Aka Hiking or Forest Walking
Note: I am not affiliated with anything linked below. Everything is just things I genuinely use while on hikes 🙂
The benefits of spending 20 minutes a day among trees have been studied and linked to lower levels of stress and a more positive attitude. Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome spoke to this when interviewed for one of the best science podcasts, Ologies by Alie Ward, about the science of happiness. While the walks alone can do great things for you, you can unlock even greater enjoyment using a few digital tools found right in your pocket. Take your walks from a passive activity to an actively enriching experience with these top 10 tools you need for hiking.
1. Google Maps
It may seem obvious, but Google Maps is such a powerful tool for hiking. Not only can it help you navigate your way out of a pickle if you take a wrong turn while hiking, but it can also open your eyes to many new sights.
I can’t lie and say I’ve never gotten lost while hiking. Particularly in forests that are not properly marked up by the city and that just became a trail because enough people started to explore. One time, it was close to sunset and I got lost on an early fall evening. Because there was an explosion of colour all around me and plenty of foliage, all directions looked the same to me on this path that I had never travelled before. I was panicking and it got to the point where I was worried a bear would find me in the night because I thought I might be stuck there overnight. Thankfully, my phone was charged and I was able to frequently check Google Maps to get a sense of whether I was getting closer or farther away from civilization as I was aimlessly wandering and couldn’t rely on the sun as much.
One expanded use I found for Google Maps has been that some trails are actually marked on the map. Sometimes when I’m looking for adventure, I’ll zoom out of google maps and browse around for big patches of green or for bodies of water. This helped me discover some of my favourite places to walk!
Sometimes, you just need to know where exactly you are to be able to describe it to other people. No easy feat when you’re in the middle of a forest. For example, for the Tree-a-day posts, I like to include the geographic location of the trees. You can find your exact coordinates by holding down a finger on your location on the map and it’ll leave a pin. If you open up the information on the pin in the app, you’ll be able to see the coordinates.
2. Strava
Strava is great if you want to track your activity outside. The greatest power comes from its connection to GPS because it can track any outdoor activities you do over a distance. It can map out the exact path you took for hiking and give you a summary of your time and pace. Strava also works as a social media site to share your hikes and runs with friends.
Also, there are several other types of exercise you can input into Strava beyond hiking and running including walking, biking, skating, skiing, and rock climbing!
One thing to note is that I found that the GPS functionality didn’t work great in the areas that I was going possibly because the GPS signal was weak on my phone. I found on online forums that this can happen when you’re in an area with a high density of surrounding objects like trees and houses. However, you can edit your path in the app afterwards and you can also delete entries if you find it was too inaccurate or if you forgot to turn off the tracking when you ended your hike for example (something I have done many times… oops!).
It was still worth it to me to get a sense of the distance I was travelling.
3. PictureThis
Picture this is one of the first ever apps to enrich my hiking experience and boy does it not disappoint! I should note that this app is much more useful in the summer if you live in a climate with big seasonal changes like we do in Canada.
With PictureThis, all you have to do is take a photo of a plant you are trying to identify and within seconds it will come up with a description of the plant you are looking at! The description includes information like its scientific name and history, symbolism, characteristics about the plant and growing conditions. The app also provides you with several other close options for what you might be trying to identify if there are a few close matches.
I love this app so much because it really opened my eyes to the species growing in my local environment. Whenever I would cross a new flower I was curious about, I could just pop open my app and figure out exactly what it was. It would take my really passive activity of walking into more of an expedition where I’d be learning and discovering new things all the time.
Please note that if you are trying to use the app to identify edible plants, please do a lot of additional research with reputable sources before consuming something and consult a professional to be safe.
4. Picture Mushroom and Shroomify
Similar to PictureThis, Picture Mushroom automatically identifies mushrooms given a photo of the mushroom. The reason I include both Picture Mushroom and Shroomify together is that identifying mushrooms can be even more dangerous than identifying plants. Especially if you are planning on consuming them. With Picture Mushroom, although it does give you possible options for what the mushroom might be like PictureThis for plants, it only gives you a suggestion based on a photo.
With mushrooms especially, there are several more factors that go into identification than the outward appearance alone. To be able to identify a mushroom with a degree of confidence, you also need to be able to check the spore print and assess the look and colour of the spores. Cutting open a mushroom and checking the colour of the bruising can also be used to tell apart lookalikes. Experts will also check the gills or pores, how the gills are attached, the size of the cap, the trees it grows near and more to get a positive ID, so it is not advisable to try and ID mushrooms on your own as a beginner forager.
With Shroomify, you can input many of these details (like cap size, cap colour, gill attachment, etc) when trying to ID a mushroom, but it is difficult to get a positive match because the database appears to be smaller and harder to get at what you’re looking at. I also liked Shroomify because it gave you the option to browse the common mushrooms in your area by month and also browse deadly mushrooms to avoid. It was interesting to me to see how many mushrooms are still able to grow in the winter months in Canada and it encouraged me to go out and look for them on my walks! I was also shocked to see how scary some of the deadly mushrooms look.
