IHikeGPS : Classic Topo Maps Customer Service

This app is amazing works great while hunting in areas with no service what so ever. The only thing I see that would make this app better would be a way to store maps and waypoints in specific folders for the different areas that may be downloaded. Would be 5 stars otherwise.

This is one of my first apps. I was just beginning to understand the ropes of navigating with a hand held gps. They were fascinating to me. Then I discovered IHikeGPS. Works offline, download and store USGS and USFS maps, create waypoints, no hassles with subscriptions or purchases. One inexpensive payment and actual product support from the author. There is a learning curve. It’s not steep. It is important to read the instructions and not assume to much. Works on the ground, in a plane or car. This app shows me where in at and where I’m going.

I’m passionate the outdoors. I seem to use paper maps and iPhone/iPad apps weekly for hiking, backpacking, bikepacking, backcountry skiing and exploring in my car. I have maintained a paid Gaia subscription for years, I’ve used low cost/free GPS mapping tools, location enabled PDF’s, etc. Still iHike is the simplest, fastest, most intuitive app of them all, with also the lowest power consumption and best map download facility. These days I only use Gaia on my Mac at home for planning. The map choices on iHike are ‘limited’ to USGS and USFS topos, but in real life these are the ones you need for backcountry travel.

I have used numerous mobile gps apps, and none comes even close to iHikeGPS. Being able to download topo and forest maps, for free, by WiFi before a trip is great. But if you are stuck on the trail outside your downloaded area, you can still get maps with even a minimal cell signal. The app handles waypoints, tracks and routes with ease, imports and exports gpx and kml format smoothly, and has the best built in help file I have ever seen. And everything can be edited right on the app. It’s all you need for gps.

I’ve owned this app since 2012. Phenomenal. Solved many an off-road quandary. Recommended to over a 100, that download on the spot. It’s Helped find stuck and lost people, planned epic adventures. Every time I start to think “other than iPhone”? iHike is what keeps me Apple. (So it’s sold for them a 4s, 5s, 6s+, 7+, and XSMax since I bought in on my 3g, lol) I could go on for hours. The only way this would improve? Is if we had CarPlay/Projection Manager stuff. And trivial, but I’d sacrifice a small portion of my screen for an active Gps driven speedometer indicator.

This app allows you to do many different things. The help menu that’s available in the app can be confusing, at least for me, however in you look up the app in your browser, then you can scroll through the menu and find what to do. I wanted to delete some track segments and using the info in the browser version I was able to remove just the segments I wanted and not the whole track.

I have been using this app for years to record gps tracks on the USGS topographic maps. It works wonderfully! I am using my Garmin units less now. You do need to bring along external batteries to power the iPhone gps on a long day trip. My only quibble is that it does not record enough data points for a long bike ride, so you must remember to save your data log every few hours or it will start to overwrite itself without warning when it has reached its maximum number of points.

I’ve used this app for 4-5 years and it’s much better than any map app out there! I’ve had Garmin GPS’s since they came out. This app with my iPhone is so much more user friendly than any of the Garmin models. Easy to download maps, works when you have no cell service, support is unbelievable. Twice in the last few years I’ve had a problem (user error)and my emails were answered within a couple of hours to resolve it. Can’t go wrong with this app!

I have checked many other gps apps. Still think this is the best. Still longing for watch support. I have used it for years and love it. Please, please add watch support. Make it an in app purchase. Very high quality topo maps for no charge. Great support from the developer both for the app and for the topos he hosts on his server. Make sure your compass is calibrated before using the app. If your compass can't calibrate check Settings/privacy/location services/system services/

Have used a variety of GPS apps. This is best for US and Canada users because it’s easy to import/export GPX and other common formats, it uses the very familiar USGS/USFS topo maps at all scales (1/24K to 1/250K), and once the needed maps are downloaded it needs no mobile data connection. It also has no subscription fees and no strange proprietary maps. It would be nice if it also took geolocated PDFs, but so far so good.

It is easy to configure and use. I have used it over 15 years. Solid and dependable. Internet is only needed to download USFS and/or USGS topographic maps of your choice, which are stored on your iPhone. All operating features are completely useable in Airplane mode. Waypoints, GoTo, Tracks, Routes. Multiple Waypoints shown on your map screen. Help info is stored on your device. ihikeGPS is the Winner!

