Outdoor Apps for the Apple Watch
Taylor Hutchinson 06.19.23
The Apple Watch Ultra was released last September to a lot of fanfare. However, with a price tag of $799 many outdoor enthusiasts were let down by the battery life still only being a few days at best with a newly released low-power mode. Furthermore, at that price point, one could invest in an excellent Garmin wearable such as the Instinct or Fenix with better battery life and more outdoor-focused features. All that said, Apple Watches are everywhere and for the everyday weekend warriors, the juice might not be worth the squeeze to get a dedicated wearable for the family camping trip. Apple’s App Store is a plus when it comes to its product line, and the Apple Watch is no exception. By installing a few apps here and there, the weekend outdoor enthusiast can flex their everyday Apple Watch into an outdoor wearable for their next trip.
Tide Graph
Tide Graph is an older app that has been invaluable when venturing out on the bay or flats fishing. It uses the same algorithms as the National Ocean Service and shows an interactive graph based on your nearest Tide Station. Keeping up with which Station applies to a location is automatic, as the app remembers the stations last used when being launched. The app also can save Tide Stations when sorting through stations closest to one’s current location. Swipe forward each day to see any date in the future when planning the next day out in the water. This is helpful when docking the boat, timing the fishing with the falling tide, or just not wanting to be stuck in the middle of the bay past lunch. Tide Graphs can operate offline with the Pro version, or plan ahead by saving graphs for offline use. The app is universal in that it is available on the web, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Goose Maps
Navigating from the Apple Watch is great as long as there are roads and street signs nearby. Moving to a more remote area without cell service, things become more interesting. Goose Maps is a stand-alone Apple Watch app that offers downloadable maps straight to the watch. The maps are powered by OpenStreetMaps and are updated often. The app offers the ability to bookmark places such as peaks, waterfalls, and nature reserves on the map with the tap of a finger. It offers walking and riding directions based on the users’ location. Topography lines and contrasting trail markers can be turned on for navigation while hiking. While the app is not free, it’s one of the few cheaper options, at $1.49/month, available for offline mapping tools using just the Apple Watch.
CARROT Weather
Apple’s weather app can leave a lot to be desired, not to mention boring. Thankfully, with an app like CARROT Weather one can be entertained and informed for their next outdoor adventure. The app is available on several platforms, including Android. While looking through the Apple Watch app forecasting the user can see moon phases, temperature, daily forecast, and chance for precipitation. Rest assured this weather app is accurate as it pulls weather data from various sources, such as AccuWeather, Tomorrow.io, and Apple Weather. What makes the app stand out is the alerts when bad weather is about to hit the user’s location. These alerts give the direction, speed, and timeline to which one can expect the weather to hit, buying time for shelter to be sought. All of these features and CARROT Weather can also be enabled to use some “colorful” language when giving its weather report. This provides some entertainment to those that are difficult to make blush. The app alone is free and well worth a look, if one is needing to look at weather maps or needing severe weather alerts then upgrading to the Premium version will be needed.
Any Apple Watch can take advantage of these apps that support the latest watchOS. Pair these with app complications shown in the watch face gallery. Customizing these with a compass and a few of the apps above can really stretch the legs of, what is for most people, their everyday watch. If that pushes anyone to go outside without having to buy the latest and greatest gear, then all the better.
