iHikeGPS : Classic Topo Maps App Reviews

Please do not sell this app without warning! Its useless outside USA, so is it your intention to take money from users allover the world, anyhow?

I am very upset that you do sell something on the canadian store that does not have canadian maps .

This is the best app ever. Made by professionals for real users. Acts like a handheld gps reciever. Nothing unnecesesary inside.

I have used this app twice at the Daniel Boone National Forest (in the Red River Gorge area). There are some places here with a well deserved reputation of being impossible to find unless someone who knows how to get there takes you. Well, I have made it to two of these destinations now by using this app. If you are a hiker who likes to go off the beaten path you need this app. Weve all spent lots of money on our hiking and camping gear and seriously this will be the best 10 bucks you ever spend.

For the average person, this is a great app for hiking. You can print maps, but you may not print maps with UTM or lat long grids on the edges. That is a problem if you want to print a map to take with you along with your compass. If you could print with location grids, you can navigate with your compass much more effectively when your phone fails you in the wilderness. Notice I said will fail you. DO NOT TAKE THIS PROGRAM AND PHONE AS YOUR PRIMARY NAVIGATION IN TO THE WILDERNES. You want a map and compass for your primary in a wilderness enviroment. THis is great to take with you once you know how to use it. I would give 5 stars if you could print with utm grids on the maps, but you cant. Make no mistake, I like this, but it is not a professonals program.

We have had the prior version for about two years. We use this app frequently for hiking, canoeing, and biking. It has helped us make decisions on quite a few occasions. The price is right, and I like that there is no ongoing fee. Once we got through the initial education, it has been easy to use. Ive recommended it to several friends. One of them has a fancy dedicated GPS, yet bought iHike and likes it.

I purchased both iHike and iSail apps this year and they are both TERRIFIC! They were both easy to download and easy to use. I used iHike in Colorado while horseback riding in the Gunnison National Forest. 80 miles of unmarked trails in an area that was "off the grid"! No problem for this app. I downloaded the maps prior to the trip and the app worked flawlessly. I used the app extensively to track my path into the forest. With the path recorded, it was much easier finding my way back home! I still brought hard copy maps and a compass as backup, but the iHike app was my principal source of navigation. 9 days of riding on unmarked trails and I never got lost. Thanks for making such great apps!

I have used this app extensively for backcountry navigation. Often I am where there are no trails. Compared to using a map and compass it feels like cheating. I always know exactly where I am and which direction I am facing. This app has saved me countless hours of wandering trying to figure out how to get where I want to go.

Ive had this app for a number of years and it continues to be my go-to backcountry navigation resource. No cell-service required-just gps reception which is very reliable. My only wish is that all my devices could sync through iCloud to retain all my routes.

Really great application for hiking. Ive used in remote High Sierra to Joshua Tree, always had accurate GPS readings. Also good for elevation tracking and waypoint markers. Compass integration also super helpful. All topo map downloads are free after buying the app and are automatically stitched together to create larger map areas. I always bring a paper map, but generally this is what look at most while on the trail.

Horrible app! I want my money back!!!! Maps in my area are well over 25 years old and not accurate!!! I would not recommend this to anyone. When I contacted the developer he said it didnt matter as terrain didnt change that much overtime. He must be in prison where there is very little change over time in terrain, because terrain where I live is constantly on the move.You couldnt find your way out of a one door broom closet with this!!!!!

Ive bought and tried several other (more expensive) iOS hiking navigation apps, and this is by far the best one. Good map orientation, ascent profile, and route history support. Also unlike other apps this one doesnt make you register for an account.