Have been using the app for several years and it works and has been a great resource in off road and backcountry. I would love to see two additions to the app. 1. Be able to show on apple CarPlay and 2. The ability to move in and out from high resolution maps to 100k by just zooming with finger motions instead of having to change maps.

I can’t get it to track. I want an app to leave a trail; breadcrumbs. Even on the blank page it left a straight line. Downloaded a map and nothing. Press the track button and it stays on off.

It’s a great app. I like how as you scroll it moves from one contiguous map to another. How hard would it be for you to change the map title to reflect the new quad it’s on? Thanks.

I didn’t want a social/sharing app. I just wanted to make a gps track and see a topo without needing any signal while hiking. I can download all the maps I need when I’m home on wifi.

Why would all my downloaded maps disappear in a fall? Seems pretty strange, I’m hiking, phone thinks I fell and my maps are deleted. That needs a fix.

This app allows preloading maps so you can be well prepared for no cell phone service. The app has helped me get un-lost multiple times. It is also easy to use.

I really appreciate how this developer makes features available that other apps charge a premium or subscription for. I've owned several such apps, and this one is my favorite.

Have used this in the backcountry with 24k USFS maps with great results. There is one feature that I wish this app had: Folder structure for Routes and Waypoints. Dealing with dozens of GPX files and Waypoints would be easier if there was the ability to create folders/subfolders for organization instead of the current flat file system.

I like everything about it except I would like to be able to create waypoints using the elevation plot. Great to get this feature.

This is by far my favorite GPS app for hiking. It just does more things right than any other GPS app I've used: accurate georeferencing, the ability to add waypoints by lat/long, and the ability to save routes for use on other devices. If it needs one feature to become everything I need from a hiking-oriented GPS app, it would be a graphical compass (beyond just the bearing and heading in degrees). However, there is one major issue I have with this app: after I need to restore my device for any reason, this app offers to redownload the maps I most recently had on there. This is great. However, if the download fails for any reason (including the device going to sleep), and at least one map has been fully downloaded, then the app forgets that any other maps were ever downloaded. I would like a better implementation of the redownloading of maps after restore (perhaps something that detects if the batch download was interrupted? Perhaps the addition of something that keeps a certain "set" of maps on your device, and the ability to have multiple sets, and these sets are just stored as metadata like waypoints and routes are?). I'd also like to see something that allows batch downloading of multiple maps (rather than one at a time like it is now), and graphical management (like, for example being able to delete maps or groups of maps based on their location overlaid over a Google map, rather than based on the name of the quad)

Simple and easy, doesn’t kill battery, loads fast, works great.

This app does what it does extremely well: work as a general-purpose hiking GPS with USGS topo maps as a background. It seems to find the correct map for the location fast and easily, it doesn't drain the battery terribly quickly, and it generally does the job right. I've run across two fairly minor glitches. First, in my hands the application crashed when I asked it to display a waypoint on a map before I had loaded any maps. This obviously is a minor problem, since the app isn't very useful without maps; I only happened to run across it because I was trying it out before I had time to download any maps. Second, some of the maps in my area (Maryland) seem to load with their margins, instead of trimmed. This means that the maps do not come together seamlessly. Instead, when one is close to the edge of one of these maps, the app displays only the map one is on, not the neighboring map. Annoying, but it only happens with certain maps. Overall, I'm extremely happy with this app, and I think it will probably replace my hiking GPS.

If you hike or backpack using USGS quads this is the app for you! US and Canada Topos are included in the base price. You simply download the map(s) you need when on WiFi or Cellular Data and then you can use them where you have no WiFi or Cellular data. Downloading takes seconds. Several easy ways to find the map(s) you want. When you hike you turn on a "track" and it draws your progress on a map. The different Topos can be "stitched" so that progress from quad to another occurs with so margins. Also the track has a graph showing elevation profile. You can see total average speed and speed during a section of the track. Maps are very clear and easy to zoom in and out. App allows you to put Way Points on the map ahead of time to aid in navigation or to ID where you took photos etc. The help button is always present and touching it takes you to the section of help applicable to where you are in the app. The help is organized extremely well and put into tables. I've used a lot of apps and never seen help this well done. Even includes a complete listing of the dozens of symbols used on topo maps. All this for $8. A bargain.

