Documenting a trip with Google Maps

[Bob91]

[Moderator note: Starting a new thread to focus on new topic]

I have found that if I have forgotten where I stopped for lunch on day 12 of a Camino 5 years ago, Google can tell me exactly where, and how long I stayed there for lunch before moving on.

There is a privacy issue though. Leaving Location Services running but not having certain other settings disabled may allow you to be tracked. Here is an example from Google Maps. It followed my last camino and other trips. (It looks like it labels places that are the extremes of N, S, E, W).
View attachment 107020

I wish to thank both of you for the suggestion of documenting a person's trip with Google Maps. However, could y'all explain how to do it? I use the Google Map app on my iPad and iPhone. When I open the app, I don't see how to do what you are suggesting. Does the feature require the iPhone/iPad to be on continuously?
Thank you,
Bob

 

[davebugg]

I wish to thank both of you for the suggestion of documenting a person's trip with Google Maps. However, could y'all explain how to do it? I use the Google Map app on my iPad and iPhone. When I open the app, I don't see how to do what you are suggesting. Does the feature require the iPhone/iPad to be on continuously?
Thank you,
Bob

What I have used is a smartphone app called 'Walkmeter' which has the ability to have its files imported into Google Maps. John Sikora also uses it with his various Day-By-Day Camino series.

Walkmeter Walking & Hiking App for iOS and Android

Walkmeter

walkmeter.com

 

[alexwalker]

On my Caminos: Telephone sound off. Deep in my backpack. I charge at the opportunity. I am out there, walking my Camino. I prefer to live in the now and real. As an old computer engineer, I detest depending on constant communication to interrupt my Camino experience. JMHO.

I don't need mobile phone navigation support: Jeezz, there are yellow arrows and shells all over the place to guide you in the right direction. Don't even need a guide book.

One has to wonder how pilgrims in the old days, before electricery was invented, were even able to leave their houses....

Talk to people and get directions. You will get there, unless you are hopelessly confused. Reminds me of the woman outside the municipal albergue in Burgos who was standing in the middle of the street, yelling: "But where is the Camino from here!?"

I politely responded, over my morning coffee: "Look between your legs, woman."

She was standing in the middle of the street, with a bronze shell, basically saying "follow me", between her feet...

 

[C clearly]

On my Caminos: Telephone sound off. Deep in my backpack. I charge at the opportunity. I am out there, walking my Camino. I prefer to live in the now and real. As an old computer engineer, I detest depending on constant communication to interrupt my Camino experience. JMHO.

I don't need mobile phone navigation support: Jeezz, there are yellow arrows and shells all over the place to guide you in the right direction. Don't even need a guide book.

One has to wonder how pilgrims in the old days, before electricery was invented, were even able to leave their houses....

Please, let's not get into that debate here. We have different personalities, different interests, different strengths and weaknesses.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

I wish to thank both of you for the suggestion of documenting a person's trip with Google Maps. However, could y'all explain how to do it? I use the Google Map app on my iPad and iPhone. When I open the app, I don't see how to do what you are suggesting. Does the feature require the iPhone/iPad to be on continuously?
Thank you,
Bob

Google Maps timeline is also an excellent tool for documenting changes to the space-time continuum.

As the screen shot shows on the 14th of May 2019 as I stepped into Atocha station I encountered a warp in the space-time continuum and the station and I were transported to Iraq. All ended well once I got on the train though as we then went back through the same warp hole and were back in Madrid.

If you use Google Maps timeline then be sure to check for warp holes.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I wish to thank both of you for the suggestion of documenting a person's trip with Google Maps. However, could y'all explain how to do it? I use the Google Map app on my iPad and iPhone. When I open the app, I don't see how to do what you are suggesting. Does the feature require the iPhone/iPad to be on continuously?
Thank you,
Bob

I have an Android phone but I looked up some instructions for iPhones for you.

How To Enable Google Maps Timeline On Your iPhone

Are you having trouble using the new Timeline feature provided in Google Maps? Here is how to properly set it up and have a history of the places that you visit!

www.iphonetricks.org

As @Doughnut NZ wrote just before me the app isn't perfect. For example, you might walk slowly by a store and the app might think you stopped in. Also, I saw this when I checked my timeline the other day:

(We use campgrounds, not hotels).

The big trick is to remember that a bunch of Maps features are found not by menus with stacked dots or bars but by clicking your avatar at the top right of the display. That is where timeline menus can be found.

Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea of what a timeline can do. If you give things a click you go down into more detail.
. . .

