A Santa Cruz man has created a new free phone app for local trail maps. Avid hiker and mountain biker, Austin Riba, said there are several crowdsourcing apps for trail maps, but they can be misleading. Riba, who is a software developer who grew up riding the trails around Santa Cruz County, says his Granitemaps works like a paper map, except it’s GPS enabled. So far he has only mapped the trails in Wilder Ranch State Park and UC Santa Cruz, and he is working on maps for the Soquel Demonstration Forest and the forest of Nisene Marks State Park. He hopes to have the new maps up by early next year. The app has ratings for trails, as well as information about the local flora and fauna bikers can expect to see, and emergency contacts. The app can be found online at granitemaps.com .