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. It's like having a 24k topo GIS system in your car or backpack.

Great app for hiking!! I am reposting this review after using the app for day hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. I have an old Garmin Vista that has been my mainstay for years, but for day hiking in the US I will leave the Garmin at home from now on, or have it my pack as backup. My iPhone4 in the front pocket of my hiking shorts made quite accurate tracks. I had no problem with battery life on hikes up to 6 hours. I simply choose "Always" on the tracks page, and then turned the phone off to save power. I estimate that on multi day hikes I could go 2-3 days on one charge and longer if I turned off the tracking feature. Of course the iPhone does not have a barometer for altitude, but I found the GPS altitudes to be pretty accurate. I preloaded all the Topographic maps I needed for the park. When hiking iHikeGPS automatically switches maps when you cross map boundaries. Some trails we used are not current on the USGS topos, but I found tracks for those hikes on the web, loaded them in MacGPS Pro on my Mac and created a series of waypoints that tracked the main features of the trail. I then saved the waypoints in GPX format and uploaded to iHikeGPS.

I wanted a GPS that used the USGS topo maps, instead of the expensive and proprietary maps the major GPS manufacturers sell. I was able to find the Magellan ToughCase GPS add-on at my local Apple retail store. I put in my 1st gen iPod Touch (Magellan does not list this as a supported model, probably because the iPod is the wrong shape/size) and iHikeGPS works great. Screen redraws are a bit slow when scrolling around the map, but I expected that. It would be nice to be able to generate a route, and maybe I can, but I didn't see it listed in the tutorials on their web site. But it has what I really needed, topo maps at 24K and the ability to record tracks and export for use in a Mac mapping program, so good value for the dollar, and less expensive than a new mid-range GPS, with better capabilities and screen.

This superb app faithfully accesses and displays the official high-res and carefully-stitched scanned US topographic and Forest Service maps, just as if you bought the paper version. The hsophisticated user will appreciate these maps as the ones available from, and therefore vetted by, the US Govt. It is not, nor intended to be, an application to find the latest shopping mall by driving. However, noting that mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes seem not to move around very much on human lifetime scales, if you are out avoiding that shopping mall in an area with no signs of human intervention, nothing could be better for getting around, and you won’t mind the lack of frequent map updates of the latest gas stations. It will, of course, enable you to find your car after the day or week or whatever long hike. I wish it were harder to use—I’m kinda jealous of my favorite hiking areas and this app may actually encourage more hiking. The manual is very nicely sorted so you can figure out what to do to access all the features. My only gripe is that it should add a display for speed in the GPS coordinates area. If it displayed speed I would give it 6 stars. The very best hiking app. Period. Not so much unneeded bells and whistles. Best help interface ever. Really nice downloads.

When in cell service I just use google maps, so this is exclusively for offline navigation. The maps are good, but being limited to 200 maps is annoying, also the way you select maps to download is annoying. Because these are 7.5 minute maps it takes a lot of them to cover a decent size region, but you have to select maps one a a time. I downloaded maps covering a broad area around where I live and hunt, and around places I like to go hike, but got to my 200 map limit. I wanted to have a large base area covered and then add maps as I go for individual trips. After taking the time to add them all I don't want to delete any... But I have to in order to free up room for any new regions. I have a 64 GB iPad, why not let me use as much space as I want to on this app?

I read several reviews before buying this app. I have also downloaded 5-6 apps that claim to be helpful out on the trail. None of those come close to this app in terms of functionality and reliability. Even though this app takes a little while to figure out, I tested in on a long weekend hike in an area that is in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal whatsoever. We backpacked and hiked in a mountainous area with no trail markings. The GPS combined with the topo maps were like a Godsend for this hike. I loaded several waypoints using coordinates from Google maps into this app priori to our trip and it saved our day by helping us stay on track. This is a MUST HAVE app for all backpackers/hikers. The iPhone 6+ upgrade was perfectly timed for our hike. Well done and thank you!

