Track Your Trail — I built this because I needed it
Turning a creative hobby into a real business sounds simple. It isn’t. Here’s what worked for me—no theory, just the steps that paid off.
Track Your Trail
I was walking Stezka Českem — a long national trail that cuts across the Czech Republic — and I had no idea how much of it I had actually finished. I knew I had done many stages. I had GPX files scattered across my phone. But there was no single place to see the whole picture: how far along I was, what was left, how the whole thing looked on a map. So I built one.
The problem
Long distance trails are different from a morning jog. They happen over months, sometimes years. You do a few stages in spring, a few more in autumn. Each stage is a GPX file, a day, a story. The problem is not navigation — plenty of apps handle that. The problem is continuity: how do you hold the whole trail in your head across months of hiking, know your progress, and feel like it is one coherent journey?
I did not find a tool that did this well. So I decided to build it.
My trails: every trail in one place, with progress, distance, and elevation at a glance.
Who it is for
The person I had in mind is what I call the responsible planner. Someone doing Camino de Santiago, GR 20, E5 Via Alpina, or a national trail that takes months to complete. Someone who wants their trail under control from day one — planned in stages, with notes and attachments per stage, and a clear view of progress as they go. Not someone doing a one-day hike. Someone who commits to something big and wants to see that commitment reflected somewhere.
My role
I handled everything: product decisions, design, user experience, marketing. I am not a developer. I used Macaly, an AI-powered builder, to write and ship the code. The product choices, the UX logic, what to build and in what order — those were all mine. Macaly built what I described. I directed, tested, and shaped it into what it is now.
How I worked
Every feature started as a problem I described in plain language. I did not write formal specs or wireframes. I would articulate the experience I wanted — "when someone finishes a trail, I want them to feel something" — and then work with Macaly to get there. Design decisions happened in iteration: I saw what shipped, reacted to it, and refined. The line between design and product management blurred quickly when you are the only person on a project.
Key decisions
Seeding the platform with public trails
Early on I realised that if someone came to trackyourtrail.com for the first time and it was empty, they would leave immediately. No trails to browse means no inspiration, no reason to stay. So I built a crowdfunding model: users can create trails and make them public. The landing page now shows existing trails — Tour du Mont Blanc, GR 20, E5 Via Alpina — which does two things. It shows the app working with real, interesting content. And it gives new users a trail to explore or adapt for their own journey instead of starting from scratch.
Track Your Trail
I was walking Stezka Českem — a long national trail that cuts across the Czech Republic — and I had no idea how much of it I had actually finished. I knew I had done many stages. I had GPX files scattered across my phone. But there was no single place to see the whole picture: how far along I was, what was left, how the whole thing looked on a map. So I built one.
The problem
Long distance trails are different from a morning jog. They happen over months, sometimes years. You do a few stages in spring, a few more in autumn. Each stage is a GPX file, a day, a story. The problem is not navigation — plenty of apps handle that. The problem is continuity: how do you hold the whole trail in your head across months of hiking, know your progress, and feel like it is one coherent journey?
I did not find a tool that did this well. So I decided to build it.
My trails: every trail in one place, with progress, distance, and elevation at a glance.
Who it is for
The person I had in mind is what I call the responsible planner. Someone doing Camino de Santiago, GR 20, E5 Via Alpina, or a national trail that takes months to complete. Someone who wants their trail under control from day one — planned in stages, with notes and attachments per stage, and a clear view of progress as they go. Not someone doing a one-day hike. Someone who commits to something big and wants to see that commitment reflected somewhere.
My role
I handled everything: product decisions, design, user experience, marketing. I am not a developer. I used Macaly, an AI-powered builder, to write and ship the code. The product choices, the UX logic, what to build and in what order — those were all mine. Macaly built what I described. I directed, tested, and shaped it into what it is now.
How I worked
Every feature started as a problem I described in plain language. I did not write formal specs or wireframes. I would articulate the experience I wanted — "when someone finishes a trail, I want them to feel something" — and then work with Macaly to get there. Design decisions happened in iteration: I saw what shipped, reacted to it, and refined. The line between design and product management blurred quickly when you are the only person on a project.
Key decisions
Seeding the platform with public trails
Early on I realised that if someone came to trackyourtrail.com for the first time and it was empty, they would leave immediately. No trails to browse means no inspiration, no reason to stay. So I built a crowdfunding model: users can create trails and make them public. The landing page now shows existing trails — Tour du Mont Blanc, GR 20, E5 Via Alpina — which does two things. It shows the app working with real, interesting content. And it gives new users a trail to explore or adapt for their own journey instead of starting from scratch.