The Beginning

I've hunted with the same small group of guys for over 20 years.  In the beginning we used paper maps and a compass to plan our hunts, meeting points and find our way back to camp.  Without communications, it was not uncommon for one of us to head in the wrong direction in the thick timber and not make it back til well beyond planned, and often well after dark.  Not ideal, but it was just how things were back then.  It was nice though,  no cell coverage, no WiFi, and no one else for miles, just the way we like it, and that remote off-grid experience holds true today.

 For the last 14 years, we've been carrying expensive, bulky GPS radios on our hunts, upgrading them every few years.  Every year, spending more money with the hope that the latest version will be better than the last.  We use them for hunt planning, mid-day collaboration, and end of day navigation back to camp, or to locate a pickup location.  It works, but not perfect.

We carry the extra weight and pay for upgrades in the name of convenience, safety and for peace of mind knowing that we can get help and our friends can find our location for a pack-out, or if someone needs assistance.  Most of what is in these GPS radios is already built into our phones, but the phones are useless for communicating when we're off grid.  So, we use the GPS radios that burn through batteries faster than a bear on a gut pile, are slow to navigate and by today's standards, have tiny screens.  

While sitting around the campfire at elk camp '25, we were wondering why we continue to spend $500+ each upgrade for technology that hasn't evolved with the rest of the world, isn't quick to use, nor is it intuitive.   We all agreed there should be a better way, but we don't see anything in the market.  Off to the wall tent they went, just to do it all again before dawn with the same old GPS radios. 

It was late, but inspiration had struck and I wasn't about to head off to the cot.  My best friend was kind enough to stay up and listen to me ramble about how it's 2025 and this is the best we can get.  I have hobbies that include electronics design, software development and hardware modeling.  Why can't I just come up with a solution?  Our camps remain off grid and I realize we carry our phones through the woods all day anyway, why not use them?  Our phones contain our licenses, harvest tags, topo maps, cameras, GPS and more tech than anyone should need in the woods already, why don't we just expand on this?

While breaking elk camp, I tell the guys hunting season 2026 will be different.  I'm going to build "a thing", solve a problem and make our lives better, safer and at a cost low enough that others may want it too.   I said I would figure it out, So I did.

3 months later, a few hours of developing every night, weekends for building and testing, and now we have the beginnings of woodTracks.  Progress is improving daily.  Although not production-ready, the product and application are stable and we're getting close to field testing.  More to come...