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.

This is the best app for hiking that I have yet to find and I have tried several. I have used James Associates desktop MacGPSPro for years and uploaded routes to and downloaded track logs from my Garmin GPS. Now I can do the same with this iPhone app. It downloads USGS Topo maps in seconds over WiFi or a cellular data connection. And it can be used offline to follow a route and create a track log. Waypoints may be created within the app or downloaded to it in .gpx format. What more could anyone want. I have used it for local hikes and for navigating National Wildlife Refuges during a recent trip to Florida. I have never had any problem with it. It has met my requirements and exceeded my expectations. A terrific app at a very reasonable price.

Accurate and fairly intuitive. Imaging is excellent. If you need more help, the video tutorials on the website are very clear and easy to understand. Would highly recommend you view them first although I went right out the door and got it done. Lots of easy to use and useful features that are not on some other iPhone mapping apps. Mid-priced at this time compared to some other map apps. Couldn't quite give it 5 stars because unlike MotionGPS, it will not track when the screen is rested to save battery power. Would like to see the track transmitted graphically instead of just GPX file, as an option. I have MacGPS Pro and it went straight to and opened that application when I emailed it to myself. It's a keeper. Good job!

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.

Seriously love this app!! Very accurate and reliable. Track log showing elevation, distance, and time/date stamps is really nice. You can easily email/share track logs....just tried it today. Great for tracking distance traveled and for visually seeing your track on the map. I also use it to capture/create waypoints and view current location on the map...flawless. This app pretty much does what my $500 Garmin does...in terms of what I primarily use it for. I use his Mac GPSPro software on Mac OSX and absolutely love it! And this guy is as good as it gets when it comes to responsiveness and support... I cannot emphasize this enough...see for yourself. No affiliation....just a very satisfied outdoor enthusiast!

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!

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!

My goal is to locate rock art sites on a map as I hike, so I will be able to find them again. With this app, I was able to stand at the site and mark its location precisely. It works perfectly. I still need to learn how to transfer the map data to another computer, but I'm guessing this will also work well. Unfortunately, with all this capability, the app is a real power hog. They give you suggestions to preserve as much power as possible, but my solution was to forego the routing function by turning off the IPad between sites. It boots up quickly for recording my location, and then I turn it off,again until the next site.

I tried several GPS apps like GPS Kit, MotionX-GPS, etc and I believe this is the best one for hiking, backpacking, mountaineering...my main criteria is the quality of maps. All of these apps have to buy licenses to get the maps and iHike uses USGS and US State Forest maps which none of the other apps use and the topo maps lines are a lot more clear for me to understand. Regarding app navigation I find all the apps not very intuitive and iHike is not exception in this regard but with a little bit of practice & reading the help, I can find my way around just fine. I did a GPX import and the track and way points imported without issues. Overall, it's an awesome app.

During a recent vacation trip up the Maine coast, even though we weren’t hiking, my wife and I found iHike GPS invaluable for finding and navigating little back roads and discovering the interesting sites along them. We were doing a lot of birding, and promising spots are often easy to pick out on USGS maps. But there’s no way I could have bought printed topo maps for all the territory we covered, often without planning ahead, and using paper maps in the car would have been quite inconvenient. Having dozens of them on my iPad (at no cost!) was fantastic. iHike GPS is a wonderful addition to my software arsenal and vacation travel toolkit.

Used on a couple of day hikes so far, worked well. Was especially useful for assessing total distance traveled, and for emailing waypoints and tracks for import directly into Google Earth on another computer. Be aware this app is no substitute for a proper and up-to-date trail map. The two maps I downloaded were over 30 years old and showed very little of the trail systems in the parks I visited. For example the Mendham NJ quadrangle was last updated in 1981 from a 1976 aerial survey. Finally, map handling appears processor intensive; each pan or zoom-out involves a 1-2 second delay on an iPhone 4s. I'm OK with all this however, no regrets.

I just discovered and downloaded this app on my iPhone and iPad. It is awesome period.

