Metsovo Ursa Trail

Hiking Ursa Trail, Metsovo, Northern Greece

Ursa Trail is one of the most popular mountain races in Greece. The race route starts from the traditional town of Metsovo and crosses valleys, mountain meadows, beech and pine forest and alpine crest lines to accomplish a 40-Km loop. Every year, more than 1000 runners enjoy this challenging route. A spectacular 20-Km route, named "On the traces of the Bear" and a more demanding 40-Km loop, are proposed to the runners.

The Ursa Trail organization committee, responsible for signposting and maintaining Ursa Trail, submitted a slightly modified route for certification under the European Ramblers Association "Leading Quality Trail" label. The hiking version of Ursa Trail consists of 4 daily sections, all using Metsovo as accommodation point.

Metsovo Ursa Trail topoGuide, a proud member of topoGuide family, offers on-path navigation, POIs approach prompting and a comprehensive guide on the geography, the natural environment and the monuments of the area.

Metsovo Ursa Trail topoGuide, although oriented toward hikers and nature lovers, provides routing and information for both the four hiking and the two race routes.

In the field, the application identifies the nearest route and make active navigation to it and then along it, with continuous messages to the user, while pops-up photos on every interesting or important terrain feature close to his position. If the hiker position is more than 20 meters far from the trail, the application warns him and suggests how to go back.

The cartographic company AnaDigit, creator of the application, has issued hundreds other hiking maps for Greece (eg. maps of Zagori, Pindus area, Mt. Olympus, all Aegean islands etc). To build the application and ensuring data accuracy, all tracks and cartographic information have been recorded during May 2016.