Map app is the cat's meow for sorting out land ownership

“Ya, just head up that dirt road a spell and you can start hunting beyond those brown cows. My land goes on for another mile or so.”

More than once we’ve asked permission and heard something like the above, especially in eastern Montana.

I hate getting lost, but I’m almost as fearful of inadvertently trespassing.

So, after 40 years of packing roadmaps, USFS maps, Delorme maps, and others, I made the leap last fall to a digital mapping system.

Now I carry just my iPhone.

I selected onXHunt Premium because:

1)although they provide maps for all over the United States, the company is based in Missoula and

2)I’d heard they were easy to use.

Tech-challenged, I still cannot record TV programs on our DVR, but the first time I opened onXHunt, I checked out my neighbors and who owned what properties on the lower Flathead River where we hunt waterfowl.

I found the headwaters of the Little Blackfoot River and located a couple public access sites on Flathead Lake that I didn’t know about.

onX maps are basically a series of selected basemaps, over which you can place multiple layers of information to learn about an area.

Basemaps can be aerial imagery, topography, streets and others, over which layers showing private parcels, government lands, Block Management Areas, hunting districts, roads and USFS maps can be placed.

For my use, finding the name of a private property owner is the most valuable feature.

I can drive down a road and see owner’s names or sit in my favorite chair at home and pinch, pull and scroll to any spot in Montana.

onX maps, were originally available on a SD/MicroSD chip for the Garmin GPS and for printing off a computer.

The maps and all features are now available on mobile devices like iPhones and Androids, which have built-in GPS. Maps can still be printed off a computer.

onX maps work on smartphones beyond cell service by caching the maps you want, then using the phone’s GPS to find present location, even tracking.

Pretty sweet!

For Garmin GPS, a forever onXmap is around $100. Updates are $25.

Twelve-month mobile device memberships are $30 for Montana. Other state prices vary.

Seven-day free trials are available and customer service is exceptional.

For more info check www.huntinggpsmaps.com

And, just for the record, we never found the brown cows!

Jerry Smalley is a fishing columnist for the Hungry Horse News.