I downloaded this app based on favorable reviews. But so far it’s confusing. I’m a GIS professional and programmer so don’t think it’s just me. I downloaded a few 24K maps near me, then downloaded a few 100K maps surrounding those. Then I wanted to download some 24K maps within the areas of the 100K maps. So far I have not found a way to do so. Tried various taps and buttons but no luck. Maybe once you’ve downloaded a coarser scale map you cannot also download a finer scale map of the same area. I also can’t zoom out very far— pinching out only zooms out to a pretty local scale, so can’t see the context. EDIT: I see the developer wrote a rather snippy reply to my review. Guess I must have touched a nerve. I'll admit that I did not thoroughly read all the Help material before posting the review, though I did consult it more than the average user would have. I mentioned that I hadn't found a way to download a 24K map in an area where I had already downloaded a 100K map. That was based on the instructions to tap the page in order to download a map. Subsequently I did find how to download the 24K map after you have another map for the same area. But it's not obvious: click the "Map List" tab along the bottom, then click the "+" icon at top left, then tap "Satellite Map Locator", then zoom/pan to where you want the new map, then tap the "+" in upper right, then tap the "Add USA 24K USGS Map". Whew. The approach for maps here is completely different (not "a little different") from any of the other GIS/GPS apps I've used (which is quite a few). It's not because it's raster vs. vector based, since other GIS/GPS apps also use raster/tile based maps. I guess my bottom line is that if you're willing to put in some time to learn the quirky interface, the app can be useful for limited areas of travel. I still wonder about zooming out, though--I can't zoom out beyond a radius of about 3 miles with the 24K map view enabled, or around 20 miles with the 250K map view.

Good app for hunting, hiking or even tracking. I like the fact that you can enter shared coordinates and track your own with different icons. There’s are plenty of default roads and waypoints that help your progress and the offline maps are a plus. I would like to see more map options, especially with the offline maps. I don’t always know what the terrain ahead of me looks like, so a more detailed map would really help out there. Also, when I am tracking from one grid to the next, the downloaded map just disappears until I double tap on the white area, then the map I just left disappears. I need to screen shot and send my progress for work and that is a real problem if I can’t show where I was at. Within the last few days, the app won’t find my location. It’ll just take me to the last map I downloaded, not my current location. I need coordinates of where I’m at. Not very useful anymore. I might delete app and pay again for something else that is more reliable.

Maps for my area are well over 35 years old. Does not reflect federal turnpike that has been in service for over 35 years. What other state/federal infrastructure is missing.

I loved this ap. Now the “my location” no longer shows my location. Please fix!

I couldn’t believe I bought this! The map quality is extremely poor.

Good screenshots but bad resolution. Not good for hiking or anything else.

As others have noticed, the lag in panning or zooming a map is horrible, and then you are apt to be scolded by the app for pressing while the sceen is refreshing. Sheesh! Several other map apps deal with this ok. Another interface gotcha is the main map window. Any pan will kill the autocenter. If you close and reopen the app, it centers in some default spot. Ah, you think, I shall press the My Location button and all will be well! Nope. You have to quintuple (!) click on the map. Charming. I like the profile idea and showing your route on the map. But in practice there are flaws. Profile is oblivious to gaps. I got only 1/10th of a one mile ski on the profile though I left the app on. Looked at the profile and there were these funny steps, plus total distance was wrong. Would prefer gaps estimated by distance between points on gap sides (which are obvious on map). This will be tricky to fix when profile not cleared between different places. Maybe a smart splitter to make new profiles if different day or more than xxx km apart? Adding Forest Service maps a huge plus in much of the west, and arguably the best reason to get this. No mosaiced maps, only one at a time. I found the map addition process cumbersome and non intuitive despite several options for finding maps.

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 doesn't 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 isn't one of them.

This is a terrible app if you want to look back at you hikes. All tracks are the same color. I used this app all weekend, we went on six different hikes. Some as short as two miles one that was eight. The screen is a total mess of pink lines leading out from camp. I can't make out one from another. It gets three stars because of the ease of downloading maps and its functionality as a gps. Do not buy this app if you want to permanently track your hikes. This app needs the ability to stop a current track, name it save it, color both the track and individual waypoints, save those tracks and then have a list of waypoints or tracks that I have saved and be able to display those saved tracks or waypoints on the screen while recording my new current track.

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

Dosent work un Québec