This is a Service of camosdigitalnomadservices.com and is part of a series of Web-Apps for UK National Trails, inspired by this article in 2016.

The obvious issue with this amazing venture was the "needle in a haystack" problem of actually FINDING these Street View Panoramas on Google Maps in a "sea of blue spaghetti" where both roads and trails are indistinguishable.

My own solution was to develop a Web-App "container" that allowed the user to quickly hone in on a chosen area/walk and use "entry point tabs" to map directly to representative Panoramas (and then use the Street View arrows to advance along the trail in either direction). Then having created that structure I was able to add more Multi Media features such as FlyOver Videos, Elevations etc and perhaps SatNav.

Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, only about 15% of the trails were "Trekkered" as planned and I lost interest and essentially moved my systems (and visits) across to the Greek Islands for 5 years or so, but kept an eye on the Thames Path which was slowly being photographed by an individual using the new technology of "DIY Trekker" (a tiny 360 degree panorama camera in place of the 26 kg backpack Trekker).

It was not until 2021 that the Thames Path was complete DIY Trekker wise so I resumed the Web-App I had started in 2016 and also took a look at the latest situation with SatNav (for all the UK Web-Apps) and generally updated the Web-Apps.

We are all aware of how well SatNav works on the road network where there is no single "correct path" as traffic conditions may result in different paths on different days or times of day. For a trail there is only one correct way (same as for the fixed waymarkers) BUT unless the path between such points is "ACTIVE" (in Google Maps) the SatNav will NOT work. Conversely if all ARE active it is possible in a Web-App such as mine to create a pre-programmed path to "bend/tweak" the SatNav exactly to that route.

Then this link can be used on a smart phone, if you wish, in conjunction with the main guidance which is the waymarkers on the ground and not forgetting the "comfort" of the traditional OS Map. The main added advantage of the SatNav is, as I see it, the "timing feature" which keeps you informed how you are progressing all the way along the trail.

My experience with UK National Trails is that such active state can be very much hit and miss to the extent that back in 2016 I was inclined not to waste my own time in my Web-Apps trying to explain which parts of which sections of trails might work and which will not.

But my "progression on the Google ladder" started with becoming a Local Guide and then a Trusted Pro Street View Photographer (ie DIY Trekker or Green Tick man) whereby most of the Street View panos in my Greek Web-Apps were taken by myself. That is to say I tended to concentrate on areas where Trekker had never visited (and in some cases not even the Google Car).

And recently I gained the tag of "Content Partner" whereby I can draw a path in Google Earth of a section of a National Trail that SHOULD be active but is not and (once and if approved by Google), Bingo! I can add a SatNav link in my Web-App for a National Trail section that now "tracks" for the very first time.

So that has motivated me to revisit the National Trails I had started from 2016 onwards (and even add some new ones) and add the SatNav feature to make the Web-Apps even more useful. It is not an easy task with over 300 corrections so far.

However one may well ask WHY am I doing this and all I would say is that this is something that should work but does not in many cases, so I am trying to make it work wherever I can. Of course it is not just for my Web-Apps but for anyone using "Directions" in Google Maps whereby if all links along a path to a Destination sought are active then the National Trail should be one of the options offerred to the user.

The good news is that by some coincidence at this very time in April 2023 Google has released an article about Google Maps enhancements for Parks and Trails around the world so it will be interesting for me to see how these might be integrated into my Web-Apps including these matters of SatNav functionality (which we all know is being constantly updated/improved).

In this regard I am quick to add that there is a "quirk with the tweak" whereby the tweaks to make the route exactly the same as the National Trail can be achieved by simply dragging the little blue/black circles to the correct locations and, IF ACTIVE, the blue dotted line will "snap" to such new route, BUT it will not add that new location to the list on the left. Then if sent to your phone it seems these intermediate locations are not transferred.

It seems this can be fixed by "hard coding" these tweaks as "dropped pins" whereby they appear as Locations in the list and when such is in use on a phone the walker will be told when the location is reached, asked how good the directions were and given the option to continue to the next Location on the list.

The dropped pins can of course also be important locations on the trail and that opens up a lot more possibilities for a fully integrated SatNav working along with the Trail Managers, especially if Street View Panoramas have been included by whatever means (or there are plans to do so).

I was aware in 2016 that the Welsh Trail Wardens had borrowed 2 Trekker machines from Google for a month or so and made great use of them all over Wales including the whole of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. However at the time I was more interested in the English Trails so Pembrokeshire was sceduled down the list a bit and then got "forgotten" once things "went astray" with the English Trekkering.

So when I returned to the UK Trails in late 2022 it was a case of starting the Pembrokeshire Coast Path "from the ground up" including SatNav. My investigations in January 2023 using Google My Maps revealed about 70% of the full path was active and by the time I completed the Web-App 3 months later the remaining 30% of "fixes" had all been approved by Google.

There are 28 individual SatNav sets of directions corresponding to the 14 Walks in both directions and the overall compliance can be viewed in My Maps comparing the official file for the Trail to the active SatNav Trail. So in April 2023 it is essentially complete but it would be nice if the Trail Wardens etc checked it all out "on the ground", after which I could do some "fine tuning".