Survival Pocket Ref
Let’s hope you’ll never need it but hey, having information on building makeshift shelters, first aid, building fires and more is nice to have in your pocket, aka on your phone.
WeatherBug – Free Local Weather Forecast, Radar Map & Severe Storm Alerts
“live local weather through the largest network of U.S. weather stations.” Personally I like Weather Alert USA for it’s link to NOAA but I’ll check this one out too. It’s free!
Download
Flashlight.
It’s not going to pull you through the darkest trails but likely it’ll get you to the john in the night. More importantly it’ll help you find your shoes without waking up your tent mate and we’d all like to thank you for that!
Download
MyNature Tree Guide
For someone who has lived in the Evergreen State (Washington) all my life I know a pathetic amount about trees. I want to learn more but let’s face it, carrying guide books to identify birds, animal tracks, trees, trails, etc etc gets a bit cumbersome. And now there’s an app for that!
Audubon Bird Guide: North America
There are other apps out there, free and not that do this same thing but let’s face it, Audubon is the authority here. Going to have to check this one out.
TrailBehind: Find Adventures Nearby
Always excited to find more trail finding apps. So far the best thing for trail finding still seems to be the guidebook (bought at REI of course) but hopefully apps will take over so we’re not carrying so many books. Maybe REI will make a few with the help of the Mountaineers!?
Topo Maps
I’ve got a free offline Topo map app which may work as well as this one. Hard to say.
Moon Atlas
Cool way to explore the moon from your camping destination… often times the only place you can really get a good look at the sky.
Starmap
Again, having this sort of technology in our pockets in one little device makes the outdoors so much more enjoyable. Sure, I have books for this stuff and much of my research on campspots, trails and the like happens there, but when I’m out in the field I LOVE having this stuff on my phone. Easy to carry, easy to use and unlike a guidebook I’ll never leave it at home on accident.
