TrailCam
Guides
Short, honest answers to the questions people actually ask about trail data. No account needed, nothing to install to read them.
Guides
- What is a GPX file, and what opens it?
- A GPX file is a plain-text XML file holding GPS coordinates. What is inside one, the difference between tracks, routes and waypoints, and every common way to open it.
- How to export a hike to GPX
- A step-by-step explanation of exporting a recorded hike as a GPX file, what ends up inside it, and how to upload it to Strava, Garmin Connect or Komoot.
- GPX vs CSV for trail data: which should you keep?
- GPX preserves the route itself; CSV is a spreadsheet of summaries. What each format keeps, what each one throws away, and why keeping both is usually right.
- How to track a hike without cell service
- GPS and mobile data are different systems. Why your position still works with no bars, what actually stops working, and how to prepare before you lose signal.
- How much battery does GPS tracking use on an iPhone?
- What actually drains the battery during a tracked hike — the screen, the cellular radio and the GNSS receiver ranked honestly — and what to change to make a phone last a full day.
- What elevation gain actually means on a hiking app
- Cumulative elevation gain explained: how it is computed, why two apps disagree about the same walk, and what a climb figure does and does not tell you.
Recording your own routes
TrailCam is an iPhone app that records your route with GPS, keeps video clips, photos and voice notes pinned to the spot where you took them, and exports the result as GPX 1.1 or CSV. It is free to download.