AllTrails

I had the unfortunate opportunity to see the downside of people getting all their info from AllTrails on a trail near Telluride, CO yesterday where I encountered three unaccompanied dogs digging holes in alpine tundra above treeline. Then they keyed in on a marmot, chased it to its den, and attempted to dig out to attack it. No owners in sight.

I chased the dogs off the marmot’s den and the owners finally appeared around a corner. I gave them a big WTF and let them know that dogs need to be on leash or under control per USFS rules for the wilderness area - clearly neither were happening here.

Through a toddler style, expletive filled meltdown over the correction, the owners said that “it’s a national forest!”, “AllTrails says we don’t have to use leashes!”, “We WORK for the Forest Service”.

I pointed out that AllTrails has nothing to do with the rules of the area and that it was a protected wilderness area - not just the national forest. More expletives and dumb blathering that culminated with “Where are you from?! We’re FROM Telluride!!” Not going to lie, I sank to the cretins’ level after hearing too much of their tantrum. But I also knew they were full of shit at this point bc pretty much no one on a USFS salary can afford to live in Telluride and they certainly don’t get their backcountry rules/regs from AllTrails.

I double checked the USFS sign at the TH and it definitely said dogs must be under control - which I can only assume means “not destroying sensitive habitat or attacking local wildlife”.

I don’t even know how to communicate this to AllTrails but their app and its sloppy info directly contributed to these backcountry oafs trashing a beautiful place. Kinda makes you feel a bit hopeless…

Some thoughts:

• “Native” or not, learn to read the rules of our backcountry places and understand both the spirit and letter of those rules. Don’t try to loophole yourself out of them. AllTrails is a poor source for this knowledge. There are plenty of USFS lands in the West with both leash and control requirements for pets.

• As a Colorado “native”, it doesn’t matter where you’re from in a situation like this. You’re either being a shithead or you’re not - your zip code is irrelevant. If someone with more knowledge offers a correction, be an adult and do the right thing.

• Unpopular opinion: leave your dog home when visiting the backcountry for all but the most popular trails where wildlife has already bugged out due to overuse. It’s the wildlife’s home. Your dog doesn’t care if they walk in the park in Denver or on a trail in the hills.

Ok this may sound dumb, while preparing for this nobo hike, I have been using AllTrails.

What I have come to find is there is no complete download for the trail…

So here is the question, is there one? Or a series of maps to download?

Thank you in advance!

I’m happy AllTrails got Apple’s “App of the Year” as the app has generally worked well but last update or two, it hasn’t worked well.

I know I’m not the only person with this issue either.

The issue seems to be the app randomly pauses; so you can start it as you always have and in theory shouldn’t have to touch your phone again and normally I do not.

And what happened today? Dumb enough to hike .25 and not check… and it was paused. Happened on other time too.

Yet then sometimes it can go 1-2+ hours and not pause; it makes no sense.

I’ve changed no settings between working great for years and now — so I would think it has to be the app.

I could reinstall and do whatever but I know of others so … thinking it needs fixed.

Anyone from AT here? An engineer? TS? I’d love to work with someone.

This is frustrating though.

What do you guys think about the AllTrails app? Do you use it frequently or are there other apps you prefer? I’ve been using it mostly to find hikes.

Feel free to add me if you have it! @JonathonSundet

I use AllTrails a lot to find new hikes, and I find the user reviews super helpful. I'm a pretty avid hiker, and go on 2/3 long hikes each week, I'm just wondering if spending the money to upgrade to the pro version of the app is worth it? What are the benefits besides being able to download offline maps? TIA.

At least on my iPhone, the latest AllTrails seems to have fixed the pausing.

On that note, at least on my phone when you locked it, it would show some trail stats like a timer and mileage and such on the Lock Screen.

That seems gone. I didn’t change any settings.

But while correlation is not causation necessarily, it seems with that gone — so is the random pausing.

Back to being happy with AllTrials on iPhone.

very excited to see an AllTrails app sighting during the Pixel Watch 2 reveal today

I've compiled a searchable, sortable (on desktop) AllTrails list of hundreds of hiking trails near LA that you can get to by public transit.

I have bused to all the areas to confirm you can get to them, so if your favorite transit guide says otherwise check my for human-generated directions. Or just ask me - I'm reasonably friendly.

(AllTrails)

Happy hiking!

I'm new to formal hiking and I'm not sure if the estimated hike times are from one end of the trail to the other end or if it's there and back. Please advise. Thank you

I've put together a searchable, sortable (on desktop) AllTrails of hundreds of hikes near LA that you can get to by public transit. If AllTrail's (google's) directions give or claim you can't get there by bus, visit (my site) for human-verified directions and travel tips (and more trails).

Okay, I'm purposefully being hyperbolic with the subject of this post but it's something I've been excited about since it occurred to me. And this may not be an original idea but I wanted to put it out there in case it indeed has potential.

When I'm hiking, I find I'm compelled to pick up plastic litter that I see polluting nature. I usually bring a trash bag and maybe even a glove on my hikes for this purpose.

It occurred to me that it would be really cool to be able to record number of pieces of litter picked up along with my hike stats on AllTrails. This information could be made public, displaying the way Reddit karma does, sure for bragging rights, but really to build a huge community of people that are cleaning up the forests.

Imagine the marketing potential of this for AllTrails: "AllTrails members picked up 1,032,670,000 pieces of litter from our forests and prairies in 2025!"

What do you all think?

Btw, happy subscribing AT member here

Just found out mine was syncing and posting PUBLICLY every activity I started with my Garmin watch, not just in the AllTrails app which I infrequently use, including those I did before I downloaded the app and used it for a long hike a few months ago.

Adjusting the privacy settings of your account does nothing for completed activities. You have to go and individually change them.

Hey everyone!

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Hey all,

For someone who has casually backpacked for 10 years, but wants to really start getting out and doing more 5-10 day trips. What's the pervailing thinking on maps vs GPS vs. AllTrails