Live tracking — one of the ways to keep your trip safe

What is Live tracking?

It's a way to send word from the trail to the people back home who are watching and worrying about you.

It's a section of your hike where your watchers can see your route on a map. The route isn't complete, and it's heavily simplified. But it's enough to tell whether you're moving, whether something's gone wrong, and whether it's time to send rescuers your way.

How it works

First, create a hike on the site — you'll need a clear plan for your route. That way, if something happens, rescuers can coordinate their response.

Inside your hike, go to the Live tracking section and flip the toggle for this feature — that opens up access to your watchers.

Garmin InReach

This is one way to let everyone know how you're doing. These devices run on a Garmin subscription — so the device has to be activated and paid for. Garmin has an interface called MapShare — a map that your inReach device sends your messages and points to.

Here's my map, for example: https://share.garmin.com/share/hikeplan

This map can be password-protected. You can add the link to your map in the Live tracking settings.

All the data from your device gets mirrored in the HIKEPLAN interface too. And as a bonus — all your watchers get a push notification and an email with instructions on who to call if you trigger an SOS.

Amazfit, Android, HIKEPAL

Our other apps and devices work without a satellite connection. They need the internet.

If you turn on Live tracking on one of these devices, it'll start collecting points and send them at the first opportunity, as soon as it has a signal. To save battery, you can set how often points are recorded and how often the device checks in.