Planning a Walk or Hike Route

Planning a walk or expedition usually means an Ordnance Survey map on the kitchen table, a calculator for working out walking times, and a hand-drawn route card for the paperwork. The Route planner brings all three together: draw your route on a real map, drop checkpoints along the way, and watch the distance, climb and estimated walking time update as you go — then print a route card or download the file your GPS can follow.

Where to find it#

In the left sidebar, click Tools, then open the Route planner card. The planner is available to leaders and group admins.

The main page lists your saved routes. Click a route to open its workspace, or use New route to start one.

Choosing your map view#

Top-right of the map, switch between three views to suit what you're planning:

Plotting your route#

Click on the map to drop the first point, then keep clicking to add each straight leg of the route. If you'd rather trace a winding path exactly, switch to freehand and draw the line with your finger or mouse — the planner tidies it into a smooth route for you.

You can adjust the line at any time:

• Move a point — drag it to a new spot; the legs either side follow.
• Delete a point — double-click it, and its neighbours join back up.
• Undo and redo — step back and forward through your changes if you take a wrong turn.

Hold your pointer over any of the points on the line — or over a checkpoint — and a small label shows that point's grid reference. You can read a reference straight off the map without opening anything.

This works on both desktop and touchscreens, so you can plan on a tablet in the field. On a touchscreen there is nothing to hover over, so tap a checkpoint to read its grid reference instead.

Adding checkpoints#

Checkpoints mark the places that matter along the route — the start and finish, a water stop, a hazard to brief the group on, a rendezvous point. Add a checkpoint, choose its type, and drop it where you need it.

Each checkpoint automatically shows its Ordnance Survey grid reference and its what3words address, both worked out from where you place it and kept up to date if you drag it somewhere new. That gives you a grid reference for the route card and a plain-words address you can pass to a driver or an emergency contact.

Reading and copying a grid reference#

The grid reference is the six-figure form a route card asks for: two grid letters, then three digits east and three digits north, such as NY 246 081. Six figures pin the point to a 100-metre square.

You will see it in three places:

• On the map — hold your pointer over any point on the route.
• In the Checkpoints panel — every row shows the reference under the checkpoint's name.
• In the checkpoint itself — open a checkpoint from the map or from the Checkpoints panel, and the reference sits under the heading.

Click or tap the reference inside a checkpoint to copy it. Scoutworks confirms with Grid reference copied, so you can paste it straight into a route card, a permit form, or a message to your home contact.

Routes outside the National Grid#

The Ordnance Survey National Grid covers Great Britain. If you drop a point outside it — the Channel Islands, or a route abroad — Scoutworks shows the latitude and longitude to five decimal places instead of a grid reference, and copying it confirms with Coordinates copied. You always get something you can pass on, rather than a blank or a reference that does not exist.

Those legs show a dash in the grid-reference columns of the route card, because there is no National Grid reference to print.

Distance, climb and walking times#

As you build the route, a summary panel keeps a live tally of:

• Distance — the total length of the walk.
• Ascent and descent — how much climbing and descending it involves, read from the terrain.
• Walking time — an estimate using Naismith's rule (distance plus climb), shown for both an adult pace and a slower young-group pace, so you can plan realistically for the group you're taking.

An elevation profile along the bottom shows the ups and downs across the whole route at a glance — handy for spotting the steep sections before you're standing at the bottom of them.

The route card#

Open the Route card panel for a leg-by-leg breakdown between your checkpoints — the kind of card a Duke of Edinburgh's Award group is expected to carry. Each row covers one leg and shows the grid reference you're leaving and heading to, the compass bearing, the distance, the climb, and both the leg time and the running total.

You can type straight into the card to add an escape route or a hazard note for each leg, so everything the group and your emergency contact need is in one place.

Printing and exporting#

When the route's ready, the Export menu gives you three outputs:

Setting up the printed map#

Print route map… opens the Export route map panel, where you choose what the map shows and how it's scaled:

With PDF selected, click Open PDF and the finished map opens in a new browser tab, ready to print or save. If nothing opens, check your browser hasn't blocked the pop-up. With PNG selected, click Download PNG to save just the map image — handy for dropping into a briefing or a message.

At 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 the map is drawn at a true scale, centred on your current map view: the map fills the first page at its exact paper size, and the route card follows on the next page. At As on screen, you get a single page with the summary, the map, and the leg table below it.

What's next#

• Finding Locations with what3words — how what3words addresses work across Scoutworks.
• Laying Out a Campsite to Scale — the map-based planner for the camp itself.
• Kit Lists for Camps and Activities — the "what to bring" checklist parents can tick off.