Trailquest guide — walk real miles along a virtual PCT or AT, milestones, streaks, JSON backup

What this app does

Trailquest lays the distance you really walked around your neighbourhood onto a virtual long trail. The Pacific Crest Trail (about 2,650 miles), the Appalachian Trail (about 2,190), the Continental Divide Trail, the Camino de Santiago, the John Muir Trail, Korea’s Baekdudaegan ridge and a Tokyo-to-Kyoto Tōkaidō are built in, each with named milestones in order. Type in today’s distance and your marker moves along the map; the moment your running total passes a milestone it unlocks, dated.

You type distances in miles or kilometres. Paste the step count from your phone’s health app and it is converted with your steps-per-mile figure, but the app never reads steps or location on its own. A web app cannot reach HealthKit or Google Fit, so there is no “tracking I never asked for”: it only moves as far as you write. You can draw up your own route too. No account, no membership, no ads, and every picture is hand-drawn vector art. No generative AI landscapes anywhere.

What is on the screen

• The amber strip at the top: a note that your data stays on this device and that there are no generative AI landscapes.
• The active route card: the route name, a drawn map with ridges and the trail, the progress bar and percentage, walked, total and remaining, and how far the next milestone is.
• Log today’s distance: distance, date, an optional note, the mi / km toggle and the “Add to log” button.
• Paste step count: type the steps and your steps per mile, see the distance, and “Log this distance” adds it.
• The milestone list: from the start to the end in order. Reached ones show a green marker post and the date; the rest show a grey post and “Locked”.
• Routes: presets and your own, each with its own progress. Tap one to make it active; the route you left keeps its progress. “Create a route” takes a name, a total distance and optional milestones.
• Log and stats: the entries on this route (tap to edit or delete), total distance across all routes, active days, current streak and longest streak.
• Backup: Export JSON, Import JSON, and Delete all data.

How to use it

Pick a trail in the Routes card. If it is your first, a shorter one like the Camino (about 500 miles) or the John Muir Trail (about 211) feels reachable. After a walk or a run, type the distance and tap “Add to log”. The marker moves on the map and a toast tells you when you pass a milestone. If your phone only gives you a step count, paste it into the step card instead.

When a route is done a “Route complete” card appears and the log stays. Tap another route to keep going, and whenever you come back the old progress is still there. A wrong entry can be tapped in the list and fixed or deleted; progress recalculates on the spot. Add the page to your home screen and it opens like an app.

How it avoids the usual failures

• Auto-tracking noise: none. It never reads steps or location behind your back; only the distance you type (or the steps you paste) counts. Progress is made of activity you meant to do.
• Progress wiped when you change routes: never. Each route keeps its own log and milestones, so moving between a finished route and one in progress deletes nothing.
• Membership lock: none. Every preset, custom route, milestone and backup is free, with nothing behind a paywall.
• An empty passport on a new phone: export JSON from the Backup card, and “Import JSON” on the new device brings back every route, entry and milestone.
• Generative AI landscapes: none. The map, milestone posts and icons are all hand-drawn vector art, and nothing is fetched from an image service.

FAQ

Common questions are about how accurate the step conversion is, where data lives, and whether a milestone can lock again.