Back to Support / Building a hike
Placing stops, the trail start and trail end, shaping the walking path, loops and one-way routes, and marking spurs and rides.
A hike is one walking path with its stops on it. You place the stops on the Waypoints step and shape the path between them on the Route step. The path always runs through every stop, in order: the builder keeps it that way for you. Small arrows along the line show the direction it is walked.
On the Waypoints step, tap the map where each stop goes, in the order people will walk them. A new hike's map opens on the place you picked for it.
A hike needs at least three stops before it can be published, and can have up to 100.
Drag its marker. The path moves with it, and the shaping on the legs either side is kept.
A stop added with Add stops goes to the end of the walk. To put one between two stops you have already placed, without redrawing anything:
The stops after the new one are renumbered. A ride or spur on the leg you divide applies to both halves, and every other leg keeps its shape and settings.
If a stop was added at the end and then moved up the list, its new neighbors are joined to it with straight lines, because the path never passed through that spot. Tapping the path or using Insert a stop after this one is the way to add a stop in the middle while keeping the shape you drew.
If the stops aren't joined to the walking path yet, you'll be asked to connect the path first.
Drag a stop's handle up or down the list, or use its up and down arrows. Only the legs next to the stop's old and new places change; every other leg keeps its shape exactly:
A ride or spur stays with its leg as the stops move. The legs that changed are outlined on the map for a moment, and Undo puts the old order and the old path back.
When a stop ends up with a different next stop, the leg leaving it goes back to an ordinary walk (no spur, no ride), unless that leg came along from before; a leg whose next stop is unchanged keeps its settings.
Press the trash can beside it and confirm. Its story and quiz questions are removed with it. Its photos come off the hike but aren't deleted: each one is kept with the account that uploaded it, ready to use on another stop or hike.
Both are optional, and neither is a numbered stop: they have no story, quiz questions or photos, and no suggested stop time. In the list on the Waypoints step, the trail start always comes first, above stop 1, and the trail end always comes last, below the last stop.
Trail start is where people begin, if that isn't stop 1: a parking lot, a transit stop, a trailhead. Press Set trail start and tap the map. It appears as a green flag pin, and the path starts there with a straight leg to stop 1. It's where the directions point, and trail mode opens there.
Trail end is where the walk finishes. Its card asks you to choose:
Switching from Ends somewhere else to Back at the trail start removes the trail end, with its name, switches, notes and getting back, so you're asked to confirm first. Without a trail end, the selected choice follows the path: a path that finishes close to where it began reads as back at the start. A trail end placed close to the trail start keeps Ends somewhere else selected, but the route still counts as a loop, so its card doesn't say One way and the hike gets the Loop tag.
The trail start, and a trail end that ends somewhere else, each have three switches:
Any of them can be on. On the trail end you can turn them on before you place it: they're saved as soon as it's on the map. Each also has room for short Notes (fees, hours, which entrance or exit to use), and the trail end has Getting back: how walkers return to where they began, such as which bus or train to take and where to catch it. Getting back is only for a one-way route; on a loop it isn't shown. The notes and getting back are limited to 2,000 characters each.
Press Move and tap the map, or drag the pin, to put either one somewhere else; it keeps its name, switches, notes and the settings of its leg, and the end of the path moves with it. Press the trash can to remove it, which takes the walk to or from it off the path too.
The path should begin at the trail start and finish at the trail end. On some older hikes it doesn't: the line was drawn first and the start was placed a short way from it. The card then says The path doesn't begin at the trail start yet (or doesn't finish at the trail end yet). Press Connect to the path: the start stays exactly where you put it, and the path gains a straight leg from it to where the line began (or from where the line finished to the trail end). An older loop that finished where it began also gains a walk back to the trail start. Nothing already drawn moves, so you can shape the new legs on the Route step. Like every edit, this stays in your draft until you publish.
The trail start and end pins are drawn above the numbered stops, so they never disappear when you zoom. Where one would cover a stop, it is drawn a little to one side, with a short line to a dot on its exact spot, so the stop's number stays readable.
Whether a route is a loop or one way is worked out from the path itself, never set by hand. It shows beside the map as you draw. On the hike's card and page only a one-way route is labeled; a loop carries the Loop tag instead.
A one-way route without a trail end shows a reminder: Add a trail end so walkers know how to get back.
A path starts as straight lines between stops, which will usually cut through buildings, across water, or the wrong way down a one-way path. On the Route step, drag the path's points: drag a point to move it, or drag a faded midpoint between two points to add a bend exactly where you drag it. Right-click a point to remove it.
Stops stay put while you shape. If you drag the point a stop sits on, it goes back to the stop. To move a stop, go back to the Waypoints step.
Legs drawn as one long straight line are flagged runs straight in the list of legs. Select a leg to see it on the map.
Undo steps back through your path changes. Reset this leg to a straight line throws away the shaping on one leg. Erase whole path throws away all of it, going back to straight lines through every stop, so it asks you to type the word delete first; it is available once at least one leg has been shaped.
On a hike whose path was drawn before stops had to sit on it, the first change you make to its stops or path bends the path through each stop, without moving any stop or anything already drawn. The builder tells you when it has done this.
Each leg, the stretch leaving one stop, has two controls on the Route step.
How you cover it. On foot by default; also trolley, ferry, bus, train or drive. Anything but walking is reported to visitors separately and never added to the walking distance.
Make spur. Marks the leg as optional: a side trip a walker can take or skip. Spur miles are offered on top of the walking distance, so the hike shows a range like "4.3–5.1 miles" rather than one number that is wrong for everybody.
Several consecutive optional legs count as one spur. Out to something and back is one detour, not three.
These are measured from the path, so there is nothing to type or set: reshape the path and they follow. The Route step shows the walking distance, about how long it takes to walk, and how hard it is. Under them is the hike's total time: the walking time plus the suggested stop time of every stop, which you choose on the Stories & quizzes step. Hills count once the route's elevation is known, which happens when the hike is published; until then the builder says so. See Time and difficulty. A hike's page updates to the new numbers the next time you publish.