Tracker: Trace Your Adventure

It’s high noon, you’ve summited, had your snacks, and taken the obligatory selfie when you notice some weather moving in off the horizon. Clouds are brewing, there’s no one else around, and all of a sudden that trail that was clear as day on the way up seems harder to follow given your elevated heart rate. No need to panic, this exact instance is why onX developed the Tracker feature. We all know that peaks, objectives, and milestones are important, but being able to get home is paramount.

The Tracker is a tool in the onX arsenal that, when enabled, traces your path through the landscape. It measures data points such as average speed, distance covered, and total time. Most importantly though, it maps where you’ve been, allowing you to retrace that line all the way back to the trailhead.

Let’s Get Going

To begin using Tracker as a hiking GPS, open onX Backcountry on your mobile device. Locate the “Tracker” button in the lower right corner of your screen. Upon selecting, click the green “Start” button to begin your journey. The blue dot, which indicates your real-time location, will turn red to denote that you’ve begun tracking. Once you’ve completed your adventure, simply toggle off your track, which will open a list of menu options allowing you to customize the weight of your lines, color, and style. Additionally, you can add notes, add to a Folder, or share it with hiking partners.

Before You Go…

One key thing to remember is that if you’re venturing into an area without reliable cell signal, make sure to download the Offline Map for the area you’ll be hiking. Tracker can work on and offline, but to be most accurate it’s best to have the Offline Map downloaded just in case. When you’re connected to an unreliable signal you may see zigs and zags that don’t represent your actual path of travel but your phone trying to connect to distant cell towers. We recommend turning your phone on Airplane Mode with an Offline Map so that you save on battery or consider picking up a Goal Zero Nomad 5 + Flip 12 so you never lose a charge.

Tracker can be a dynamic, reliable, and high-value tool for getting you to your destination and back, safely. The data it provides makes for great campfire chatter, helping friends enable their own adventures, or simply reminiscing on a day well spent in the wild.