How to Use Trail Tracker

A glove-friendly GPS map for marking blood sign, tracking your walk, and finding your way back to the truck — even with spotty cell service.

Before You Head to the Woods

Open the app once while you have signal — at home or in the parking lot. This caches the map and app for offline use in the timber.
Add to Home Screen (iPhone) — Safari → Share → Add to Home Screen. The icon will say Trail Tracker and opens full-screen like a native app.
Allow location access when prompted. Choose While Using the App (or Always if your phone offers it for better tracking).
Keep screen awake if you can — Low Power Mode and auto-lock can slow GPS updates.

Tip: Open How to Use once on Wi‑Fi, then you can open the installed app offline in the field. Map tiles you’ve already viewed stay cached.

Starting a Track

Tap Open Tracker (or open from your home screen).
Wait for the GPS dot in the header to turn solid green — that means you have a fix.
Your truck / start point is set automatically at your first GPS lock. You’ll see a green marker on the map.
As you walk, a blue line records your path automatically.

Map style

Satellite (default) — aerial imagery like onX or HuntingPoints. Best for reading terrain in the timber.
Hybrid — satellite with road and place labels.
Topo — contour-style topo map.
Map — standard street map.

Use the bar along the bottom of the map, the Layers button, or tap the satellite icon on the right to switch styles. Tiles you’ve already viewed stay cached for offline use.

Map buttons

Right side: Satellite quick-switch, Layers, GPS follow (tap to pan freely), ◎ Center, 🚗 Truck (moves start point to your current location).
Left side: Load Property Lines and 📍 property pin — drop a pin on a parcel, then load boundaries (full app).
Top: address search bar — jump to any location for scouting (turn off GPS follow first).

Blood & Sign Pins (one tap each)

Large buttons at the bottom — easy with gloves. Each drop places a pin at your current GPS spot and opens a note field.

First Blood Where you first found blood

Heavy Blood Strong sign — pools, spray, heavy trail

Last Blood Where sign faded or stopped

Bedded Here Deer bedded down along the trail

Arrow Found Arrow or broadhead location

Tap a pin on the map later to edit its note (terrain, direction, color of blood, etc.).

Header Stats

To Start Straight-line distance back to truck

Bearing Compass direction toward start (e.g. NE 45°)

Walked Total distance you’ve tracked on this path

Use To Start and Bearing when you’re deep in the timber and need to head back without getting turned around.

Land Layers (Full App)

Tap Layers on the map to open the panel. Land overlays require the full app (one-time purchase).

Public land

Toggle Public land to show federal BLM boundaries on the map (orange/green overlay).
Helps you see where public land meets private — useful when tracking near property lines.
Requires cell signal or prior map load for overlay tiles.

Property lines (full app or free trial)

Easiest — draw on the map:

Layers → Draw on map
Walk or drive your property edge and tap each corner on the satellite view
Tap Finish — yellow outline saved on this phone

From your county: Layers → County tax / parcel maps → use GPS or pick your state. Open the official county or state GIS link, export KML/GeoJSON if offered, then Import file.

From onX: Share → Export → GeoJSON (advanced).

Free tier: GPS, pins, GPX, and offline work without buying. Free accounts can save up to 5 tracks on the device.

Account & Cloud Backup

Tap Account in the tracker header.

Full app — one-time purchase unlocks public land overlay, private boundary import, and unlimited saved tracks.
Cloud backup — optional monthly subscription syncs your saved tracks across devices (requires full app + email login).
Tracks always stay on your phone first; cloud is a backup and sync layer, not a replacement for offline use.

See pricing on the home page. Property lines are approximate — read the map & property disclaimer.

Save, Export & Past Tracks

Save Track

Tap Save Track, name the hunt (e.g. “Nov 12 — North Ridge”), and confirm.
From the same screen you can Export as GPX — opens in onX, Gaia GPS, Google Earth, and other mapping apps.

Past Tracks

Past Tracks lists everything you’ve saved on this phone.
Tap a track to load it on the map again.
GPX on a row exports that hunt. ✕ deletes it.

Start New Track

Clears the current map for a fresh recovery. Save first if you want to keep what’s on screen.

Offline & GPS Tips

Works offline after the first load — your path and pins are stored on the device.
New map areas need a cell signal (or prior visit) to load tiles.
GPS works without cell towers; tall timber and ravines can weaken the signal — wait for the green GPS dot before dropping pins.
Dark theme is intentional for pre-dawn and flashlight use.

In thick cover: Drop pins often. Notes like “turned left at blowdown” are worth more than you think when you backtrack an hour later.

Suggested Recovery Flow

Mark First Blood at the hit site. Set truck with 🚗 if needed.
Mark Heavy and Last Blood as you work the trail.
Use Bedded Here or Arrow Found when relevant.
Glance at Bearing and To Start before pushing deeper.
Save Track when the recovery ends — export GPX if you want a backup or to share with your party.

Open Tracker Back to Home