Why I built TrailQuest — and why it starts with the Camino

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Hi. I’m Martin. I’m a solo developer, and TrailQuest is the app I built because I couldn’t find what I actually wanted to use myself.

But before I get to the app, I need to tell you about the walk.

It started in 2017

I walked my first long-distance trail in 2017. I started at the Mediterranean — in Barcelona — and walked west along the coast and under the Pyrenees to Pamplona, where I joined the Camino Françés. From there I continued all the way to Santiago de Compostela, and then kept going to the end of the world: Finisterra, on the Atlantic coast. 1,331 kilometres in total.

I didn’t really know what I was getting into. Most people don’t, the first time.

What I found out there is hard to put into words without sounding like a cliché — but I’ll try. When you strip away everything except a backpack, sore feet, and the next arrow painted on a rock, something in your head goes quiet. The walk becomes the whole world. The only question that matters is: how far to the next village?

“The walk is easy. Coming home is the hard part.”

That’s something every long-distance walker who’s done more than one will tell you. The walk itself — the blisters, the 6 AM starts, the hostels, the rain — that’s actually the simple bit. Real life, waiting for you at the airport when you land back home, is the hard part. The trail gives you a clarity and a pace and a sense of forward motion that everyday life rarely matches. And when it’s gone, you feel its absence.

So I went back. And then again. And again. Over the years, I’ve completed four more long-distance trails — each one over 1,000 km, in different countries and on different continents. Each one different. Each one leaving the same mark.

The problem I kept running into

Between my long-distance trails, I walk. A lot. Commute, lunch breaks, evenings — probably 8–12 km on a typical day. I had Google Fit faithfully counting every step, and absolutely nothing motivating me to do anything with that data beyond glancing at a number. I wanted something with direction. A destination. A reason to keep going beyond closing a ring.

“What if every step I took today moved me forward on a real trail? What if my commute was actually getting me somewhere?”

I looked for an app that did this. Something that would take my real daily steps and map them onto a real-world trail — not a gamified fantasy map, but an actual route I’d walked or dreamed about walking. Something that would tell me “today you passed Burgos” or “you just reached O Cebreiro.” Something that made the ordinary feel like progress toward something meaningful.

I couldn’t find it. So I built it.

What TrailQuest actually is

TrailQuest is a walking app that turns your real daily steps into virtual progress on iconic real-world trails. You connect it to Google Fit or Apple Health, and every step you take — whether you’re walking to the office, around the park, or up a hill — moves your avatar forward on the actual Camino Françés. You unlock authentic milestones with pilgrim stories and photographs, earn Trail Coins, build your streak, and watch your HealthSpan Score grow week by week.

It’s not a social fitness tracker. It’s not a game that asks you to pay to progress. It’s a walking companion with a destination — built for people who already walk, for people who want a real reason to start, and for every long-distance walker who misses the trail and can’t get back there yet.

Where we are right now

TrailQuest is currently live on Android in closed testing. That means it’s fully functional — steps sync, milestones unlock, HealthSpan Score works, leaderboards are live — but access is limited while I iron out the last rough edges before a full public launch.

What’s coming next

This blog is where I’ll be sharing updates as the app develops — new features, new trails, the science behind the decisions I’m making, and the occasional story from the trail. No filler, no marketing fluff. Just honest updates from someone who has walked the same kind of trail.

You can also follow TrailQuest on social — I post updates, trail facts and walking science across all channels:

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