Once you are bitten by the hiking bug you will soon find yourself planning the next adventure no sooner than you have arrived back from your latest trip.
Hiking enthusiasts are also spoiled for choice when it comes loading some useful apps to take with them on their phone.
Here is a look at some great apps to download. Including how to find the perfect spot to rest your head, a way to ensure every hike is different, plus a way to explore hidden corners of national parks, and some tips on stargazing.
Somewhere to rest at the end of the day
The least you can do to reward yourself for a busy day of hiking is to find a suitable place to camp for the night.
A good way of doing that would be if you download an app like Camp Finder. There are several good apps like this around and it means that you can use your phone to search for the best campground in the area and check out photos and reviews before you decide to hike there.
It would also be a good idea to load a weather app for android on your phone so that you get a heads up on what the local conditions are going to be like for your hiking adventure.
No need to get into a hiking rut
There is no need to follow the same route twice if you have an app like AllTrails loaded on your phone.
This app offers at least 50,000 routes to choose from and a neat feature is the fact that you can apply some useful filters so that you can find some dog and child-friendly routes if that is what you are looking for.
All of the trails available have been curated and created by hikers and bikers all around the country, so you will know that you are following a route that other hiking enthusiasts have given the thumbs up to.
Discover your national parks
Even some of the most iconic national parks that are teeming with day-trippers can offer some hidden gems and routes that you will enjoy discovering.
It makes sense to download the NatGeo app that gives you the lowdown on all the national parks and reveals some secrets that not every visitor will get to find out.
You will get a comprehensive guide to use when you visit a national park of your choice, and some photo galleries on the app will probably provide you with the inspiration to go exploring with your hiking boots on.
A night with the stars
One of the many rewards for hiking in the great outdoors is that once you are away from the city lights, you get a free show of an entirely different kind when the sun goes down.
The night sky you will be staring at will likely contain more stars than you will ever see where light pollution interrupts the show. Make sense of what you are looking at by using an app like GoSkyWatch Planetarium to spot galaxies, planets, and star formations.
If you want to be in hiking heaven every time you put on your boots and head for the wilderness, make sure you download some apps that will help you to achieve this aim.
Christopher Bird writes about his favorite outdoor hobbies. He is a keen fisherman and enjoys hiking whilst also geocaching and metal detecting.
