Create a trail
What is a trail?
Section titled “What is a trail?”In wanderer, a trail is a digital route that includes GPS data and descriptive metadata like name, difficulty, category, photos, and waypoints. Trails can be explored by others and searched in the app.
Create a trail
Section titled “Create a trail”To start, click the button in the top right corner.
Step 1: Pick a route
Section titled “Step 1: Pick a route”Each trail must begin with a route. There are two ways to provide one:
Upload a file
Section titled “Upload a file”Click the Upload file button to select a GPS file. Accepted formats are GPX, FIT, TCX, or KML.
After uploading:
- The map centers on the route
- Elevation profile and speed (if available) are rendered
- Distance, elevation gain/loss, and other metadata are extracted
- The form fields on the left will be partially prefilled with data that extracted from the file
Draw a route
Section titled “Draw a route”Click the Draw a route button to manually define a route on the map. While in drawing mode:
- Click on the map to place waypoints
- wanderer will automatically route between points using the Valhalla routing engine
- You can drag points to reposition them
- Use the top-left menu to change routing mode (e.g. walking, cycling)
- To remove a point, click on it and then click the red trash icon
If you disable Valhalla routing, straight lines will be used between points instead.
To finish drawing, click Stop drawing.
Step 2: Fill out trail details
Section titled “Step 2: Fill out trail details”Basic Info
Section titled “Basic Info”- Name – Required. Every trail needs a name.
- Location – Autofilled if available in the uploaded file.
- Date – Defaults to today.
- Description – Use the editor to describe your trail in as much detail as you want.
- Distance / Duration / Elevation – These are automatically calculated but can be manually adjusted if needed.
- Tags – Add descriptive tags to help categorize and search for your trail (e.g. forest, sunset, dog-friendly). Start typing to add a tag and press Enter to confirm.
- Difficulty – Select the trail’s difficulty (e.g. Easy, Moderate, Hard)
- Category – Choose the activity type (e.g. Hiking, Cycling)
Visibility
Section titled “Visibility”Toggle the Private switch if you do not want the trail to be visible to others. When set to private, only you will be able to view and access this trail.
Step 3: Add Waypoints
Section titled “Step 3: Add Waypoints”Waypoints are points of interest along the trail.
- Click + Add Waypoint to add one manually. It will appear centered on the map and can be dragged to another location.
- Each waypoint can have a name, description, icon, and photos.
- Use Font Awesome icons for map markers. You can browse them at fontawesome.com.
Alternatively, click From Photos to upload photos with GPS metadata. Waypoints will be created automatically based on the photo locations.
Step 4: Add Photos & Videos
Section titled “Step 4: Add Photos & Videos”You can attach photos and videos to the trail itself. These will be shown in the trail’s detail view. If you upload more than one, you can select one to be the trail’s thumbnail in the overview.
Step 5: Add to Summit Book
Section titled “Step 5: Add to Summit Book”If you’ve completed this trail yourself, you can log a summit book entry.
- Click + Add Entry
- Upload a separate GPS file or just log the date of your completion
- You can add multiple summit entries over time without creating duplicate trails
To learn more about summit logs visit the dedicated section of the documentation.
Step 6: Save the trail
Section titled “Step 6: Save the trail”When you’re done, click to persist your trail to the database. This will also re-index it for search and display it in your trail list.