Imagine you just purchased a plot of mountain land and you want to draw out plans, mark trails, and mark key reference points. Where to even start? The only tools I was aware of that could remotely be used would be Google Maps and the All Trails hiking app. Some of the biggest barriers for getting to know our mountain land were documenting, measuring, and mapping our trails, and build sites. Luckily, there is an app called onX Hunt which we have been making use of regularly and makes all of this way easier.
Lewis and Clark would've sh*t their pants.
- Mr. Nacho
What is onX Hunt?
Don’t be fooled by the name. We are not using it for hunting! onX Hunt is a popular app among outdoor enthusiasts, especially hunters and hikers, for mapping and navigating terrain. It’s particularly useful for mapping private and public lands, tracking property boundaries, and scouting hunting areas.
onX Hunt lets us to mark boundaries, points of interest, and important landmarks on our property. Additionally, the app allows us to download maps for offline use, which is essential for us since our property has limited cell service.
Below are things that Google Maps didn’t have which onX Hunt helped with to map our mountain land.
Land ownership information from onX ensures we stay within our property lines
onX Hunt provides detailed information about land ownership, including public and private land boundaries. This is important for us to stay within the confines of our property lines as we hike, explore, and plan for any builds.
- Public Land: onX Hunt displays various types of public land, such as national forests, state parks, and wildlife management areas. We are close to state-managed land, so we have used the app for hiking and exploring the areas right outside our property
- Private Land: It distinguishes between different types of private land, including individual parcels, ranches, and other privately owned properties
- Landowner Information: The app also shares the names of landowners for specific parcels. This information is often sourced from public records
- Property Boundaries: onX Hunt displays accurate property boundaries, helping us understand where our property ends and another begins. We have noticed that the onX map seems to be more up to date than our county website as well
Topography maps help us plan and navigate difficult terrain
onX Hunt provides detailed topographic maps that are particularly useful for navigating difficult terrain. It has helped us plan routes for exploring on foot (e.g., to avoid steep slopes). It also helped to validate suitable building sites.
- Elevation Contours: onX Hunt’s topographic maps display elevation contours, which show the shape and steepness of the land. This helps especially as we look for flat-ish land to build on or for creating trails
- Terrain Features: The maps depict terrain features such as ridges, valleys, cliffs, and streams. This helps us better visualize the landscape, potential obstacles, or points of interest (like particular outcroppings)
- Trail Networks: While onX Hunt doesn’t show the logging roads on our property as trail networks, generally the app does include views of trail networks
- Water Sources: The maps indicate water sources such as rivers, lakes, and streams. It accurately marked our wet weather stream
By examining the terrain features and elevation, we can also use this app to identify areas prone to erosion or other natural hazards, hopefully allowing us to mitigate these risks as we develop the land.
Drawing and measuring distances in onX make it easy to plan routes and build areas
With onX Hunt’s drawing tool, we can measure distances directly on the map by simply drawing a line with our finger. Whether it’s a freehand sketch or a linear point-to-point line, this helps us more accurately estimate distances.
The ability to measure distances between specific points on our property is helpful for planning routes and assessing the size of the area we want to level out.
Waypoint marking helps us remember important locations to come back to
onX Hunt lets us also mark waypoints, making it easy to navigate and remember important locations on the land.
- Landmark Identification: Landmarks can be things like potential build sites, water sources, trailheads, or scenic viewpoints. This helps us identify key features of the land for exploration or development. We marked things we wanted to put on the property, like our fire pits, build and tent sites, and parking areas
- Planning Routes: Waypoints can be used to plan routes for exploration, hiking trails, or access roads
Track recording in onX helps revisit paths taken (and can measures their distances too)
onX Hunt allows us to record and track our movements on the map in real-time. Not only can we record the paths we take, but it also tracks, the time, distance, speed, and elevation change.
- Mapping Routes Explored: We used this to save the various trail paths we explored. This provides a record of where we’ve been and helps in retracing steps or planning future routes
- Recording Building Progress: We haven’t done this yet, but I could see how it could be useful. For builds, tracking can be used to document progress over time. Users can track their movements as they work on different areas of the land, providing a visual record of construction efforts
- Safety and Navigation: We also haven’t had to use this quite yet, but if for some reason we were to get lost, tracking would ensure that we get back to our original starting point (or waypoint) safely. It serves as a safety measure, helping to avoid getting lost
onX Hunt also has other features like sharing custom maps with others, wind and weather forecasts, and I’m sure there is even more. Above are what we utilize the most.
Try out the app for yourself! onX Hunt offers a 7-day free trial. It has a number of different membership options. We utilize the Premium Single State subscription for our West Virginia needs
Where to download onX
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