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Could This New Mapping App from the Founders of Gaia GPS Become a Thru-Hiker Staple?
This is a sponsored post brought to you by Goat Maps.
No matter how long you plan to be on trail — days, weeks, months — you know that a solid navigation app is essential. But most GPS mapping apps are overloaded with specialized features that are useless to thru-hikers. That’s where Goat Maps comes in.
It’s an app built by hikers, for hikers, offering a fresh and practical approach to route planning and GPS tracking on trail. The app’s co-founders also happen to be two of the original founders of Gaia GPS. Anna Hentzel-Johnson and Jesse Crocker now bring their years of experience at Gaia to the development of a new, user-friendly, more streamlined GPS mapping app at a lower price point: Goat Maps.
I had the chance to catch up via email with co-founder Jesse Crocker and ask him about what to expect from the app.
The Creation and Inspiration of Goat Maps
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Crocker and his co-founder, Anna Hentzel Johnson, weren’t satisfied with existing mapping apps and wanted to create the tool they actually wanted to use.
Crocker loves tinkering: he has a habit of modifying his outdoor gear — whether it’s backpacks or tents — but says apps are harder to tweak to his exact wants. Fortunately, he and Hentzel Johnson didn’t have to struggle to make an existing app work for them: as co-founders of Gaia GPS, they had the necessary skills to build their own app from scratch.
The name “Goat Maps” comes from a few different inspirations: it’s short and memorable, many of the best hiking spots are home to mountain goats, and Jesse’s trail name on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2009 was “Mountain Goat.” Plus, there’s an extra nod to making this the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) navigation app for the backcountry.
Key Features
Goat Maps is designed to be simple, effective, and user-driven — an ethos that should appeal to minimalist outdoor types, like thru-hikers. Instead of being shaped by marketing priorities, it’s built entirely around features that the average user will actually be able to use.
Here’s what makes it stand out:
- Offline maps for reliable navigation off the grid
- Track recording to log your hikes
- Route planning with a focus on ease and flexibility
- Route navigation to keep you on track
- Top-quality maps created by an industry-leading cartographer for superior readability
Yet the app’s features only tell half the story; Crocker also emphasizes the importance of the features it intentionally lacks. Goat Maps is for maps. It is not a weather app, a guidebook, or a social media platform.
Oddly enough, many of us outdoorsy types would prefer not to have our data harvested by shadow corporations every time we interact with an app on our phones. Consequently, you won’t find social features in Goat Maps. Crocker and Hentzel Johnson believe that your data should stay yours and not be monetized.
Other “bonus features” common in today’s nav apps are also conspicuously absent from Goat Maps. Crocker is adamant that less is more when it comes to user experience. Better to have a simple feature set and execute it really, really well rather than clutter up the interface with a bunch of subpar add-ons.
“Writing a good guidebook is hard, and the current generation of AI-generated drivel is useless. We can’t do this well, so for now we don’t do it at all,” says Crocker. Quality guidebook apps like FarOut already exist; why reinvent the wheel?
It’s the same with weather updates. “You have a great weather app already,” he insists. “Don’t use a bad-quality one built into a mapping app because someone in marketing thought that was a good idea.”
What Makes Goat Maps Different?
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Compared to other mapping apps (yes, including Gaia), Goat Maps focuses on ease of use and eliminating feature bloat. Apps often accumulate unnecessary tools that make them harder to use and maintain. Starting fresh gave Goat Maps an edge in keeping things simple and efficient.
Some standout features include:
Background map downloads: So you don’t have to keep the app open in town while waiting for maps to load. “This is huge on a thru-hike,” says Crocker. As a former PCT hiker himself, he gets that hikers have enough to think about during their limited town time without also having to babysit their navigation app.
The ability to quickly measure distance and elevation profiles by tapping two points or drawing a line between them. To instantly generate the actual walking distance and a detailed elevation profile between any two points on your map, all with just a few simple taps, is honestly huge and will take a lot of guesswork out of backcountry travel. A lot of work went into making the stats in this feature as accurate as possible. More on that later.
Advanced route planning: Combine hand-drawn, point-to-point, and snap-to-trail sections, name and color-code segments, and plan with elevation profiles even while offline. The user interface is extremely intuitive, so you don’t have to go on a troubleshooting odyssey just to learn how to import GPX or create custom waypoints.
