If you have spent any time in the outdoors in Canada in the last 20 years, you’ve likely spend a good chunk of time staring at a map or book from Backroad Mapbooks! Well, welcome to the modern age and the newest version of the Android and iPhone app. If you spent any time with the old version, it was very much a static image of the paper maps with a gps locator dot. But, the current iteration is incredibly robust and feature rich. Not to mention their fantastic choice in colours….
Desktop Web Map
Like most things these days, there is a large-screen desktop version that syncs with the phone app. I gives you a few more options such as uploading .GPX files from other sources (like right here on I Think We Missed a Turn!). It’s a great way to plan at home before you roll, and save individual tracks to ‘My Trip’. More on uploading files a bit later…
Mobile Phone App
I’m fully able to admit defeat. This newest version on the Backroad Mapbooks app has /most/ of the functionality that I’ve been trying the hard way to create over the last few years. But, when you have 20 years of experience and actual resources, this is what you get. It has the detailed base map we’ve come to love over the years, but now it’s scalable! You only see the details that are appropriate at each scale level, it only gets to the fine details once you zoom all the way in. And then there’s all the waypoints! Camping, fuel stations, lodging, you name it… it’s all there. Seriously, this thing feels like a blending of Google Maps and iOverlander, and that’s a really good thing! But……with things downloadable and usable offline. Which those two don’t. Backroad Mapbooks actually gets the fact that we do things out there and it’s made to be used offline. You know, where are the good places tend to be…
All the Layers
You can turn on or off a crazy bunch of different layers, depending on what you want/need to see at any one time. I’ve been playing with different combinations and I know what I like, but everyone has different requirements.
Offline and uploading files
And amazing as all this information is, what makes it yours? Well, through the web map, you can upload anything you want. If you already have a crazy collection of Tracks and Waypoints you’ve collected for years in another app, they have you covered. Just export them from GAIA, Google Maps, Basecamp, whatever. And boom, you still have everything. No starting from scratch.
And you can get the basemaps offline wherever you roam. Right now, it’s just the basemaps that are downloaded onto your device. but the rest of the info is still cached in the phone. Just wander around the area to be travelled before you go and you’re good.
Just the beginning....
This is a pretty new version of the Backroad Mapbook app, but wow it’s looking good. Theres’s definitely a bunch of functionality I’d love to see added (like big, glove friendly zoom in/out buttons). And naturally, I’m trying my best to integrate all the existing I Think We Missed a Turn routes. But I really do think they are onto something here. I’ll keep updating things as I spend more time with this new version. I have a trip coming up in April and I guarantee this is what I’ll be using!
Get it here!
