I鈥檓 sure it鈥檚 happened to you. Walking or biking on a familiar trail in Squamish, you see a side trail or offshoot and decide to follow it on a whim. The next thing you know, you鈥檙e feeling like Hansel and Gretel (minus the whole cannibalistic witch thing, hopefully), lost and unable to find the main trail again.
Or maybe there鈥檚 a new trail you鈥檝e been wanting to explore, but are hesitant because you鈥檙e afraid of getting lost and having to survive on tree bark and roots until you become cougar kibble.
Either way, you never have to worry about getting lost on a Squamish trail again.
This past week, my wife Julie (I do call her 鈥渨ife鈥� because the 小蓝视频-centric 鈥減artner鈥� makes it sound like we run a reasonably successful law firm together) was taking our new puppy for a walk. She wanted to take the pup for a longer walk and tucker her out, to prevent the darn pooch from chewing the furniture at home. She鈥檚 teething (the dog, not Julie), and even though she has a dozen toys to choose from, she prefers our coffee table for relief. Dogs.
They opted for the Ray Peters Trail. Unfortunately and despite having lived in Squamish for many years, my wife hadn鈥檛 explored that particular trail yet, and being with kids and a new puppy, she decided against venturing in too far. After a short while, along comes a friendly local who not only exchanges pleasantries with my family, but also shows them a great iPhone app called TrailMapps: Squamish.
If you already have an iPhone and use its map application regularly, then you will already be familiar with how TrailMapps works. It鈥檚 basically a GPS-enabled map of all the biking/hiking trails in Squamish (or as complete as they can make it, I suppose) right in the palm of your hand.
As both an avid hiker and biker (although not of the Test of Metal kind鈥� certainly not on my $200 Canadian Tire special trail bike), I instantly saw the obvious value of the app and downloaded it. After tapping a home screen, the mobile program takes you to a good-looking satellite image with a street overlay map of the Squamish area. On the bottom are five buttons for search, a compass overlay, enabling/disabling GPS and distances, and app info.
Tapping the search button takes you to a list of all the trails offering detailed descriptions, ratings and levels of difficulty (green, blue, black diamond). It鈥檚 a pretty handy feature that makes it easy to decide where you鈥檒l be hiking/biking today. The GPS feature is what makes it so necessary for any Squamish outdoor enthusiast, though. Just pop into your settings and enable location services for the app, then tap the GPS enable button at the bottom of the map and voil脿 鈥� a teensy weensy icon pops up showing your location in Squamish. As you wander a particular trail, the little-bitty icon moves along the map as well, always giving your exact location.
TrailMapps also offers the same type of app for pretty much every community in 小蓝视频 with trails, so you can now feel free to explore any trail network in the province with confidence.
I guess the only drawback is that the apps are 鈥減aid鈥� apps and not free. They鈥檙e also pretty steep at $10 for each community鈥檚 particular trail map app. But, considering how much my family likes exploring the trails, it was worth tapping the 鈥渂uy now鈥� button at the app store. They鈥檝e even got one created especially for the Sea to Sky Gondola and its Sky Pilot trail.
So, while this tech can鈥檛 actually keep you from being eaten by a cougar (or a warty old lady with a penchant for diabetes-inducing real estate), it can help you enjoy Squamish鈥檚 sweet trail networks without fear of losing your way.
