In the woods, you look at the ground, and rightly so: that's where the mushrooms are. This is precisely why it's best to plan your trip beforehand, at home, with a table and good light. Where you enter, where you climb, how much it costs to get to the clearing you know, and what time it's best to be back. With MushScout, you do it the evening before, with Plan the route.
How to draw a lap
Open Plan the route and tap on the map stages, in order, as you would with your finger on a map: the parking lot, the clearing, the gully you're climbing up, the ridge you're descending from. The app connects them, and the tour is complete.
The route does not follow the paths: It passes where you pass. Those who go mushroom picking quickly leave the trail, and a GPS that always brings you back to the mule track would be useless here.
- Was the last stage wrong? Remove the last one. Want to start over? Clear.
- Don't know the area? With Go to a forest You can search for a place by name, open your forests with a tap (they work even without a network connection), or paste the coordinates a friend sent you. Pasted coordinates stay on your phone.
- Paper or satellite, even while you design. The map shows the shape of the land, the photo says what kind of forest it is: chestnut grove or beech forest, recent felling, clearing.
What the path tells you
Below the map, as you tap, the lap numbers appear:
- length;
- ascent and descent, that is, how much altitude you actually climb, not the difference between starting and finishing;
- the steepest stretch, which is what decides whether the ride is right for you that day;
- time on foot.
The odds are not calculated as the crow flies: the app reads them from the real ground, point by point along the line you drew.
Two limits, clearly stated
The land is read at 30 meters of meshYou can see the valleys and coasts, but not the little canal that only you know. Add that to your stops.
And time is calculated at walking paceMushroom hunters don't walk: they stop, walk around a stump, and go back twenty meters. The time on the app is the time it takes to walk, not to search: allow more.
The map, as long as there is signal
From the route screen, with one tap you can download the map of the entire area, including the margin. This should be done where there's signal, i.e., at home or before the last town, because that's the only place where it can be done. The map is saved, not the satellite photo.
In the free plan offline maps are three downloads in total, not three zones at once: deleting one frees up space on your phone, not a download. The app tells you before downloading, not after. With Premium, there's no bill. The rest is as it should be. without field it is told here.
Before you leave, let someone know.
From the path comes a pre-written message for those who stay at home: where do you leave the car, where do you pass through? and above all What time should he worry? and call for help if they haven't heard from you yet. You can send it to whoever you want, via WhatsApp or SMS: the app doesn't send it to anyone on its own.
It's free, like SOS. And it's the best-performing precaution of all, because it works even when your phone is out of power or you're at the bottom of a valley with no signal: someone knows where to look for you and from what time.
The Morning After: Walk This Route · Premium
Once you arrive at the parking lot, a touch and the map guides you along the line you drew the night before. It's the same guide as Repeat path, the one that takes you back to a successful exit, and like that one it doesn't ask anything from the network: the route is on your phone.
A detail that matters when you've just gotten out of the car: as long as the GPS doesn't have your location, the app tells you, instead of writing "you're on route" before knowing where you are.
The terrain in relief · Premium
Contour lines are a language you learn. A sloping slope, on the other hand, is simply visible. That's why there are two tools that read the terrain for you.
The relief and the watersheds. A veil that shows the shape of the terrain over any map, including satellite maps: where the slope is steep, where the ridges and valleys run, where the water flows. It's what you need to decide where to go, and it stays on even while you're planning.
The 3D route. From the design screen, a tap on "View in 3D" and the forest rises. You rotate the view with your finger, and in two seconds you can tell whether that canal is blocked by a coastline or whether the clearing is behind the hill. You can view it on satellite or on paper, like a flat map. If your phone can't draw it, the shaded map remains, and it tells you almost everything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it free to plan the route?
Yes. Drawing the route, reading its length, ascent, descent, steepest section, and time, downloading the map, and sending a message to those staying at home are all free. Premium services include the relief with watersheds, the 3D view, and the route guidance the next morning. The complete comparison is on the Free and Premium page.
Does the route follow the trails?
No. It connects the stages you pass, even off-trail. It calculates the measurements based on the terrain you actually travel.
Do you need the field?
To download the map, yes; to walk the route, no. A downloaded map can also be viewed while you're planning, so you can refine your route by car even where there's no signal.
Is walking time reliable?
This is the time to walk the route at a leisurely pace. If you're trying, you'll go much slower, so use it to determine if the trip fits into the day, not to determine the exact time of return. You decide what time to give to those staying at home, with some leeway.
Does anyone see the path I drew?
Your route is on your phone. You send the message with your location, and only to the people you choose. Your locations, as always, are invisible to anyone else.
