One of the most popular Trail making systems on the planet is GAIA GPS and I believe once you start diving into it you’ll see why so many adventurers utilize this powerful system.

Some great features is GAIA GPS supports multiple operating systems (IOS, Android, etc) and what I love is you can plan your entire route via a web browser and save the GPX file to share with your friends or club etc..

Here are some high level screenshots of the web version

BASICS

At the bottom left you can see I’m on Search which means I can search for a trail or a city or something or just browse

Now I would suggest clicking on Filter and select Offroading and unselect Hiking so you get better results.  Obviously you can filter on more if you want.

Now if you click on Saved these are either routes you saved or you imported from someone else.

HOW DO YOU IMPORT A FILE (.gpx or other)??

On the bottom left I click on Saved then you see the + button at the top, I click on that.

You get presented a menu like the one below

Click on Import File and browse to your .gpx or kml or whatever file and it will show up on the left which you can organize into folders to keep it cleaner.  To move your imported files you click to the left of the imported file (the three …) and select Choose Parent Folder.

CAN YOU SHARE YOUR FILES FROM GAIA?

Yes you can and its pretty easy to do.  You can share an entire folder with all your files OR you can share just a file.  When you are on a file (example below is I’m on the UP Michigan trip.gpx) you can click on Share (right next to the Edit button) and you can add Collaborators, you can share the link or you can Export the File (GPX is the most common and widely used).

VIDEO TUTORIAL