Alltrails

The Alltrails app seems to be the best for navigating on - for anyone who has tried to walk using Google maps it is a revelation. And lots of the standard features showing time and speed etc are fun and useful too, and also the trick of buzzing if you stray from the route. But I wish it was purely focussed on hiking, and some other bits drive me bonkers. Some of the features I do not like are:

• when you finish a route you have to go through an annoying process of rating the route - unnecessary

• it is not curated. So what you have is a kind of Wikihike but with no one in charge. The snags with that are:

  • the main public website is a mess, at least the main map. There are bike routes mixed with hiking routes, and routes of very varied quality (which is why our routes are not on there - we have a separate Ærø Alltrails page belonging to the Ærø tourist office)

  • worse, once routes are uploaded, no one keeps them updated (this was a problem for me recently on the Westweg in the Schwarzwald, where the route on Alltrails was often outdated).

  • worse still, no one seems to check the quality of the uploaded route. Some are really not so good (I keep ours checked and updated)

• it is quite easy to turn the app off accidentally whilst walking, which is bad news if you are trying to record the route

• it seems to eat battery life, although I’d be interested to hear other opinions, especially since Apple seem to enjoy sabotaging their own phones.

• it is a bugger to upload routes on if you draw them yourself. They nearly got it right, but some of the functionality is designed to test your patience and stamina. If you do try it you need a bottle of Ærø Whisky nearby for when you finally crack.

• it seems to be impossible to engage with the people who run and own the site. Hello?? Are you out there? I’d love to discuss these thoughts with you.