FoD 'Pocket Trails' App

Updates (Aug 2026)
 

The app tells you when a new version is ready and what's changed, so you're never left running an old copy. Tap Reload & update and it installs in a couple of seconds. Everything you've saved — your ticks, ratings, ride reports and location history — stays exactly as it was.
 

New section — Supported by

Pocket Trails is free and always will be. Bikes for Brains Workshop supports the app — servicing, bearings, suspension and custom builds, based very close to the top of Cannop Cycle Centre. You'll find them inside the app under Supported by.
 

If you run a business riders here would want to know about, get in touch: mail@fodmtb.com

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Why we made it

Phone signal in the forest is patchy at best, and it's always when you want to check where you are or what to ride that you've got no bars. So we built FoD Pocket Trails — a free app that lives on your phone and works completely offline. Load it once, and it's all there whenever you need it, out on the trail or off.

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What's in it

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• 🗺️ Offline map with live GPS — see the whole trail network, every waymarked trail and downhill run, colour-coded by grade, with your own live position on it. No signal or data required. Fire roads, connectors and direction-of-travel arrows help you navigate between the trails, and the café, uplift pick-up and downhill trailhead are all marked. Tap any trail to jump straight to it on the map.
   

• 🧭 Take me back — lost your bearings? Pick Pedalabikeaway or Dean Forest Cycles and a compass points you at it, with the distance. It turns as you turn.
   

• 🥾 Breadcrumb trail — record your route as you ride, and retrace it if you end up somewhere you didn't mean to be.
   

• 🌧️ Trail conditions — a mud index that weighs the last seven days of rain against how fast each trail drains, so you know whether the Freeminers will be fast or filthy before you drive down. Plus the weather for the Cannop valley, saved for offline use.
   

• 📈 Elevation profiles — see the climb and descent for each main trail before you commit. Know what you're in for.
   

• 🆘 Emergency tools — one-tap 999 with your grid reference already written out, a what3words link, nearest hospitals with directions, first-aid basics, and an SOS beacon that flashes the screen and sounds a whistle if you're hurt and waiting for help.
   

• 🔍 Search — one box across every trail, run, feature, rule, repair and first-aid page in the app.
   

• 🔧 Trailside repairs — the fixes that get you back to the car park with what's in your pack.

• 🚦 Check before you ride — a live trail-status link, recent ride reports from local riders, and a form to send your own.
   

• ⭐ Rate the ride — tick off the loops and runs you've ridden and rate them.
   

• 🧭 Ride Now — tell it the conditions and how long you've got, and it suggests what to ride, with a daylight countdown.

• 🚵 Every official trail & 14 downhill runs — grades, distances, features, local tips, run descriptions and POV video links.
   

• 📅 Events — the Mini Downhill and Mini Enduro series, MIJ Downhill, the Hope Women's Enduro, Little Fodders kids' racing, Dean Trail Volunteers dig days and Forestry England's own programme, with how to enter each one.
   

• 🌙 Night riding — lights, routes and what changes after dark, plus a red night-screen mode that won't wreck your night vision.
   

• ⚡ E-bikes — range, rules, charging and which trails suit them.
   

• 📖 New here? — a first-timer's running order, what I wish I'd known, and ten myths about the Forest with the honest version.
   

• ⬇️ GPX routes — download the Verderers, Freeminers and Family Trail into Trailforks, Komoot or your Garmin for turn-by-turn navigation.
   

• 🧤 Built for the forest — glove mode for bigger buttons, a battery-saver GPS mode, and an offline readiness check so you know it's all downloaded before you lose signal.
   

• All of it works offline once installed.

 

All of it works offline once installed.
 

Get it — it's free

Nothing to buy, no App Store needed.

iPhone: open the link below in Safari → tap Share → Add to Home Screen
Android: open it in Chrome → tap the menu (⋮) → Install app
 

You'll get the boar on your home screen, and it opens full-screen like any other app.

Open FoD Pocket Trails → → https://fodpockettrails.netlify.app
 

​QR Code

On a phone? Tap the button. On a computer? Scan this with your phone camera to open it there.

 

A note on the map

The offline map shows the official trails and downhill runs with your live GPS position — genuinely useful for knowing where you are in the forest. It's a reference guide, not a turn-by-turn sat nav: for detailed navigation, download the GPX routes into a dedicated app like Trailforks. And always check the live trail status before you ride.

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