. In Topo Maps+ select My Data in the toolbar and then Progress on Trail. Here you will see all of the trails you are close to and what percentage of that trail you have completed hiking if you started at the beginning of that trail. Since I am hiking the Cady Ride to Blue Lake trail I will select that trail.
Now I will see the trail segments, but this time they are relative to my current location. You can see the current location on the elevation graph, it is 68% of the way from the trailhead to the trailend. We have come 6.26 miles and we still have 2.86 miles left to go.
Now when I scroll down into the trail segments all of the distances on the left are relative to my current location. So here I can see that I have come 0.56 miles since lunch and I have 1.09 miles left to go until I get to the Junction with the North Fork Skykomish Trail.
I can select a row in the trail segments to see an elevation graph from my current location to that point. If I select the segment for the highest point on this trail I can see an elevation graph from my current location to the pass just above Blue Lake.
Now while you are hiking you can quickly check Topo Maps+ to see how much farther you have left to go and you can use this information to help you make decisions about when to keep pushing on and when to stop.
Apple Watch
Do you ever just wonder, how much farther to the top of this brutal climb, I must be at least 75% of the way to the top, or how much farther until we get to camp? With an Apple Watch you can just glance at your wrist to find this information. When you select a trail from Progress on Trail the trail information and segments are sent to the watch. Now when you glance at your watch you can see distances along this trail relative to your current location along with the elation graph for your current trail. At the bottom of the elevation graph is the distance along this trail from the trailhead to your current location and from your current location to the end of the trail. Above the elevation graph is the distance from your current location to the next trail segment. If you scroll down and select another trail segment, the distance to the segment will be displayed at the top.