Despite the ability to input more details in Shroomify, it is still better to consult an expert before trying to ID mushrooms yourself because there are many lookalikes that are deadly.
Mushrooms can be a wonderful thing to forage for on your own, but to start, it would be advisable to look for a local group of foragers with experts to help you get started. There are also courses available in many regions to help you get started and stay safe.
Please do not consume any mushrooms you find unless you are highly confident you made a positive ID. Personally, I just like to use these apps for the knowledge of what’s around me, but not to consume anything. I hope in the future to be able to learn more so I can begin to forage for them safely.
5. Podcasts/Audiobooks
Listening to the sounds of nature during a walk is a beautiful thing. However, for a daily hiker like myself, sometimes, it’s fun to listen to something else while on my walk, especially during the winter months when there isn’t as much to listen to other than the crunching of snow under your boots. Sometimes, you can even listen to things about nature while you’re off on an adventure in nature!
I like to open up a podcast or audiobook occasionally to expand my knowledge while I’m on my walks. I’m always hungry for new information! Hiking seems to be a great time for this because as someone who doesn’t drive or take the bus as much any more as of the pandemic, it’s harder to find those pockets of time where you’re not actively doing something else and can focus on an audio piece of media.
I’ve already mentioned Ologies above and I particularly like that one for my walks because the theme is science so it tends to pair well with being in nature. Below, I’ve linked an example of a popular episode on Trees.
I also enjoy spending this mindful time listening to things that serve me in my life and fall within my current interests. Recently, I finished Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam. I loved it because it was written by a Canadian author who was a teacher who leveraged investing to grow his wealth. It was not my favourite recitation of a book, but there are many others to choose from on audible that don’t have to be about serious topics. I also really enjoyed listening to the Sandman by Neil Gaiman in the fall while walking through the spookier trails.
6. Alltrails
Alltrails is a no-brainer for someone who enjoys hiking on trails. However, I also found it to be one I don’t pick up as often. I think the power from Alltrails mostly comes from the potential to discover new trails in your area and to get more info about them than you can get from Google Maps.
With Alltrails, users can post photos of the trail and rate the trail. The app also features tags like “kid-friendly” and contains stats about the length, elevation gain, and route type (ex. Out and Back vs. Loop). Trails get a rating in the app for the difficulty and you can see the trail in a map on the app as well. Additional features can be purchased with a membership, but I don’t find that to be necessary. There is plenty you can do with the free version.
Personally, when I find a trail I like, I will stick to it for a while so that I can really learn the nooks and crannies of it and experience it during different seasons. However, for people who like to explore new trails all the time, this is a great app to have.
7. Fitbit App/Apple Health etc.
Some trails can be quite the workout if it has plenty of hills and challenging bits. It can be a great addition to your weekly workout routine to track the hiking you’re doing as well.
Personally, I use the Fitbit app and it automatically recognizes when I’ve gone for a hike and will record the total time I spent and also how much time I spent in different heart rate zones. It helps me gauge whether I need to be spending more time in elevated heart rate zones after the walk or if I got a good workout from the hike itself. I can see which days of the week I went for my walks too which is nice for me to get a sense of how often I’m going since I usually just go on a whim as many days as possible.
Apple Watch/Apple Health probably works just as well, but I feel that Fitbit is made for the purpose of fitness tracking. Apple’s Apple Watch is not their main product and so I figure they wouldn’t serve this niche as well as Fitbit does. I would maybe consider going for an Apple watch if I already used an iPhone since it would connect up easily.
There are also several brands out there that work for people such as Garmin, which is useful because of it’s GPS tracking power if you choose to connect your fitness with physical distances as well.
8. Pocket Loupe
Here is another little tidbit I learned from the Moss episode on the Ologies podcast. A lovely little tool you can bring with you on your walk is a pocket loupe (magnifying glass) which you can use to look at microscopic details up close and get a new appreciation for life’s little treasures. Moss is a great example of something that appears to be very uniform at a glance but is really full of diversity and different species up close.
There is a great range of pocket loupes you can purchase with different power and features, but here is a popular one on amazon.
You can listen to the episode on mosses below. This episode was absolutely a treasure as it featured Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of Braiding Sweetgrass with the most calming voice.
9. Solar Charged Battery
A solar-powered phone battery can be a crucial piece of gear to have with you if you go for longer walks. There are some trails around here where you can go in and be travelling for hours before you come out on the other side. You would not want to be caught without my phone because you never know when you may encounter an emergency situation and reach out for help.
This portable battery is very convenient as it fits neatly in a bag, has a carabiner clip to save space if you want to clip it on the outside of a bag, and has built-in led lights for low light situations.
10. Geocaching
Geocaching is 10th on the list, but for good reasons even though it is one of my most favourite items on the list. The geocaching community is somewhat a secret society and I don’t want to be pinned with “outing” them to you muggles. Go search for it and don’t tell them I sent you 😉
Hope you enjoyed what you read 🙂 looking forward to welcoming you back for more reading.
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