Routes are the backbone of the plan. Upload the track once and it flows everywhere — the Overview map, the itinerary, the elevation profiles, the PDF export and the safety brief.
Uploading A Route
On the Overview tab, upload a GPX, KML or GeoJSON file — exports from Gaia, AllTrails, Caltopo, park websites and most mapping apps all work. Pack Hiker parses the track, computes distance, ascent and descent, and draws it on the map in its own colour (pick one, or let the palette choose).
If the file contains several routes (say, a folder export with one track per day), you'll be asked how to import it: keep it as one combined route, or split it into separate routes — and you can tick exactly which ones to bring in. Files with very many tracks are best imported combined and then divided with the Section Planner.
Tip: You can re-download the original file any time from the route's menu — handy for loading it onto your GPS or phone nav app.
Distance, Ascent And Descent
Raw GPS tracks are noisy, and naive maths badly over-counts climb. Pack Hiker filters elevation the way dedicated hiking apps do, so ascent/descent figures are realistic and comparable with what your mapping app reports. Stats appear per route, per section and per itinerary day.
Elevation Profiles And Steepness
Every route has an elevation profile. Toggle the steepness heat map to colour the profile by grade — five colour-blind-safe bands from easy cruising to very steep — so you can spot the brutal climbs before they spot you.
Waypoints That Come With Your File
If your GPX file has embedded waypoints (water sources, campsites, huts…), Pack Hiker imports them and shows them on the map. You can link a waypoint to a food drop, a camp on the itinerary or a map point — the linked thing takes the waypoint's exact coordinates. There's also a bulk import that converts embedded waypoints into water points and camps in one go.
Note: Waypoints are read when a file is uploaded. If a route was uploaded before this feature existed, re-upload the file to pick up its waypoints.
Water, Reception And Click-To-Place
Beyond routes, the hike map holds shared points of interest:
- Water sources — tap, tank or natural
- Mobile reception spots — with a signal-strength percentage
Click anywhere on the map to add something at that spot: a tent or hut, a food drop, a water source or a reception point. If the spot is near a scheduled route, Pack Hiker tells you how far along the day's walk it is and offers to put it on that day's itinerary.
Getting Around The Map
- The locate button shows your live GPS position (allow location access when asked).
- Every "View map" opens the full map — placing and editing points works there too.
- On the Android app you can download offline map areas per hike — see Using Pack Hiker offline.
Note: Pack Hiker's maps are planning tools. Carry a dedicated navigation app or paper map (and know how to use them) for on-trail navigation.