Trail technology on trial: Do digital devices harm the trail experience?


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
May 4, 2025


Along the Appalachian Trail. Image by Patorjk CC3.0

The Appalachian Trail passes through 14 states and stretches approximately 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. Each year, at least 3 million people hike parts of it or the whole trail. March marks the month that thousands set out on the journey. It is said to be the longest hiking trail in the world.

This historic trail is facing a modern challenge – the pervasive use of digital technology. Armed with smartphones, smartwatches, iPads, and more, today’s Appalachian Trail hikers are more digitally connected than ever.

Research from Virginia Tech reveals that hikers’ connectivity with the Internet makes trail management much more challenging than the days before mobile devices.

Professor Shalini Misra, who leads the Public Interest Technology Lab in Arlington, decided to explore how or if people experience solitude in wilderness settings with digital devices. Misra studies the psychological and social impacts of digital technologies in a variety of settings.

“We wanted to understand how digital technologies transform hikers’ wilderness experiences,” she says. “We also wanted to understand how trail managers perceive these changes and how they view the potential opportunities and challenges of digital technologies for sustainable trail management.”

The researchers interviewed 18 Appalachian Trail resource managers over two years. The resource managers reported that technology, specifically social media, has led to the trail’s degradation, overcrowding, and the spread of misinformation among hikers.

For example, when photos and videos are posted across social media channels, those sites often become hiker magnets, leading to overcrowding. This includes Max Patch, a popular Appalachian Trail spot in North Carolina known for its 360-degree views.

Trail visitor centre staff have described regular demands from hikers wanting to know where a specific photo was taken so they can visit that exact spot. Such Instagram-popular locations include Virginia’s McAfee Knob, where there has been a spike in visitors in recent years, with up to 600 a day.

With an increase in trail foot traffic comes soil erosion, root exposure, littering, vandalism, and a host of other ecological problems, trail managers reported. Also, some hikers camp in illegal or inappropriate locations along the trail and then share that information through popular mobile hiking apps, such a FarOut.

Users of hiking apps read the information and camp in the same locations. Some trail stewards said they have contacted app managers to ask that inaccurate information is removed. Yet there is so much information across websites that it is not easy for trail managers to respond to and monitor all of the reports.

There is also a change in ethos, for those seeking solitude. Is today’s landscape truly a wilderness experience? And are mobile devices giving hikers a false sense of security? Technology certainly has changed the concept of unplugging in nature.

The findings appear in the journal Environmental Management, titled “Toward a management framework for smart and sustainable resource management: The case of the Appalachian Trail.”