 

[Bob91]

What I have used is a smartphone app called 'Walkmeter' which has the ability to have its files imported into Google Maps. John Sikora also uses it with his various Day-By-Day Camino series.

Walkmeter Walking & Hiking App for iOS and Android

Walkmeter

walkmeter.com

Fabulous! I already have that app. I've been using it for years as a pedometer and to record walks in the neighborhood. However, I have no idea how to import any walks into Google Maps. Would it be too much to ask how to do it? Could you point me to some website for more information? I didn't find this kind of help on the Walkmeter site.
I appreciate any and all assistance.
Thank you,
Bob

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I wish to thank both of you for the suggestion of documenting a person's trip with Google Maps. ... Does the feature require the iPhone/iPad to be on continuously?

Well, the power has to be on. With Android you can still record with the screen locked. I don't know if you must have your GPS running as possibly Maps can use cell towers to find your rough position. I almost always have my GPS running so it would be difficult for me to check this.

 

[Malachiuri]

A GPS watch seems to be a logical solution. I have Garmin products and are quite happy with them.

M

 

[jdpiguet]

Hi all,
I am using OruxMaps with offline maps.
I switch the phone in "airplane" mode and let OruxMaps record my track.
The phone is stored at the top of the pack.
Every evening, I upload the track of the day on the cloud.
The nice part starts a few weeks/months later, in the dark days of the winter:

• Load the track in my laptop, check where I was this day.
• Remember the nice bar where I stopped 2 hours chatting with Julio.
• Correlate the pictures.
• Try to remember why I have done 200m outside the path.
• ...

For me it is a really nice way to revisit my journey and to prepare the next one.

Buen Camino,
Jacques-D.

 

[lovingkindness]

Hi there @Bob91

Re documenting a trip with Google Maps:
I walk trails without a gps, a phone, or internet connection. From day to day I fossick about searching for good trails. I chat with local folks in the area and visit the local tourist offices. After I have finished the journey I sometimes reconstruct the experience using Google Maps -the freebie version found on the internet. I plot the trail on Google Maps; then click on 'Menu'; then click on 'Partager ou integret une carte' (I'm using a French friend's computer. I don't know the English equivalent). This produces a link for sending the map to somebody via email. I copy and past the link to whichever trails notes I happen to be writing. It's laborious but the process helps with my post-camino reflection.

Here's an example: The Baltic republics: Tallinn via Vilnius to Krasnapole (2017)

Cheers
Lovingkindness

​

 

[Jeff Crawley]

On my Caminos: Telephone sound off. Deep in my backpack. I charge at the opportunity. I am out there, walking my Camino. I prefer to live in the now and real. As an old computer engineer, I detest depending on constant communication to interrupt my Camino experience. JMHO.

I don't need mobile phone navigation support: Jeezz, there are yellow arrows and shells all over the place to guide you in the right direction. Don't even need a guide book.

One has to wonder how pilgrims in the old days, before electricery was invented, were even able to leave their houses....

Talk to people and get directions. You will get there, unless you are hopelessly confused. Reminds me of the woman outside the municipal albergue in Burgos who was standing in the middle of the street, yelling: "But where is the Camino from here!?"

I politely responded, over my morning coffee: "Look between your legs, woman."

She was standing in the middle of the street, with a bronze shell, basically saying "follow me", between her feet...

Many look, few see.

I was responsible for the setting out of a national cycle route through a coastal town in England. We put down the largest bike markings allowed under the regulations - 3m - to make things obvious and yet while on the final inspection with the contractor I saw two ladies, both with strollers standing centrally on the cycle track having a chat.
A group of cyclists were bearing down on them so we called out to be careful of the cycle track.
"What cycle track?"
We pointed to the large white symbol they were actually standing on and they reluctantly moved.

 

[David Tallan]

[Moderator note: Starting a new thread to focus on new topic]


I wish to thank both of you for the suggestion of documenting a person's trip with Google Maps. However, could y'all explain how to do it? I use the Google Map app on my iPad and iPhone. When I open the app, I don't see how to do what you are suggesting. Does the feature require the iPhone/iPad to be on continuously?
Thank you,
Bob

As some people mentioned above, Google Maps Timeline (you can find it, of course, with a Google search), was how I discovered just how well Google was tracking me. You have to have location services on for your phone, and location history enabled in Google Maps. It also helps to have power in your phone. It doesn't seem to require my phone to be on continuously, just powered.

I'm not saying I would use Google Maps to document my trip. There are special purpose apps (Relive, Polar Steps, etc.) that are much better for that purpose. Just that I was surprised at how well Google was doing that for its own purposes.