Ability to download offline apps to a Mac, making it easy to plan routes on a bigger screen.
Custom slope angle shading: You know when you pass a campsite late in the afternoon and wonder if you should stop now or risk hiking a few more miles in the hopes of finding another nice spot further on? Goat Maps has a feature for that.
The app’s custom slope angle shading makes it effortless to scope out flat areas further up the trail where you might be able to pitch a tent, so you don’t have to wonder if that perfect spot is the last one you’ll see today. Also useful for avalanche navigation and general route planning for skiers and hikers.
Could Goat Maps Replace FarOut as Your Main Thru-Hiking Navigation App?
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In short, no, and it was never intended to. Crocker admits he doesn’t use FarOut himself, but he knows that most thru-hikers do. Through his conversations with CDT thru-hikers, he’s noticed that they all supplement FarOut with more detailed mapsets from services like Gaia or Caltopo. “We don’t aim to replace FarOut, but Goat Maps is a better option as the mapping app to accompany it than anything else.”
GPS Accuracy and Device Integration
Crocker is blunt when it comes to GPS tracking: “Lots of other apps make claims about track recording accuracy. They are all bullshit. Everyone does about the same on this, unless they really screwed up. iOS actually handles all the GPS part of things.”
The real challenge is calculating distance and elevation gain accurately. We all know the pain of trusting an inaccurate estimate of the distance and terrain between us and our next break. “GPS has errors,” Crocker explains, “and telling errors from switchbacks and rolling terrain is surprisingly hard. Anna has a degree in math and has been working on this problem for years and we think the stats calculation is pretty accurate.”
Goat Maps also makes it easy to import and export GPX files, ensuring seamless integration with other apps and devices.
Free vs. Paid Features
Goat Maps will be available with both free and premium features:
Free:
- View topo, satellite, and hybrid maps
- Track recording
- Waypoints
- Distance measurement
Paid:
- Offline maps
- Premium overlays (coming soon)
- Advanced route planning
The paid version costs $29.99 per year. You can take advantage of a seven-day free trial before committing to a membership.
Availability and Future Plans
Goat Maps launched on iOS and Mac in the fall and is already seeing regular updates — one or two per month. The team plans to start working on a web version this spring. Their maps are constantly improving, with base map updates rolling out multiple times per month and new overlays planned monthly.
Why We Should Be Excited!
Goat Maps is a navigation app made specifically for hikers, by hikers. It’s lightweight, fast, and doesn’t come with unnecessary distractions. The ability to download maps in the background makes town resupplies easier, and its intuitive design keeps the focus on the trail, not on fighting with an app.
For those who want a clean, efficient, and powerful mapping tool without corporate fluff, Goat Maps might just be the Greatest of All Time.
Featured image courtesy of Goat Maps.
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Comments 17
Thank you for sharing the news! I’m going to download the app now and take a look around. I appreciate that they aren’t aiming to replace other apps, but rather to become the best supplemental map on the market. Sounds like good people behind the project.
iOS and Mac only? Sorry, I don’t think you can even pretend to be “goat” if you are restricted to Apple. Android has about 70% of users with iOs/iPhone only 30%. Major shortcoming not addressed in this sponsored article. I will stay with GAIA and FarOut…
Outside’s purchase of Gaia really sent it in a direction I’m not happy with (pricing/weird bundling with other Outside products, certain features, Outside’s general approach to the outdoor industry at the moment).
The thing I liked most about Gaia was its UI. With the developers moving to this project, Goat brings that same set of visual consideration and usability (simplicity + UI/UX is what draws me to Goat). They’re also transparent, release new features frequently, and are responsive to their customers. I emailed in a bug and they got back to me quickly with a thanks and note that it would be fixed in the next release.
It doesn’t replace everything – or claim to, as noted in this article. But, it’s now my preferred phone mapping app for creating maps when not on the computer and for navigating while on the trail. I’m expecting that to continue for the foreseeable future (I use CalTopo for the desktop and FarOut for the crowd sourced data).
Brian, great review. And I also did not particularly like GAIA being bundled by Outside+, but it isn’t really that big of a deal breaker. Maybe you should expand on why you don’t care for “Outside’s general approach to the outdoor industry at the moment.” But the fact remains, that “goat” is a presumptuous beta that is still only an iOS platform and misses 70% of the population. Frankly, I am not a fan of Apple (perhaps for the same reasons you don’t care for Outside’s general approach.
