Get the most out of every ride.

One route, every way you might ride it

The technical line and the easy bypass. The spur to the lookout, if there’s time. Save them all on one route as options, then pick what you’re actually riding on the day. Switch options and the distance, climb and fuel estimate update with the choice; nothing is re-planned, because every option is already snapped and saved.

Three kinds of option. An add-on is an out-and-back or a loop that leaves the main line and returns to it — off until you switch it on. A fork is two ways round from one split: A is the main line, B the alternate, and choosing B replaces that stretch rather than adding to it. And a fork doesn’t have to come back — choose one that ends the route on its branch and everything the main line did after the split comes off the day.

1. While you’re drawing a route, tap the branch button in the plan bar to fork from the end of the line. Draw the other way, tap Done, and you’re back on the main line at the split to carry on as normal. Fork again while you’re on a branch and the new one hangs off that branch.
2. Already saved it? Open the route and tap Add a Fork or Out-and-Back in its OPTIONS card, then tap where the new way leaves the route and where it rejoins (or the same spot twice for an out-and-back), shape it, and choose Keep Both.
3. On the day, flip the rows in the route’s Options list and the map and the numbers follow. Forks at the same split are either/or: turning one on turns the others off.

Rides, routes and tracks — which one is mine?

Every line in your library is one of three things, and the Lines tab groups them that way. A ride is where your tires went — recorded on this phone, one point every few feet. A route is where you want to go: planned in the app or received as an SK Maps file, and the only kind that carries options — forks and out-and-backs you switch on or off for the day. A track is a line somebody handed you — a rally, a friend’s GPX or KML, a line from another app.

Following is the same for all three: your line, your arrow, and a buzz if you drift off it. The app never re-plans a line under you or moves it onto a road it thinks is better — the dirt you loaded is the dirt you ride.

Ride: open it for the stats, follow it again, or export it as GPX for a friend.

Route: edit the line, flip its options, plan fuel, follow it, and share it as an SK Maps file so the other phone gets the same choices you had.

Track: follow it, export it, or change a stretch, reverse it or add a fork, as you would a route. Its recorded times are removed only after you confirm. Create route from this track still makes a separate route from the exact same line — nothing snapped to roads, nothing re-planned — and the original track is untouched.

A topo that works with no signal

The SK Maps default base is a vector topo that renders on your phone — sharp at every zoom, with contours, terrain, and public land. Download any of the 50 states once and the map, search, and tap-to-identify all keep working in airplane mode.

1. The vector base is already your map — nothing to set up.
2. On a fresh install, the second setup screen offers the states first: your own is ticked from your location, motor vehicle use maps come with it unless you untick them, and you watch the download start before you reach the map.
3. Any time after that, open Tools → Offline maps, pick your state (or draw a box around a smaller area), and download.
4. Every state download includes its routing pack, so route planning works offline from the start. The only optional extra is the MVUM layer; satellite imagery can be added for a drawn area if you want it offline too.
5. Head out. The downloaded map, your saved routes and waypoints, search, recording and following all keep working without service, and so does the elevation profile inside a downloaded state. The weather forecast, snow, smoke, air quality, fire perimeters and river readings wait for a signal.

Bring a route you already know

A friend’s GPX, the organizer’s file from the group chat, or your whole library from another app: SK Maps imports GPX, GeoJSON, KML, and KMZ and keeps colors, routes, and icons where the file carries them. Use it next to the app you already have, or move over when you’re ready. A GeoJSON “All Data” export usually carries the most detail; GPX works too.

1. Open a GPX or another supported file into SK Maps from Files, Messages, or AirDrop. Bringing a library from another app? Export it there first.
2. Review what’s coming in, and choose a trip or just your library.
3. Save. Re-importing the same file into the same place is safe — pins and lines that are already there are skipped, not doubled. If a file carries route options, the review screen and the confirmation both say what will and won’t come across, so you never have to count your own options afterwards.
4. Adding options on one phone and importing on another tops the route up. The route itself is recognized and left alone, and any options it doesn’t have yet are added to the copy you already have — the ones it does have are left exactly as you set them, including which branch you chose.
5. Imported as a track but want to plan on it? Open the track and tap Create route from this track — you get a plannable copy (fuel range, out-and-backs, forks) and the original track stays exactly as it came in.