Recently Gaia has been a regular topic of discussion, as I started to do partial leads. During these discussions, an issue that came up regularly is how the tracks become unmanageable and do not make any sense anymore, leading to users deleting their old tracks. I too found the same issue while I was still new, perhaps 10 to 15 drives old, and I was intermediate already! When I was driving in the same area there were multiple tracks in distinct colors, and nothing made sense. Since Fewbie level I have been organizing my recorded tracks and I want to share my housekeeping tricks in post in the hope that a few of you might find it helpful.

1.       Start Early: If you start early to organize your drives and with a little bit of housekeeping from the start you can better manage the tracks in the future, and it does not become a big headache later. Even if you are not subscribed to the app, do record the tracks even with the free version and keep them.

2.       Folders: Create folders for each level of drive, such as Newbie, Fewbie and so on. I have folders for other types of drives, e.g., drives with friends, wadi drives etc. After each drive while saving the track, immediately put the track in those folders while saving the track.

Gaia also gives an option to add photos you took during the drive to attached as well. While I do it, I delete them (Profile>Photos) later as it leaves a bunch of waypoints that I don’t need. The photos seem to stay with the track even after deleting them.

Saving tracks in folders makes it quite easy to hide/unhide (eye button in saved tab) a bunch of tracks at the same time. These days I hide all the tracks and keep the current plan visible. Any new drive you record will automatically be visible till you hide them.

3.       Color Coding: You can color code all drives in a level with one color. In my case I used the same colors that were used in my stats posts.

I considered either color coding or creating folders by Lead or Area instead of filing tracks by Level + color-coding them at the same time, because it seemed like duplication. But those options either did not add any value to me or the process made it more confusing for me. Your experience might vary.

4.       Rename Tracks: Rename the track with the area you did the drive and the lead with who you drove in the title. I also put the participants’ names in the notes section. This helps you find specific tracks by searching for them (use “Download guest list” in calendar to get text of all names).

As a newbie lead, I go back to my most memorable drives from the past in an area to plan for the next drive. Some time I get to see a great track to drive and other times I take the convoy though a technical jungle; either way it is fun.