Walk The Distance is an app available for iPhone’s through the app store and will turn your step count into virtual mileage along the Appalachian Trail.
So you may think, “so what? It tells me I have gone 5 miles on the AT?”. It does more than that y’all! You can physically see your location along the Appalachian Trail, see where your buddies are, see what shelters are coming up, and much more!
One of my favorite features of the Walk The Distance App is it will notify you when you reach a shelter or other points of interest along the trail that are popular (this can be turned off if you’d rather not receive them). Many of the points of interest and shelters will allow you to click on them to get more information. My favorite real day (and virtual day) on the trail was when we climbed Blood Mountain and got to check out the Blood Mountain Shelter.
I actually found the Walk The Distance App several months before I started my own Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike this past February (currently on hold now due to Covid-19).
I thought it would be cool for my husband to download it and start his virtual journey the same day I started my real one. So on February 19, 2020, we both set out on the Appalachian Trail; I physically and he virtually.
I, of course, ended up way ahead of him but with the pandemic and me having to get off the trail he quickly passed me up virtually.
When it became apparent that I would not be able to get back on the trail quickly because of the pandemic, I decided to download the Walk The Distance app myself and start hiking it virtually.
He is considered an essential worker so he is constantly walking during the day, where I have to stay at home and can only get out and hike about once a week. Needless to say he has now far surpassed where I physically got off the trail in March.
While we did purchase the AT portion for my husband, the developer made it available for free to everyone after the pandemic hit, which is really cool on his part!
You can download the Walk The Distance app from the App Store. Currently, there is no app available for android users.
I have the android version and am trying to figure how to get this thing to sync miles multiple times a day to see my progress. It is supposed to sync with Google Fit and that program is showing the distance correctly but it isn’t showing up on the trail.
Unfortunately I only have an iPhone and it syncs with Apple Health. It’s not totally accurate and I did find I need to close the app and reopen it sometimes to get it to sync.