This is a very rare occasion. In the real hiking community, nobody uses Google maps
You don’t need to be part of a real community to know this. Google Maps is good to check opening hours and how many reviews an establishment deleted, not for actually getting anywhere.
Where I live it still works fine. It might not be perfect and it does not work great for longer bike tours (If you actually want nice tours and not just the shortest), but if you’re going by car or train it’s good.
if you’re going by car or train it’s good.
Goole’s far superior car navigation app is Waze.
What’s the big difference? I’m using Maps and it does its job. So what cool features does Waze have that Maps doesn’t?
Radar/autovelox/speedtraps community added. And with in-time alerting if you are passing in it and you are speeding
Also, in waze with few taps you can add a temporary issue on the rod, like a stopped car on the shoulder, traffico, police presence etc.
The temp issue thing is also in maps and the radar feature is not allowed in a lot of countries, so they probably won’t add it to maps
That’s the thing, in many countries it show them even if they are forbidden.
For me on many phones over the years the arrow in Google Maps never points into the direction of travel.
Although GMaps at some point integrated some of Waze warnings, Waze offers more and not just speed cameras others mentioned. Broken down car streetside, btw.
Yeah their maps are pretty shit, often missing paths. I use comaps which is offline open street maps, generally better but can still be lacking. Ordnance survey maps are the best and it isn’t even close.
Using ordnance survey maps is often like navigating a minefield. The ordinance survey maps are pretty helpful though.
Most people so rarely need to navigate legislation that Ordinance Survey maps aren’t common. Ordnance Survey maps on the other hand are great for navigating the British countryside.
I use comaps which is offline open street maps, generally better but can still be lacking.
Nothing is ever perfect and the quality also depends how active the OSM community is. In general Komoot is the common person’s way to access OSM data.
OSM’s reliability is very locational. I seem to be the only one that updates my area, which works out well as I have access to where future roads will be, (and I need them on the map for my job) but man. Construction here is crazy and a little assistance would be nice! At least OSM actually accepts my edits and additions, though. Google denies every single one, thus continuing the legacy of shit mapping by them.
how many reviews an establishment deleted,
This is something you can do?
This is something you can do?
Yeah, basically by claiming libel.
Willkommen in Deutschland. Yeah, Google added a „this restaurant has a lot of deleted reviews“ thing because German laws make it very easy for them to take down any criticism (unless customers can prove they were there with a receipt).
people who just got into hiking and don’t have a good mentor don’t know that
How’s OpenStreetMap for that and walking around? I’ve degoogled a bit ago and have been using Co-Maps for cycling and driving navigation, but I never tried using it for nature preserves and trails (or walking around the streets where I live in the US).
Openstreetmaps with comaps is what I use when I go backpacking, at times having more up to date and accurate information than physical maps. It also does a pretty great job with its time estimations, sometimes it feels the elevation (gain and loss) is off though
Openstreetmaps
It’s one map. So OpenStreetMap!
Here in BC too many tourists do use Google maps and get into trouble. At least these idiots didn’t lose their lives, that happens annually.
Who in their sane mind uses Google Maps for hiking?! That shit can’t build a proper pedestrian route inside the city…
Google maps generally does well in Japanese cities, but they’re mostly meant to be walkable anyway. It even knows about elevated routes over roads in many cities.
The linked video at the end of the article shows the trail, and it’s for sure an expert level trail, full of dangerous sections. The video says the full trail is only 30km long, but they reccommend 2-3 days, it’s full of steep sections, cliffs at the side, false trails leading nowhere, unstable terrain, bears… They were lucky they actually didn’t get seriously injured.
May I recommens CoMaps. Offline pro privacy and has trails.
has trails? like alltrails?
All trails is on my avoid list. Pushy, sales driven app. Buggy too. I seem to remember them beginning to try and get social as well. No thanks.
That’s what equity firm ownership gets you.
I’ll stick with comaps.
I’m having second thoughts on Alltrails as well, I started getting very suspicious of them when they started getting rid of their general features but want their users to pay more money, for the same experience. I also noticed that too, with the bugginess. Now the miles most of time for me not being recorded properly. With setting up CoMaps, I really hope I can use it as an alternative.
Trail sense is a good app to have with too. F-Droid or playstore, no internet used at all.
Hmm… I’m gonna try that one out and see if I like it.
You can import GPX tracks from favored route providers.
Not that quite detailed, just s basic OSM ones. I assume you could find a custom map and download that and run it off CoMaps.
It kind of depends on which park you are at. I was at a local zoo and it had every exhibit and animal marked.
Campsites and portages are marked too, comaps is great
OsmAnd. It can show public hike and bike paths, but UI takes time to get used to.
CoMaps is based off OsmAnd.
I tried it but it has a very steep learning curve
All you have to do is use your brain to figure out 18km of mountainous terrain is going to take longer than 5 hours.
And this is why i love https://www.wta.org/
Yeah but that’s limited to one state in one country.
Edit: not saying we aren’t awesome, we also have the esteemed WSDOT app and that social media team. Just that these things don’t apply and aren’t helpful to the vast majority of the world.
Yes, Google maps is bad for hiking. People that don’t hike don’t know what apps to use or how to recognize difficult trails. We all like to brag about our achievements (I hiked GR-11 in 29 days) but there’s very little value in saying “I’m a hiker and I know not to do that”. This story is supposed to warn non-hikers.
“Okay Google Maps, literally just stay in ur lane”
Typical Vancouver cidiot behaviour, nothing surprises me anymore
