Trailforks

Rating: 4.4	Downloads: 1,000,000+
Category: Maps & Navigation	Offer by: Trailforks

Trailforks combats ‘trail clutter’ by creating curated lists of recommended routes within vast trail systems like Mono Lake, North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and Rocky Mountain National Park. This service helps mountain bikers, hikers, and trail runners quickly and easily filter through extensive trail databases to find designated, legal, and user-rated paths appropriate for their skill level.

Trailforks offers significant practical value, especially on-large user or multiple-trail-using sites. Users benefit from real-time conditions, user reviews warning of closures or maintenance, and curated route planning, saving considerable time and ensuring a positive, responsible outdoor experience by promoting trail use where it’s permitted.

App Features

• User Reviews & Trail Reports: Trail users snap photos and leave ratings indicating trail conditions, maintenance needs, difficulty, and recent changes like washouts or permits. This fosters a valuable community knowledge base, helping users navigate unfamiliar terrain responsibly and know what to expect before heading out, directly improving safety and trail etiquette.
• Dynamic Trail Lists & Routes: The app integrates ) data from organized trail systems, displaying precise details like dates, mileages, and permit requirements. This prevents “trail clutter” by aggregating official info, allowing users to find specific official routes within protected areas and detailed private or landowner-approved mountain bike trails efficiently.
• Offline Maps: Downloadable map tiles cover thousands of miles of trails, accessible without cell service. This feature solves critical problems when you’re far from towns or poor connectivity, ensures you have routing data for complex singletrack systems, saving your battery isn’t guaranteed but significantly useful, and prevents accidental map-data download costs on international travel.
• Multi-Day Trip Planning: Users can drag-and-drop route segments to create multi-day itineraries, labeling destinations, overnight stops, and free time periods. After hours of careful route sequencing, you can easily print this itinerary for reference while on the trail, share the route details directly with a spouse or guide dog handler planning alongside you, and easily modify plans on the go based on changing conditions or schedules.
• Trail Following on Social Networks: Connect your Trailforks account to your Instagram or Strava profile to automatically geotag your trip activities and potentially check-in at trailheads. This lets friends and family see where you’re exploring via integrated location services, helps maintain hiking records from connected activity trackers, and tracks mountain biking routes mapped from your recorded ADVENTURE days.
• Cross-App Performance Integration: Trailforks data syncs with native mobile navigation apps like Gaia GPS and Maps.me. This advanced feature allows users to insensitive app duplication by sharing curated route geometry through export formats, ensures battery-saving app choices during long expeditions by offloading heavy mapping tasks, and enhances mobile navigation efficiency by synchronizing Favorites and Comments between platforms.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Extensive & Curated Trail Database
• Community-Based Trail Reports
• Highly Effective Offline Mapping
• Smart Route Planning Tools

Cons:

• Most Advanced Features behind Premium Subscription
• iOS Navigation Still Lacks Native Map Tiles
• Initial App Navigation Can Feels Less Intuitive
• Occasional Delayed Updates to Newest Trailmanagements Systems

Similar Apps

App Name	Highlights
AllTrail	A direct competitor focused specifically on permitted mountain biking areas like National Forests and Public Lands Trust areas. Known for comprehensive government database integration and verified user reports derived from official land management sources.
Komoot	Primarily known for turn-by-turn navigation. Designed for simplicity and mobile-first usability. Includes guided stages for multi-day hikes through forest preserves or mountain trails.
MTBProject	The online resource and corresponding smartphone app specialized in community-driven mountain bike trail data generation. Offers AI-powered routing recommendations, detailed track information export, and robust trip planning tools heavily focused on filtering demanding rides.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the core function or benefit of using Trailforks?

A: Trailforks tackles the problem of too many trails listed everywhere. Think of a super-powerful, constantly updated phone directory for mountain biking and hiking trails within legally designated areas. The app significantly helps users save time finding the very best, official, and user-approved riding and hiking routes while often integrating seamless offline map storage.

Q: Are trail maps included for free within the basic app?

A: Offline map tiles are a key part of the main mobile subscription, but the download process is managed by other local routing apps like Apple Maps or Gaia GPS as they operate more efficiently. Tracforks provides the directory and allows small snippets in its filtered results, while mandatory routing and dedicated offline map downloads are handled within the integrated navigation application you choose.

Q: How exactly do user reviews and reports work?

A: Users can spotlight established official routes or personal caches by snapping photos along the way and then providing conditions upon saving their trip route via social links or web portal. These community reports are publicly visible, color-coded by phone service network provider where some versions offer ratings for difficulty or recent maintenance, and generally mark the route’s official end points correctly after searching the integrated database.

Q: What’s the difference between the free and paid (Premium Pass) versions?

A: The free version provides access to the community-trail database and places marked by others, with essential route filtering. The Premium Pass unlocks many powerful features, including complete offline map download (managing several gigabytes correctly on iOS platforms without mishaps), multi-day trip planning tools, tools to verify ownership of private trails you ride, and other benefits helping overly large equipment like fat tire bikes work better in remote locations.

Q: Can I upload pictures of a difficult or unmaintained section of a trail and have that shown to everyone on the app?

A: Definitely! The app makes it very easy to add a visual marker (often called in-app ‘Check-in’ or ‘Spotlight’ function) anywhere specific along an official route section (usually within 100 feet of the route geometry). If a trail is closed or particularly rough, your photo and report will appear prominently listed on the front page for that segment, helping future adventurers see exactly what they might encounter and prevent common trail problems locally by alerting rangers or land managers.

Screenshots