Using Wikiloc in COVID confinement

[peregrina2000]

I have been slowly learning how to use wikiloc on my phone, thanks to the patience of my angel tech forum friends. One of them suggested that now that I am taking long bike rides in my area to see the small towns, natural preserves, and the countryside generally, I should start recording my tracks and posting them.

I have done that, you can see them all on my wikiloc page, though there are of course glitches. On several occasions the GPS has stopped recording and indicates a straight line between two points. Oh well, I am learning.

Today’s ah-ha moment was to see how easy it is to add “waypoints” with pictures. It is really as easy as just taking a picture with your phone, not from your camera, but from your wikiloc app itself. That automatically puts the waypoint at the spot where you took the picture, and the picture will also be recorded as part of your trip. You can add text to describe or identify the picture, and you can do it either right when you take it or later, even after you have uploaded the tracks to wikiloc.

I am thinking particularly of the “where did you walk (locally)” group — so many wonderful walks/hikes have been described and pictured on that thread. It would be great if others could follow those trails. Wikiloc has trails worldwide, but the huge majority are tracks in Spain. So now that most of us are nowhere near Spain, it’s a good opportunity to enlarge the data-base and maybe help others find nice places to walk.

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[SabsP]

Ok...I'm very untechnical so I shall have to take my time to learn more about Wikiloc.
I now use the tracker on my Fitbit to log most of my walks but only for personal use. There is a feature to share these walks with other Fitbit users or even people in your general address book but I'm rather weary about privacy settings.

I imagine that you do not need to use your real name for Wikiloc but can choose a random ( nick ) name , like here on the forum?

 

[peregrina2000]

Yes, I am peregrina2000 there and here. I don’t know about the privacy concerns, but it did occur to me as I was uploading the trails that the starting and ending point is in my garage, so you would know where to find me.

I have used wikiloc for years to get tracks and have never had an issue, but of course that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be concerned. As I have said on some other recent thread, wikiloc is really kind of like the forum — I have written messages to people who have downloaded their tracks of the more obscure caminos I have walked and have unfailingly gotten very detailed helpful responses. I consider paying the extra bit of money for the premium version to be kind of like my donation to the forum, since both offer such tremendously helpful information.

And p.s., Sabine, you can keep your trails private without uploading them to the website. They will be designated as “local trails” on the app and no one but you can see them.

 

[islandwalker]

Today’s ah-ha moment was to see how easy it is to add “waypoints” with pictures.

I am thinking particularly of the “where did you walk (locally)” group — so many wonderful walks/hikes have been described and pictured on that thread. It would be great if others could follow those trails. Wikiloc has trails worldwide, but the huge majority are tracks in Spain. So now that most of us are nowhere near Spain, it’s a good opportunity to enlarge the data-base and maybe help others find nice places to walk.

Buen camino, Laurie

Laurie, thanks for posting this. The minute I looked at your bike rides, I wanted to be there to try them out. I have never before tried to post a track to Wikiloc with photos, but having been inspired by your words about how easy it is, I tried it here. You're right - it only took me about 5 minutes to add photos to a track I had already recorded. This page of instructions helped.

It sure would be great to get more tracks from all over the world posted on Wikiloc. If anyone is putting up tracks, let us know...

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I haven't used the Wikiloc feature to add pictures to a track but I have downloaded tracks that had pictures.

Two uses for the pictures come to mind immediately. The first is to show what you may see if you take the track. If you view these pictures on the computer you may decide to take one pretty trail over another that didn't supply pictures. In this case you may only want to download the track and not the pictures too (to be able to save space). After all, you will see the views anyway when you walk.

Another use is for navigation. Say the peregrino recording a track stops at the fountain in a small village and then continues on but misses the arrow and walks for a half hour in the wrong direction. Once back at the fountain a picture of it and another of the small arrow pointing to a path instead of the road can be added to the track along with a note saying that the path near the fountain is the real way to go. That pilgrim may then save you following the camino with the track from an extra hours walk. I'm assuming that you are generally relying on arrows but with the Wikiloc app set to beep at waypoints and when you have strayed off the trail (n.b., see my cautionary tale below).

For another use that might be considered as navigation let's say someone created a track for a cemetery tour with pictures of graves of famous people. The original GPS receiver may have been off by some distance and yours might be also and it could increase the inaccuracy. So you may stop at a marked waypoint but be a few rows and columns away from the real grave's location and maybe looking at the back of the wanted gravestone. Here, looking at a picture, you may see a distinctive stone, such as an obelisk, near the grave of interest and, looking for that, find your point of interest.

Now for the cautionary tale. On my last day on the Camino Aragonese I was mainly following the arrows but I had Wikiloc running to catch if I was headed the wrong direction for some reason. The track I was following also had pictures so I set the app to notify me when close to the pictures' locations. These turned out to be just scenery pictures and I could see the views myself without any help so, instead of switching off that feature, I just ignored the beeps. At one point I took a picture and, because the phone was out, I also checked to see where I was. I was way off track. I had inadvertently set my brain to also ignore the beeps that indicated navigational errors. The road I was on had curved to the left but the camino went straight ahead on a path. I had missed the arrow. Rather than go back I looked for some way to reconnect to the camino farther on. I had good luck that looked like bad luck; there was no easy way to connect by continuing ahead. I then backtracked and came upon the church at Eunate when it open for a wedding. I would have missed it with a detour.

 

[VNwalking]

It is really as easy as just taking a picture with your phone, not from your camera, but from your wikiloc app itself. That automatically puts the waypoint at the spot where you took the picture, and the picture will also be recorded as part of your trip. You can add text to describe or identify the picture, and you can do it either right when you take it or later, even after you have uploaded the tracks to wikiloc.

Very, very cool. Gracias!
I wonder when I will be able to try this...

 

[Koidream]

Didn't know about the Wikiloc app, installed it on my iPhone and have the account on my iMac.
The next few days will show me how it works and if it isn't draining my battery on the hike...
Anyway, I am following one member right now. Guess who?...

 

[SabsP]

Didn't know about the Wikiloc app, installed it on my iPhone and have the account on my iMac.
The next few days will show me how it works and if it isn't draining my battery on the hike...
Anyway, I am following one member right now. Guess who?...

Hehe who knows : in the near future we could do a long distance hike between our two places. That would make a decent wikiloc...

 

[peregrina2000]

I just learned how to make waymarks and add photos as I record the trail. It’s super easy. And today was the first time my phone died while riding. I don’t think the actual recording takes much battery, but maybe adding the waypoints does. I’m not really sure if that’s what caused the phone to die, but I did go ahead and order a battery pack. Merry Christmas to me.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I don’t think the actual recording takes much battery, but maybe adding the waypoints does.

I doubt that the waypoints are the cause. Maybe there is something strange going on in the app but adding a waypoint shouldn't take much more power that taking a picture and uploading it and the upload shouldn't happen until you finish your track. Something that could use power on your trips is if you have wifi and/or data on. That keeps the phone actively looking for a connection. On your trips you aren't likely to find wifi you can use (well, McDonalds excepted).