Inspiration
I’ve always loved exploring new trails with my best friend - heading out for a weekend, hiking all day, then spending the evening marking our progress on a paper map with a highlighter. It was a fun ritual, but it had flaws: maps get messy, they pile up in cupboards, and they don’t show one thing we love - the numbers. We wanted to see exactly how far we’d covered, what percentage of a trail was done, and compare progress across multiple hikes. That sparked the idea for Mappetite.
What it does
Mappetite is a digital take on scratch-off maps, built for multi-day hikes. It lets you:
- Track your progress on trails in real time
- Visualize multiple hikes in one place
- See clear statistics (distance covered, % complete, distance remaining)
- Relive past adventures without the clutter of physical maps
How we built it
Mappetite was built using SwiftUI for the frontend and Firebase for backend data storage.
The core feature calculates trail progress. This required careful handling of path data, geospatial logic, and statistics.
Challenges we ran into
- Handling GPX data: Working with large GPX datasets was challenging - processing and rendering long hiking tracks smoothly required careful calculations and optimization to maintain accuracy and performance
- Design balance: I wanted Mappetite to feel playful and nostalgic, while still delivering accurate stats and clean visuals
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Turning a personal hiking ritual into a functional app
- Creating a tool that’s both fun and data-driven - blending the best of physical scratch maps with the power of digital tracking
What we learned
- Techniques for handling geospatial data
- That building something for yourself first often leads to the most authentic and useful products
What's next for Mappetite - Trail Scratch-off Maps
This is just the first step. Future plans include:
- Automatic syncing with popular activity trackers
- Expanding beyond hiking to cycling routes, backpacking trails, and long-distance rides
- Adding richer visualizations and the ability to compare progress across years of adventures
The goal is simple: make progress tracking as fun and motivating as the journey itself.
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