Journal

Notes from the trail

Practical guides on planning routes, reading the ground, and keeping a map that works when the signal doesn't.

Route planning

How to Plan a Walking or Running Route: A Beginner's Guide

Decide roughly where you want to go and how long you've got, pick or draw a route that fits, check what the ground is actually like along the way, and save it to your phone so you can follow it offline.
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Offline maps

Do You Actually Need Offline Maps for Hiking?

If your walk or run goes anywhere with patchy phone signal, which is most of the good bits, then yes. It's the difference between a map that works everywhere and one that works right up until the view gets good.
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Navigation

What to Do When You Lose Signal on a Trail

Losing phone signal is not the same as being lost. Your phone finds your location from GPS satellites, which work with no signal at all, so if you saved an offline map before you set off, your position and route are still right there on screen.
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Getting started

How to Plan Your First Proper Countryside Walk (Without Overthinking It)

Pick a route a little shorter than you think you can manage, check the weather the night before, wear shoes you've already walked in, tell someone where you're going, and save an offline map so you can't get properly lost.
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Route planning

How to Plan a Circular Walk

A circular walk takes you back to where you started by a different route than the one you came out on, so there's no retracing your steps and no leaving a car at each end.
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Trail running

Planning Your First Trail Run: How to Pick a Route That Matches Your Fitness

For your first trail run, pick something shorter and flatter than your usual road runs, judge it by time on your feet and how much climbing it involves rather than distance, and choose a route you can cut short easily.
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Trail running

How to Find New Trail Running Routes Near You

The quickest way to find new trail running routes near you is to browse routes other runners have already recorded in a route-planning app, filtered to your area and the distance you fancy.
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After the walk

What Your Route Data Can Tell You After a Walk or Run

Your route data is the record of what you actually did out there: the map of where you went, how far, how long it took, how much climbing was involved, and how your pace rose and fell along the way.
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