Using Siri With Baseline Maps: Hands-Free River Checks & Waypoints

Some of the best conditions checks happen when your hands are full — rowing a drift boat, glassing a ridge, halfway through tying on a bug with cold fingers. Baseline Maps works with Siri on iPhone so you can get the answer without ever looking at a screen.

There are three commands. All of them run hands-free, speak the answer back out loud, and work even on a locked phone — no unlock, no app launch.

The one rule: say “Baseline” first

Apple requires the app name in every Siri phrase. That’s why all of these include the word Baseline (you can also say “Baseline Maps” — both are registered).

The most reliable pattern is to lead with the app name, then ask your question:

“Baseline, what’s the Deschutes running.”

Siri uses “Baseline” as the anchor to route the request, so front-loading it triggers the app far more consistently than burying the name at the end. Every command below is written that way.

1. Check one river

Ask for live conditions on any river in your favorites. Baseline speaks back the current flow, the trend, how it compares to normal, and the short-term forecast.

• “Baseline, what’s the {river} running”
• “Baseline, what’s the {river} doing”
• “Baseline, how’s the {river}”
• “Baseline, check the {river}”

Swap in any saved river — “Baseline, how’s the Sky,” “Baseline, what’s the Yakima doing.” The river name is matched against your saved rivers, so the ones you fish are the ones Siri knows.

2. Get a rundown of all your rivers

One command, a quick summary of your top saved rivers. This one is cache-only — it reads the last known conditions, so it works even with no signal.

• “Baseline, how do my rivers look”
• “Baseline, how are my rivers”
• “Baseline, check my rivers”

Great for a truck-cab gut check on the drive out before you’ve committed to a spot.

3. Drop a waypoint by voice

Mark exactly where you’re standing without pulling your phone out. Baseline grabs a GPS fix, drops a Spot Mark waypoint, and confirms with “Spot marked.” The pin syncs into your map the next time you open the app.

• “Baseline, drop a waypoint”
• “Baseline, mark my spot”
• “Baseline, mark a spot”

Use it the second something matters — a rise, a rub line, a good hole — and sort it out on the map later.

Setup: basically none

After you install or update Baseline Maps, iOS registers these phrases automatically. A couple of tips to make them work better:

• Favorite your rivers. The conditions command can only read rivers you’ve saved. Add the ones you fish so Siri has something to match.
• Use the name as it appears in the app. Common river names recognize best.
• Check the Shortcuts app if you want to see them all — they show up under Baseline, and you can even assign your own custom phrase there.

Quick reference

You want to…	Say
Check one river	”Baseline, what’s the {river} running”
Hear all your rivers	”Baseline, how do my rivers look”
Mark your location	”Baseline, drop a waypoint”

That’s the whole thing. Three commands, always start with “Baseline,” and you can read the water or mark a spot without ever breaking stride.