Keep your group on track.
See who has reached each checkpoint and who has fallen behind. Downloaded maps and forecasts keep working when the signal drops; progress and alerts arrive once a phone is back online.
No credit card. 20-minute setup. Built for iPhone.
Managing a group on the trail is harder than planning the trail.
You know the route. You have walked it before. What you cannot see is your group, stretched out over two kilometres, out of sight behind a ridge, with no signal to call anyone.
- Who has reached the checkpoint?
- Who is falling behind?
- Did everyone follow the planned route?
- What happens when there is no signal?
- How do you coordinate a group without constantly stopping?
Built for the way guides actually work.
Plan it once
Draw or import the route, place your checkpoints, and invite your group with a single link. Download the map and the forecast while you still have Wi-Fi.
Watch the checkpoints, not the phones
Checkpoints are marked as guests pass them, so you can see how the group is moving through the route instead of stopping to do a head count.
See who needs attention
A guest can raise a distress signal from their phone and choose whether to share their location with it. You see who raised it, and where they were if they shared it, and you close it once it is handled.
Two different apps in the same app.
Your guests are not running a tracking app. They open an invite and follow the route. Nothing else is asked of them.
| Guide | Guest |
|---|---|
| Creates the tour | Opens the invite |
| Invites participants | Follows the route |
| Sees checkpoint progress | Does not record a GPS track |
| Manages the group: roles, removals, limits | Uses offline maps |
| Responds to distress | Reaches checkpoints |
Guests do not record a GPS track. That is not a setting we chose for this page. It is how the app is built. A recorded track belongs to the person who made the route, so a guest has no way to produce one. What a guest gets is narrower on purpose: checkpoints are marked as they pass them, and if they fall well behind, their phone reports how far. Nothing else about their walk is stored, unless they choose to share their location when asking for help.
Guides share their position, within the tour only. That is what a guest's phone measures "behind" against. Only members of that tour can read them, and only while it runs.
Checkpoint progress is not a live map of your guests. A checkpoint is marked when someone crosses it, which can reach you minutes later, and a phone with no signal reports once it is back in range. It tells you how the group is moving through the route. It does not tell you where a person is standing right now.
Everything the day actually needs.
Offline maps
Download the region before you leave. The map keeps working where the signal does not, which on most of our routes is most of the day.
Offline weather
Forecast at the start, the high point and the finish: wind, humidity, and four parts of the day. Downloaded with the map, so it survives the dead zone.
Checkpoints
Place them along the route. Guests are marked off as they pass, and you see the group's progress through the day.
Falling-behind alerts
If a guest stays well behind the nearest guide for a minute, the owner and guides get a notification with the distance, and the group panel shows it until they catch up. The guest's phone works this out itself and sends only how far behind they are, never where they are.
Invites and roles
One link per tour. Lead guide, guide, trainee, participant, with caps on group size and private tours that never appear publicly.
Distress signal
A guest raises it and can choose to share their location. The owner and guides get the details; the rest of the group gets a short alert without names. It stays open until someone closes it.
Route library
Record, draw by hand, or import GPX. Reuse a route for every trip you run on it, and duplicate a tour to run the same trail next month.
Notifications
Your group is told when the tour starts, finishes or is cancelled. The owner hears when someone joins by invite. The owner and guides hear when someone asks to join and when a guest falls well behind. A help request reaches the whole group, with details for the owner and guides only.
Three things you should know now, not later.
Every one of these comes up in the first conversation. It is cheaper for both of us if you read them here.
Every guest installs the app and creates an account
There is no guest-without-an-account mode. For a group of twelve this is real friction, and it is the honest reason a pilot is free: we want to find out how many of your guests actually get through it.
iPhone and iPad only, iOS 17 or later
There is no Android app. If your guides or most of your guests are on Android, Trailcraft is not usable for you yet.
Up to 20 checkpoints are tracked automatically
An iOS limit on how many locations a phone will watch at once, not ours. Longer routes are covered in part, and the app says so when you cross the line.
Run one real trip with it.
We are looking for a small number of guides and clubs to run Trailcraft on real trips with real groups, and to tell us where it gets in the way.
- Tell us about your club and the trips you run.
- We set you up: the route, the checkpoints, the invite. About twenty minutes.
- You run a real trip. We stay reachable that day.
- You tell us what broke and what was missing.
Pilot pricing. Free during the pilot program. Commercial plans will be introduced based on feedback from our early guide partners.
Not ready to commit? Write to us anyway at support@trailcraftgo.com and ask whatever you need to ask.
Frequently asked
Can I see my guests on a map in real time?
No, and the app cannot do it at all. What you get is checkpoint progress: a guest is marked off when they pass a checkpoint you placed. It can reach you minutes later, and a phone out of signal reports when it comes back into range. If someone falls well behind, you get an alert with the distance, not their location.
Do my guests have to be tracked all day?
No. A guest never records a GPS track. The app has no way for them to. Their phone notices the checkpoints you set and, if they fall well behind, how far behind they are. Following the route never uploads their position. The one exception is their choice: when asking for help, a guest can share their location with the request.
Does it work without signal?
The map and the weather forecast do, if you download them before you leave. Checkpoint progress needs a connection to reach you, so it arrives when a phone next has one.
What if a guest does not install the app?
Then they are not in the tour. This is the main limitation of Trailcraft today, and measuring it is part of why the pilot exists.
Can I use this for cycling tours?
Partly. Cycling and mountain-bike tours use their own checkpoint sizes, tuned for riding speed, but we have not tested them on a real ride yet. We would rather say this now than have it fail on your trip.
Do you have an Android app?
Not yet. iPhone and iPad on iOS 17 or later.
How many people can join a tour?
You set the cap yourself, and you can leave it unlimited. Automatic checkpoint tracking is limited to 20 checkpoints per route.
What does it cost?
Nothing during the pilot. Commercial plans will be introduced based on what we learn from our first guide partners. We would rather find out whether this is useful to you before pricing it.
Is my group's data private?
A tour can be private, which keeps it off the public list entirely. See our Privacy Policy for what is stored and for how long.
Bring one group. See what happens.
The trip you already have on the calendar is enough to find out whether this helps.
No credit card. 20-minute setup. Built for iPhone.