New user

Hello! I am a new user and looking for some advise.

I am a Geocache, and as such I do a lot of hikes and visit area where there are no defined paths on OSM. Since OSM is now a layer on the Geocaching app I am very interested in contributing hiking paths to OSM.

With that out of the way, my next question would be, is it okay to record a GPS track off your phone and upload it or has there been some lesson learned and phone are a horrible way to record and upload traces? If mobile phone use is acceptable anyone have a suggestion on which app to download and use?

Using a smart phone is a valid and common way to collect GPS tracks for use in OSM. On Android I use OsmTracker available through the Play Store and, I think, through F-Droid. You may want to look in the wiki to see what apps are available for your phone. Maybe start at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Software/Mobile

If you are using a navigation app to record GPX data one issue is it may force the track on to where it thinks the road is as opposed to where the GPS system says it is. Using a dedicated OSM GPS tracking app like OsmTracker should avoid this.