Getting the most out of the app.
Click any feature below to see how it works and how to get the most out of it. Badges show whether a feature is on the free plan or requires the Paid Version.
Every feature, explained.
This section is for guests. Everything below explains how each feature works from a guest's perspective — what to do, what to expect, and how to get more out of it.
There are two separate packing lists: the group list and your personal checklist.
The group list is shared — the organizer seeds it with what the trip needs (firewood, propane, the good folding chairs) and you can claim items you're bringing. Check it early. The obvious things go fast.
Your personal checklist is private. Nobody else sees it. Use it for the things you always forget — charger, sunscreen, medication, that book you're definitely going to read.
The meal planner is available on the free plan. Meals are claimed — you or your partner volunteer to cook a meal by claiming the slot. Nobody gets assigned anything. First in gets first pick, so if you have a signature dish, claim early.
You can also upload your own recipe to the meal slot to share it with the group. If your group is on the Paid Version, the AI recipe generator is also available - it scales to the group size and knows what kitchen equipment is at the venue.
After each meal, rate it out of 5 and leave a comment. Top-rated meals go into the Trip Hall of Fame. The Bugle covers standout meals the next morning — compliments and complaints both make good copy.
You have two types of quests: daily challenges (same for everyone, set by the organizer) and side quests (personal and private — nobody knows what you're working on).
To complete a side quest: submit through the app. Photo or video when you can get one. When documentation would blow your cover, submit on the honour system — describe what you did and name someone who witnessed it. The AI judges all submissions. A genuine account with a witness holds up better than a blurry photo of nothing.
To skip a quest: sacrifice points to skip one you don't want and get a new one drawn. Use this sparingly.
Tips and callouts: if you think you've spotted someone working their quest, file a tip. Right tip — you get their points and they get a new quest. Wrong tip — you lose points and they carry on. All outcomes appear in the next morning's Bugle.
The scoreboard is live and visible to everyone. Quest Champion goes to whoever's on top at the end-of-trip ceremony. And each morning at 6am the app crowns a Daily MVP — the previous day's most valuable camper, scored quietly across cooking, quests, the daily challenge, photos, the jukebox, activities and team wins. It's worth a bonus and a spot on the home screen, so a quiet all-rounder can win it without ever topping the leaderboard.
A private group chat for everyone on the trip. You're automatically in it when you register — no invite needed, no phone number shared.
Use it for trip coordination: dinner time, who has the bottle opener, the wifi password if nobody pinned it, figuring out what time dinner is. Messages are trip-scoped and go away when the trip is archived.
The Jukebox is the one place for music — a live queue, add-a-song, a speaker mode, saved playlists, and AI setlists, all in a single hub. Request a song and it goes into a shared queue visible to everyone. Upvote other requests — most-upvoted songs rise to the top.
Every song has an Open button that jumps you straight to that exact track in your own Spotify or Apple Music — no shared account, no login. Anyone with the app and a Bluetooth speaker can be the DJ: pull up the queue, hit play, and you're running the room. The queue is live — the group is voting in real time on what comes next.
Anyone can generate an AI setlist tuned to the vibe: campfire acoustic, 90s throwback, late-night high-energy. These pull from the trip personality settings, and a saved setlist keeps the vibe name you gave it. Generate one, hand the speaker to someone, walk away.
Upload photos to the shared feed from the Photos tab. Everyone on the trip can see them and upvote the best ones. The top-voted photos get locked into the Memories Reel — the permanent curated collection that lives on after the trip ends.
Quest evidence photos are submitted separately through the quest flow, not the photo feed.
After the trip — what stays and how to get it:
- →Memories Reel — stays in the app archive until you delete it. There's no automatic expiry. Download individual photos directly from the Reel view any time.
- →Bugle editions — every issue is archived in the Bugle tab and accessible after the trip. Worth saving the ones that covered something worth remembering.
- →Radio reports — Gord's broadcasts are saved alongside the Bugle archives. Play them back any time.
- →Recipes — any AI-generated recipe from the meal planner can be saved or downloaded from the Meals tab during or after the trip.
- →Scoreboard & awards — the final leaderboard and end-of-trip award citations are saved in the app after the ceremony.
The games section covers organized group events with scoring, all under The Challenge. Teams are randomized by the app. You don't have to be the organizer — any guest can set up and run an event or keep score.
Trivia: the organizer picks categories and question count. The AI generates the questions, including location-aware local rounds tuned to where you actually are. Each team submits answers through the app and it scores each round automatically.
Party Games: a deck of 33 cottage classics — Fishbowl, Mafia, Capture the Flag, Ghost in the Graveyard, Marco Polo and more — searchable, filterable, each with full rules. Only the adult-rated cards are gated.
Beach Day / Beach Olympics: a full multi-hour block of beach games on one shared scoreboard, with an age-balanced draft so kids and adults are spread across teams, a supervisor requirement on water games, and an always-on safety panel (hydration, sunscreen, peak-heat, leave-no-trace) plus a gear list built from the games you scheduled.
Outdoor activities and challenges: cannonball competitions, scavenger hunts, races, and physical challenges. Whoever's running it scores each event and results feed the trip leaderboard.
Card games and indoor events: organized group competitions with app-tracked scoring. Same randomized team format.
The Pursuit: a location-based adventure that drops your group into a series of challenges tied to where you are. Teams race to complete them. Results scored in the app and covered in the Bugle.
Sasquatch Hunt: a group-wide search event. Players submit sightings and evidence throughout the trip. The AI judges credibility. Best documented sighting wins. Gord covers the investigation in the next morning's Bugle.
Every morning of the trip, the app generates a full AI newspaper written specifically about your group. Quest results, meal reviews, challenge outcomes, weather, and whatever happened the night before. There's also a pre-trip edition that publishes before you even arrive.
Radio Report: Gord Mackenzie of CKBJ 980 AM delivers an AI-voiced broadcast covering the same ground as the Bugle. Hit play on the Bugle page. It sounds like a real morning show.
Submit a tip: you can send a note to the Bugle editor from the Bugle tab. Short observations, things that happened, inside jokes you want covered. The editor may include them in the next issue. This is how the best Bugles get made.
The Info page covers wildlife likely in your area, nearby attractions, area history, and active safety alerts. It's generated from the trip location and updates when the location changes.
Wildlife field guide: species you might encounter, with photos, what to do if you see one, and cultural notes. Check this before you go wandering — knowing what's in the area is more useful than finding out after.
Wildlife & fire ban alerts: active advisories for the area are flagged at the top of the Info page — bear or cougar activity, fire bans, and other hazard warnings. Fire ban status is worth checking before someone drags the firewood out. An active ban is noted clearly.
Local intel: restaurants, boat launches, hiking trails, hardware stores, and services near your location. Useful when someone inevitably forgets something or needs to make a run.
History & heritage: area background generated for your specific location. Worth a read on the first night when nobody's ready to sleep yet.
On the last day, the group votes on a set of awards: Camp MVP, Quest Champion, Best Meal, Best Moment, and a few others. The organizer may add custom awards specific to what happened on this trip — those are always the best ones.
Each winner gets an AI-written citation based on their actual trip activity — quest completions, meal ratings, Bugle coverage. The ceremony reveals one award at a time.