Being iOS only is not just a drawback. It’s a showstopper.
Fair thoughts! And, sorry that my post was in reply to yours – it was actually just intended as a comment to the article. No good way to edit/remove my reply in place of a comment so wasn’t able to change that after it was posted.
While I agree that GOAT is a bit presumptuous for any app entering an established market, I read the article as Goat being something fun and animal-based and GOAT being more an anecdotal and aspirational side-play of the name.
Also, the iOS/Android split in the US (as opposed to the global stat you shared), which is likely their initial demographic, is actually 55%/45% in favor of iOS, so may not be as lopsided as you portray. Small teams (just two developers) have got to start somewhere…
I ultimately respect Outside’s right to do with their products as they please and to try and maximize revenue in tough markets. With that said, nearly every decision that was publicly shared after their purchases of magazine brands, events, apps like Gaia and TrailForks a few years ago felt infused with corporate decision-making and pulling away from the ethos of authentic outdoor products. Overly marketed, infused with paywalls, insensitive treatment of layoffs, slower innovation, etc. There are ways for larger companies in this industry to still connect with their communities and push things forward in truly positive ways – Outside is missing the mark for me. Honestly, onX gives some of those same vibes, which is also why I tend to avoid their app.
No worries…great discussion!
Well, having abandoned Gaia a year or so ago I was excited to read this article about GOAT – until the point where I realized there’s no Android version. As you say, it’s their app and they can write it any way they want, but that’s a showstopper for a good many of us.
I currently have a Gaia Premium subscription … so now I have to buy another subscription?
The lack of an Android version makes GOAT a non-starter for many people, and it would’ve been nice if the article had commented on that. Per the goatmaps website: “While an Android app may be in our future, with only two developers on our small team, [iOS and macOS] is all we’re able to focus on at the moment.”
That said, I’m in their target market and will definitely be giving it a shot.
Gaia has felt stagnant for years. New map layers have been added, and mostly I don’t care. Features that seem like low-hanging fruit (e.g. editing waypoint coordinates through the web interface) have never been implemented, and other features have been broken (elevation profiles used to work fine, but have been almost unusable for the past couple years). Map downloads are slow, buggy and confusing. I’m looking forward to trying GOAT.
I too am sad that there’s not an Android version. I’ve been looking and comparing different maping applications as I just want something simple and easy to use. GOAT sounded perfect until I read it’s on iOs only. An Android version would be greatly appreciated.
I’d be much more inclined to be looking for a new app if it wasn’t yet another subscription. Nobody just wants to make a product you just buy anymore, they want to create a perpetual revenue stream.
I’ll be sticking with my grandfathered Gaia app that I purchased way back when it wasn’t yet a subscription. It doesn’t have all of the new features and map layers they kept adding, but it does the job of guiding me through the backcountry. Though I’m sure someday they’ll end my access to maps and that will come to and end too.
Unfortunately maps cost money to produce and serve. If we charged a 1 time fee it would either be insanely high(hundreds of dollars), or we would just have to cut you off from downloading maps after a year.
Your links to download the app are broken…
Nope. I stopped reading this review as soon as I saw the “download Goat maps for iOS” and no Android option.
Thanks for the info. I have been using Gaia for 2 seasons now. I have been using map and compass for 50 years, but a hiking app is great, especially when hiking through snow for miles with no visible trail. It’s a real time saver. I still bring map and compass and I’m pretty good at triangulating my position, but that take time. I kinda choked on the price increase, but I’m still using it. I think I will check out the Goat app and see how it compares. A feature of Gaia that I like is that the maps are very up to date and includes all the little use trails as well. I don’t know how it compares with other apps because it is the only one I have used.
No Android? Yeah it sucks. But the devs only know iOS and there are only two. As Abe Lincoln said, “we can lament that rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice that thorn bushes have roses.” For me, I left Gaia and will never go back; my bigger question is whether Goat Maps can replace CalTopo. Slope shading is a big deal, especially in winter, but it’s tough to re-route in the field. I’ll definitely be checking this out.
sorry, was not @tom just didn’t reply properly