1bar

The web, maps and trip check-ins at one bar of signal

1bar is a web app for hiking and camping where cell service is weak or gone. It makes web pages small enough to load on one bar, keeps maps and a field guide on your phone, and keeps the people who’d worry about you posted while you’re out — and alerts them if you’re not back when you said.

Sign inHow trip alerts work

Free, with no ads. Run by David Cahill in Lake Stevens, Washington. Accounts are set up on request — ask for one.

1bar on a phone: a search box, the trip in progress with an I'm OK button, the trip checklist, the forecast and bookmarks
Your trip, the forecast and your sites, on the phone
A contact's trip page: on the way, due back Monday 5 PM, a topographic map of the route and check-ins, the stops and the plan
What your contacts see: the plan, check-ins and a map

What 1bar does

Browse at one bar

Pages load on 1bar’s server; your phone gets a much smaller copy — the text, pictures sized for your screen, video at low data. Slow, dropped connections pick up where they left off.

Maps and a field guide, offline

Before you go, download topographic maps of the area, the forecast and alerts, and a field guide, so they work with no signal at all.

Trip plans

Where you’re going, the stops along the way and when you’ll be back. Check in with one tap — or by text message when there’s no data.

Your people stay posted

Contacts you choose hear when you head out, your check-ins and when you’re back safe, each with a link to a map of the trip.

How trip alerts work

  1. You leave a plan with a return time and choose your emergency contacts — usually close family and friends.
  2. Each contact with a mobile number gets one text asking them to reply YES. Nobody gets texts without replying YES, and nothing else is sent unless they do. (Contacts can also get email, with a link to stop in each one.)
  3. During the trip they get the updates you turned on — usually a few a day, held overnight during your quiet hours (alerts never wait).
  4. If you’re not back by your time, or you ask for help in the app, they’re told — with your plan and where your phone last was — and told again when you’re back.

1bar is not an emergency service. In an emergency call or text 911, and carry a satellite messenger or beacon where there’s no service.

Text messages

The 1bar trip updates & safety alerts program sends texts from (855) 573-8556 only to travellers who turn on text reminders and to the contacts they add, after each replies YES. No marketing, ever. Message frequency varies; message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out and HELP for help. Details, and a picture of how people opt in: text alerts.

Who runs 1bar

1bar is run by David Cahill, an individual (sole proprietor) in Lake Stevens, Washington. Contact: david.cahill@gmail.com.

It started as a way to keep using the web on camping trips in the Pacific Northwest, where one bar of signal is often all there is, and grew into a way for travellers to keep family and friends posted. Questions, or want an account? Email david.cahill@gmail.com.