I love having up to 500 USGS topo maps available on my iPad. Currently I have around 200 maps downloaded which covers all of the Sierras and the SF bay area that I am interested in. Next I will download southern Utah topos for when I hike then in two months. The topo maps are are copies of the current USGS maps and are as current as the official maps are. If the maps are old, complain to the USGS. The topography has not changed but roads and trails may be out of date. For the maps that I have compared I can not see any difference between the iHikeGPS maps and the original, printed USGS maps. Why not 5 stars? I would like to be able to see more than one map at a time. I was expecting that I would see seamless maps while scrolling just like I can with their other product, MacGPS Pro. Instead I need to double tap in the area of the new map, which then gets displayed while the old map disappears. Next, downloading many maps is more cumbersome than necessary. I was hoping to draw a box over the areas where I would like to download multiple maps. Or at least a que where I could select multiple maps to download. Instead I must pick them out one at a time.

Nice interface and easy to use BUT the maps are from 1929!!! 1929 folks! These dont show man made lake that have been here for the last 35 years because the maps are from 19 freaking 29!!! To the developers who just nabbed $8 from me... You... Are... Evil.

I feel I have to combat the only review of the current version that you will see. Look guys/gals this is an amazing app! I have many GPSrs and iPhone geoapps. This is the only one that lets me see off line where I am at 24k topo map scale and the topo maps are free! I was out today examining some small mountain roads and related entries to regional preserves. My Garmin 60CSx was loaded with the Garmin Topo USA series of 100k topo maps for this area. My 3rd gen iTouch with Magellan Toughcase was loaded with all the relevant 24k topo maps that I downloaded for free from iHike app. I used both simultaneously. The Garmin 100k scale maps did not show the small roads that were evident on the 24k scale topo maps of iHike. Both Garmin and iHike agreed on the total distance covered. Both Garmin and iHike exports agreed in route and distance when exported to Google Earth. Garmin does a better job in showing "true" elevation gain because it includes a barometric damper to the altitude variations from point to point tracking while my Magellan case does not. Bottom Line: Use both because the free iHike 24k maps are really accurate compared to the Garmin 100k maps on your GPSr. Its like having a 24k topo GIS system in your car or backpack.

The user interface is pretty bad. To download a map takes 5 steps and after a single quad has been downloaded, you have to start from ground zero to get the next map. Tedious and DOS-like. The index map SHOULD show a grid of maps and the user simply selects the quad or range of quads and click install. After the maps are installed you can only view one quad at a time. If your trail or destination crosses quads, you have to leave the current map and go to another. Hardly elegant or practical when trying to navigate along a map boundary or want to see a larger overview. This is the only mapping app I have seen that doesnt have the capacity to mosaic adjoining quads. The only time I use this any more is when I need to view USFS quads. My go-to topographic app is TOPO. It is cheaper, quicker, WAY more intuitive and much more robust. There may be better apps out there, but iHikeGPS isnt one of them.

Just used this app in Platoro, Colorado with my family for a week. Amazing accuracy. The trail was difficult to see in a few areas so when I opened up iHikeGPS it showed us where we were in relation to the trail. We were only about 25 feet off course to the right. We were able to easily get back on course. Elevation and distance traveled was a lot of fun to keep track of.

The 1929 refers to a projection, not when the maps were last edited. These are the standard usgs topos. I use ihike and MacGpsPro to mange my gps data. It is amazing what you can do with the ihike app, it is almost a mobile GpsPro. Kudos!

Although I agree with a couple of the other reviews regarding the lack of being able to select for download more than one map at a time and the lack of seamless adjoining of maps, I really have enjoyed using this app while hiking in the Canadian Rockies and the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. And I really like that you can download maps in advance for when you are hiking in areas with no cell coverage. For now, I am only going to give it 4-stars because I would like to see the following features added in a future version: - Ability to select more than one map at a time for download. - Ability to use iCloud to sync Waypoints, Routes and Maps between iOS devices. - Add an option to display a compass overlay (or at least a true bearing display) so that you can align the displayed map with True North. - The ability to sort Waypoints by distance from your current location. - Show the distance and bearing to each Waypoint from your current position (when on the Waypoints page.) Otherwise, great app!

Regarding the complaint about dates from another reviewer: The maps are recent. Many maps say "1929" under the title because that is when the datum was established. The date of publication is in the lower right corner.