Let's talk about crowdsourced hiking sites: Alltrails, Hiking Project, Trailforks, ect.

[wildhiker]

Day 4: Humphreys Basin to LeConte Canyon

Depart Humphreys Basin and hike towards LeConte Canyon.
Distance: Approximately 10 miles.

To be fair, depending on your definition of approximately, this is approximately correct.

Certainly correct within an order of magnitude, which gives a range of 1 to 100 miles.

-Phil

[Gogd]

Day 4: Humphreys Basin to LeConte Canyon

Depart Humphreys Basin and hike towards LeConte Canyon.
Distance: Approximately 10 miles.

To be fair, depending on your definition of approximately, this is approximately correct.

As the crow flies, just under 11 miles, Desolation Lake to Helen Lake, but that doesn't include miles traveled changing elevations. I posit that's a near impossible line of foot travel, but that'd only be goading someone to get out there and prove me wrong.

Ed

[erutan]

I use AllTrails a few times a year at most if I'm somewhere new and something looks marginally interesting on Topo. I find it most useful for quick conditions reports on dayhikes in the PNW or SW for me if I'm concerned.

In the end the chance of some corporation personally using your comment on a hike out of the hundreds of thousands of others for some particular reason is incredibly low. Depending on your ISP / mobile carrier your traffic and useage is being tracked and sold, if you try and get around that by using a VPN you have to trust your VPN provider. Heck anything on HST that is accessible without having an account has been harvested into various corporate owned LLM apps. Even though OSM is open source, any work put in there will get used by multiple corporations (see https://welcome.openstreetmap.org/about ... consumers/), though I personally find putting time in there more worthwhile as it'll make more of an impact than sharing yet another subjective report.

I've only really used proper guidebooks when traveling internationally back when aside from Secor, though I've found some of the pass entries here useful and have used HAZ in the southwest. I own Roper's SHR guide and enjoy it, but only read it after I'd done most of it here and there over the years.

Amusingly I was winding down my sort of "corporate social media" usage when I was handed control of a community on one of those platforms (which I refused twice and then was just added as admin lol).

[rayfound]

I like alltrails for "suburban" hiking... which is to say, casual hikes when we're visiting somewhere.

For planning anything more than that I use CalTopo and look at various map layers (Mapbuilder, Forest Service) to cross check.

I like to carry a paper map backup as well, usually a tom harrison and I still love laying a big one on the floor and letting my mind wander while my finger traces possible routes.

[SNOOOOW]

As far as hiking and backpacking, I prefer to geek out with actual maps and plan that way. I might use a website to get info about a trailhead that I have never been to but that's it. I think trailforks is awesome for mtb trails. I have referenced trailforks many, many times when heading out to a new trail. GaiaGPS has a trailforks layer that 1 can add and then see which fork to take, or not take, at a junction and the "difficulty of said trail. I am not a fan of Alltrails personally. I think if you're new to hiking, don't understand how to read maps, or understand elevation gains/losses, then Alltrails could be very useful. As I get older I try to just let people do their own thing and not care what they do as long as it doesn't affect me. I will never stop carrying a map or using maps for planning. HST is the best internet source of information out there IMO

[Jason Henry]

I use AllTrails a few times a year at most if I'm somewhere new and something looks marginally interesting on Topo. I find it most useful for quick conditions reports on dayhikes in the PNW or SW for me if I'm concerned.

In the end the chance of some corporation personally using your comment on a hike out of the hundreds of thousands of others for some particular reason is incredibly low. Depending on your ISP / mobile carrier your traffic and useage is being tracked and sold, if you try and get around that by using a VPN you have to trust your VPN provider. Heck anything on HST that is accessible without having an account has been harvested into various corporate owned LLM apps. Even though OSM is open source, any work put in there will get used by multiple corporations (see https://welcome.openstreetmap.org/about ... consumers/), though I personally find putting time in there more worthwhile as it'll make more of an impact than sharing yet another subjective report.

I've only really used proper guidebooks when traveling internationally back when aside from Secor, though I've found some of the pass entries here useful and have used HAZ in the southwest. I own Roper's SHR guide and enjoy it, but only read it after I'd done most of it here and there over the years.

Amusingly I was winding down my sort of "corporate social media" usage when I was handed control of a community on one of those platforms (which I refused twice and then was just added as admin lol).

Absolutely agree, the privacy trade-off in the outdoors is tricky. I've leaned towards OpenStreetMap contributions too, despite the corporate reach. Guidebooks hold a special place, and Roper's SHR is a gem, providing a different kind of connection with the trails. Social media surprises, huh? Life's full of unexpected turns!

[wildhiker]

A very positive news article about AllTrails just appeared in the New York Times today:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/styl ... =url-share
This link should let anyone read it (shared from my account).

-Phil