A few years ago1 I tested the WP OSM plugin. I didn’t get it to do exactly what I wanted so left it on the back burner. In the mean time I made a map system of my own. The plugin had been producing some security warnings from Jetpack and I’d deactivated it. Last week I saw some fixes and through I’d try it again. Using the gpx file I recorded last week and the associated flickr album2 I had another go.

I created the kml file with gvellut/flickr2kml, which is a command line app, to convert a flickr album url to a kml file with images. The map above combines the gpx track & kml file.

The result is not, so far, exactly what I hoped. I was thinking the images could be views at a larger size, or link to the bigger versions. I suspect I could use the flickr2kml templates to do that.

I am also wondering if I could overlay and overlap bigger versions of the images with some random transparency maybe something like this, but with some randomness:

Glen-Finlas-Dream-paths
Glen-Finlas-Dream-paths | John Johnston | Flickr

A few things to think about.

  1. 9 years ago, not sure where the time goes! ↩︎
  2. I used this in my own system: 2024-09-27 Finlas Loop ↩︎

Screenshots of HikeTracker, map on the left, stats on the right

I’ve been looking for a replacement for Trails .

There are quite a lot of GPX apps out there so it has been interesting looking at them.
Many ‘hiking’ apps are concerned with giving you routes or posting routes you take their own or other services. These apps tend to be quite fully featured and often need an account on an online service. Trying a few out gave me a chance to think of what I wanted.

  1. Easy recording of a trail
  2. Trail shown live on a map, preferably OpenStreeMap.
  3. Quick and simple transfer of gpx track to my mac so that I can use it to tag photos, etc.
  4. Not completely killing the battery of my aging iPhone over a day.

Other features are either a bonus (some stats) or a complication (online services).

I’ve settled, for now at least, on HikeTracker . The app has been designed by a hiker, with the main aim of accuracy & simplicity. It fulfils all of my requirements.

The app is set up to work well “out of the box” for a hiker or walker – just tap “Start” and go!

It has worked well for me in a couple of tests, geotagging some rather blurry photos and giving me a track to add to the map.

I was happy to pay for trails and would be happy to pay for this free app too.

Featured image: Screenshots of HikeTracker, map on the left, stats on the right.