A FREE SAFETY TOOL ON EVERY GUIDE
How Camp Compass works
Riders get turned around on open sand. It happens to people who have ridden for thirty years, it happens in daylight, and it happens within a mile of camp. Camp Compass answers one question: which way is camp, and how far.
How it works
Camp Compass does three things. It marks your camp so you can find it again, it points you back to it using GPS, and it shares your coordinates by text if you need help. The first two work with no cell service at all. Sending needs either cell coverage or a phone with satellite messaging.
This is the part most people do not know, and it is the reason this tool is worth carrying at all.
GPS is not cell service
The satellite receiver in your phone is a passive radio. It listens to GPS satellites and never transmits, so it does not need a carrier, a tower, or a single bar. Airplane mode does not stop it. What stops working without a signal is downloading map tiles and turn-by-turn routing, which is a different thing entirely.
So the important parts run on the device
Marking your camp, reading your position, and working out the direction and distance back to it are all arithmetic performed on the phone itself. No connection is involved. Sharing your location and opening driving directions are the only features that need a signal, and they are kept to one side so their absence never blocks anything else.
The one catch, stated plainly
The page has to be loaded while you still have coverage. Open the Camp Compass page for your destination before you leave town, and leave the tab open. Once it is loaded, the tool keeps working with nothing at all.
Install it on your phoneTakes you back to the top. iPhone and Android steps.
Reading the compass
The big number at the top is how far you are from camp, and it is the only thing you have to read. Ride or walk for a minute, then look again. If the number is falling you are going the right way. If it is climbing, turn around. That is the whole trick, and it works without understanding anything else on the screen.
Line the teardrop up with the arrow
The red teardrop is your camp. It sits on the ring wherever camp actually is, and it moves round as you turn. The gold arrow at the top never moves: it is the way you are pointed. Turn yourself until the teardrop sits under the arrow, then go that way.
Moving is more accurate than standing
Walk or ride and the line under the dial reads Direction from your movement. That comes from the satellites and it is the accurate one. Stand still and it falls back to Compass, which is the magnetic sensor in the phone and is the rougher of the two. If the dial looks wrong, take twenty steps and read it again.
Holding it flat, and when that matters
When it says Compass, hold the phone flat and face up, like carrying a plate. On its edge the phone cannot work out which way it is pointing and the dial wanders. Metal does the same, so step away from the machine and the tailgate. When it says Direction from your movement, none of that matters and you can hold it however you like.
If the dial will not settle
Ignore it and use the number. Distance comes from GPS satellites, the dial comes from a magnetic sensor, and they are two different systems. The satellites are the half you can trust. Walk twenty steps in any direction and watch which way the number moves: that alone will get you home.
Teaching your group
Make it the thing you do when the trailer is level and before the first engine starts, the same way you check the flag.
- Set the location. Standing at the trailer, not fifty yards from it. The fix is only as good as where you were standing.
- Name it. Base camp, the truck, Wash 4. Something you will recognise at dusk when you are tired.
- If you get turned around, watch the number. Open it, walk a minute, and look again. Falling means you are going the right way. Share the spot so everyone in the group has the same pin.
Cell service at each destination
You install Camp Compass once and it works at any of them. It does not care which dune you are standing on. What changes is the cell service, so each guide tells you straight what to expect where you are going.
What it will not do
Camp Compass is an orientation aid, not a rescue plan. The direction it gives you is a straight line to a saved point. It knows nothing about a wash, a fence, a closed area, or a dune face nobody can climb. Use it to work out which way to go, then pick a way that actually works on the ground.
A phone battery dies. A screen fails in the heat. A satellite fix can be tens of yards out, and the tool says so when it is. Carry a paper map, tell somebody your plan and your return time, and treat a handheld GPS or a satellite messenger as the real equipment. If you are lost and low on water, staying put beside a visible machine is usually safer than walking.
We built this because the alternative was riders having nothing at all. It is free, there is nothing to install, no account, and nothing is sent to us. It is here because it should exist, not because it earns anything.
Versions and updates
Open the gear in the corner of the compass and the bottom line tells you which version you are running, for example Camp Compass Ver.9. It is worth knowing, because if something ever behaves oddly that is the first thing we will ask you.
It updates itself
Open Camp Compass once where there is a signal and it quietly fetches whatever has changed. There is nothing to download and no app store involved. Occasionally it takes two opens: the first one can still show the old version while the new one is being stored behind it.
Out of range it stays put
With no signal there is nothing to fetch, so it keeps running the version already on your phone. That is deliberate. The whole point is that a dead zone never changes what the tool does. It will catch up the next time you have bars.
Forcing a check
Tap the version line in the gear menu and it checks straight away, then tells you whether you are current or whether an update is waiting. If one is waiting, close the app and open it again to finish.
You should not need to delete it and install it again. There is one exception: if we ever change the app's name, its icon or the screen it opens on, those are fixed when you install and an update cannot replace them. If that happens we will say so here, and on the homepage.
Ready to put it on your phone?
It takes about a minute, and it has to be done where there is still a signal. Do it before you leave home.