I finally joined the club. Which club, you ask? The iPhone Club. Now with my touchscreen mobile supercomputer in-hand, I’m roaming the App Store for useful applications for outdoors enthusiasts like myself. With iPhone application development in its infancy (heck, mobile app development in general is really new), most apps are launching with basic functionality and will iterate over time.
I’ve found some outdoorsy applications to be useful and others to be a complete waste. One that has some promise (at least for those of us here in Utah) is Hike Utah.
With the ability to view trail details for several popular hikes in the State and functionality for everyone to submit the details of their own hikes, this app has the potential to grow to become the best handheld resource for hiking in Utah.
Leave it to the Crowd
Crowdsourcing (as it’s called) is the best way to obtain more and more content and that’s just what Hike Utah intends to do–enable users to submit pictures, trip reports and details of their favorite hikes all around the state of Utah. As of now the list of hikes is limited to eight 15 (yeah, not so many at this point), but the potential is there. Once the snow melts and people start heading out again, more trips will be submitted.
Some of the key features of this app include:
- Facebook Connect integration to share with your friends
- Trip planning capabilities with gear lists and collaboration
- Trail descriptions, directions, locations and other helpful hiking info
- Photos
- Maps
- Hike wishlists
Good Hike Utah
- Collaborative trip plans (with Facebook integration)
- Ability to easily capture the details of hikes
- It’s FREE
Bad Hike Utah
- Limited hikes to date – 15 so far (it just launched Jan 7)
- A few bugs: Inability to delete a hike, occasional problems saving hikes
While I’ll admit this app is just in its infancy, time will tell if users submit their hiking trips, reports and photos.
More Info: Visit TalkingRockies.com or Hike Utah on iTunes
NOTE: I’d like to feature good iPhone applications for the outdoors on a regular basis. Drop me a line or chime in below with some of your favorites and I’ll add them to the list for future reviews/features.
Growing up in Seattle, Jason quickly developed a love for the outdoors and a thing for mountains. That infatuation continued as he founded 
FTH group, thanks a million for giving this app a spin. There are 15 hikes on the free app, but you need to push the “all” tab in the title bar to see them. Looks like I need to figure out an easier way. The idea is to let you have a wishlist with activities you care about, and then a longer list with lots more stuff available.
No problem, Phil. Nice work on the app with a great foundation for great things to come. My bad on not switching from “Wishlist” to “All” to see the 15 hikes. I’ll update the article.
Ah ha! I just figured out how to delete my erroneous hikes too! Sorry… still uncovering the goodies here.