WisePilgrim app for Norte: App #fail at Unquera

[Mark Petersen]

I used the WisePilgrim app for walking the Norte/Primitivo this July/Aug. When I arrived at the Cantabria/Asturias border, I followed the app as it approached Unquera. Big fail. Just a caution for anyone else using this. I ended up on a logging road which disintigrated into a very steep slope downward. They are doing logging of eucalyptus forests there, and my path ended in a huge thorny problem. I was stuck on the side of the mountain alone for 2 hours. It was horrible. Only option to move ahead through the thorns. But finally ended up on the road below, arms and legs bleeding.

Follow the signs not the app before Unquera. I didn't, and paid for my stupidity.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Who put this app together, and how is it for the rest? I don't like depending on technology, so I take pics of guides and carry a hard copy, photocopied super small so I don't carry extra weight.,

 

[Mark Petersen]

I found the app helpful for the GPS positioning of the camino with a red line showing the path, but it was not always the best route or - in the case above - absolutely out of date. I found several times it was not the best option presented... I would use it as a supplementary guide.

I found the Ciccerone guide not that helpful either.

Best is to follow the arrows and locals on the ground in my opinion...

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I found the app helpful for the GPS positioning of the camino with a red line showing the path, but it was not always the best route or - in the case above - absolutely out of date. I found several times it was not the best option presented... I would use it as a supplementary guide.

I found the Ciccerone guide not that helpful either.

Best is to follow the arrows and locals on the ground in my opinion...

Thank you for these answers. I am the type to just follow the arrows, until I either want to find out "are we there yet" or if I think I may be lost, which I have yet to be.

 

[Tia Valeria]

This sounds like the app follows the old route which came out opposite a small industrial estate and roundabout. We avoided it in 2013, before staying at the motel at this point. The latest guides follow a different route (see gronze etapa15) The official route is, as the OP says, signed.

 

[TerryB]

I used the WisePilgrim app for walking the Norte/Primitivo this July/Aug. When I arrived at the Cantabria/Asturias border, I followed the app as it approached Unquera. Big fail. Just a caution for anyone else using this. I ended up on a logging road which disintigrated into a very steep slope downward. They are doing logging of eucalyptus forests there, and my path ended in a huge thorny problem. I was stuck on the side of the mountain alone for 2 hours. It was horrible. Only option to move ahead through the thorns. But finally ended up on the road below, arms and legs bleeding.

Follow the signs not the app before Unquera. I didn't, and paid for my stupidity.

Before 2014 the way-marking did go uphill from Pesués into the woods. I went that way in 2009 and had to slide down hill in the mud, through briars onto the road. It is shown as the route in our 2012 edition of the Cicerone Guide - there is even a photo of the track on page 41 . Since 2014 the way-marking does NOT cross the N-634 to go off to the right up the hill, but bears left and stays on the level. Obviously the "WisePilgrim" app has not been updated.
Just follow the arrows after crossing the bridge at Pesués

Blessings
Tio Tel

 

[wisepilgrim]

Thanks for the notice, I will address this in the next update. The app was published as a "beta," primarily for use as an accommodation directory and means of measuring distances and elevations between points.

As usual it and the other guides are updated throughout the year as the camino changes. As usual with it or any other guide there is no substitution for following the yellow arrows and paying heed to frequent temporary signs that appear from time to time.

Buen Camino

 

[wisepilgrim]

UPDATE: For anyone finding this thread I wanted to let you know that the app has been updated for the Spring 2016 season, including a fix for this and a few other GPS issues.