How to Turn Your Strava Hike Into a Poster
You spent months planning it. You drove hours to the trailhead. You woke up at 4am to catch the sunrise from the summit. And now that hike lives... in your Strava activity feed, buried under three weeks of commute runs and someone else's cycling PRs.
Your best hikes deserve better than that.
The Problem With Keeping It on Your Phone
Don't get me wrong — I love Strava. The segments, the kudos, the little map thumbnail that shows your route. But a 2-inch preview on a phone screen doesn't really capture what it felt like to traverse a ridge or drop into a valley you'd never seen before.
A framed poster on your wall does.
Every time you walk past it, you remember. The ache in your legs on mile 18. The moment the clouds broke. The friend who almost turned back but didn't. A custom hiking poster turns a memory into something you can actually see.
Step 1: Export Your GPX From Strava
This is easier than you'd think. Strava stores a GPS track of every activity — you just need to pull it out as a GPX file.
Here's how:
- Go to strava.com and open the activity you want to print
- Click the three-dot menu (⋯) below the activity title
- Click "Export GPX" — it downloads immediately
That's it. No premium account required. The file is usually just a few KB.
If you use Garmin, AllTrails, or another app, the process is similar. We put together a full GPX export guide that covers all the major platforms step by step.
Step 2: Upload It to TrailPlot
Head to TrailPlot and drop your GPX file onto the upload area. The app reads your GPS track and immediately shows you a preview of your route on a map.
From there you can choose your map style:
- Satellite — aerial imagery that shows the actual terrain. Mountains look like mountains. You can spot the exact ridgeline you walked.
- Topographic — contour lines and elevation detail. Great for technical routes where the elevation change is part of the story.
Then pick your trail color (a gold line on satellite hits different), add your trail name and location, and set the date. The poster updates live as you make changes.
This is the part where it stops feeling like a file export and starts feeling like your hike.
Step 3: Customize and Order
Once you're happy with how it looks, pick your size — 12×18, 18×24, or 24×36 — and check out. TrailPlot prints on enhanced matte paper and ships it to your door, ready to frame.
The whole process takes about five minutes. The poster takes a few days to arrive. And then you've got something that'll be on your wall for years.
The End Result
A Strava hike poster isn't a souvenir. It's a record. It says: I was there, I did that, and it mattered enough to put on my wall.
Whether it's the trail you trained all year for, the hike you did with your dad, or the loop you've run a hundred times and still love — it deserves a frame.