After far too many rewrites, I’ve finally reached a “good enough” point for some beta testing of my hiking app. The app is called Peakist and it helps keep track of your visits to hiking locations. Some folks call this “Peak Bagging” and other folks find that to be a negative term. Personally, I’m indifferent but I avoid using that language here.
You can use the app to track which locations you have visited or to give you inspiration for future trips. The current test version is designed primarily for iPhones but should work fine on both iPad and Mac. I hope to optimize the design of the iPad/Mac versions later. The initial test build features three lists of locations: Catskill 3500, Catskill 100 and Catskill Fire Towers. I do most of my hiking in the Catskills so I’m starting with these.
Peakist is not designed to be a navigation tool for use in the field. It will display locations on a map so you can get a feel for where things are but it does not track your hikes or display hiking paths beyond what are included on the maps used.
The app will allow you to copy the coordinates for a location for use with other apps/tools and will open any of the locations in Apple’s Map app to help with driving directions. It will also display known, official parking areas.
I’m not 100% certain yet how the app will be monetized but the current thinking is it will be a free download with a few lists to work with but additional lists will be available to purchase. Ideally you would be able to download the app and get your first list for free and then pay for others but I’ve yet to work out how to do that. Still thinking about this...
I still want to make some design tweaks here and there but I want to put this out into the world to get some feedback and gauge interest in this sort of app.
If you are interested in testing the current beta version drop me a note and I’ll add you to TestFlight for the app. Note that the app uses the latest, greatest Swift/SwiftUI features and therefore requires a minimum of iOS 17.
There is a website for the app. The site is based on an earlier concept and out of date right now however there is useful information there and in the FAQ.
I believe the world needs more apps that don’t treat users as a data farm so I track nothing and share nothing. Visit data is synced via iCloud and that is the only data that will be passed around and that data will not leave the users iCloud account.
If the concept for this app is interesting but you hike in another region please let me know what other lists you would like to have included. I do plan to add other local (to me) regions soon such as the Adirondacks.
