Walk The Distance makes exercise fun for those who prefer walking

Walk The Distance is the kind of app that will motivate a particular person to get up from the couch and do some exercise. instead of walking to you escape from zombies or catch Pokémon, allowing you to virtually walk long-distance routes like the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) – perfect for those who don’t mind our local hiking trails but want something a little more natural.

For every mile you walk through the house, you’ll see a small icon that your picture moves across on a map, making its way between famous places like Springer Mountain in Georgia or Kennedy Meadows at the base of the Sierra Nevada. And as you reach certain points, Walk The Distance will give you pictures and facts about them. In a way, it’s a bit like playing Oregon trailInstead of sitting in front of a computer, you get some exercise outside. (It’s worth noting that it actually is. an official Oregon Trail app if you prefer a more historic trip, this one does something similar.)

During the time I’ve used it, I’ve enjoyed coming home from a walk and looking at the app to see what highlights I’ve almost passed. The descriptions it gives you are short and sweet, describing things like the weather or scenery in a particular place, or covering certain aspects of what trail walking is like, but for me photography makes them worth checking out every time. I also found myself looking at the map ahead and planning how far my next hike would be – when I read the Hawk Mountain Shelter description that said the next stop was about seven miles away, I used AllTrails (another great app). Find an eight-mile hike nearby.

In theory, all my short walks will reach thousands of miles and I will have completed the AT version of Walk The Distance. The app also offers a variety of short hikes in various national parks and cities if you want to start with a slightly less intimidating destination.

Now that you’ve seen a screenshot let me get this out of the way right away: I don’t think Walk The Distance is a nice looking app. Actually, I honestly think it’s a bit ugly. However, if you can look beyond that, the app’s functionality is pretty solid – you can almost see where you are on the trail in relation to other hikers, browse your hiking history to see how many miles you’ve logged each day, and revisit points of interest you’ve passed before. There’s also a backpack setting that lets you customize much of the experience.

Walk The Distance even has a social element, but I can’t say I played with it much. In addition to all users who publicly post their progress, you can also add friends to walk with, and the app has a mode that shows just where you and your friends are on the trail. (If developers are looking for free advice, there shouldn’t be a “friends” section, there should be a “tramily” section, trail and family coat rack This is used in the walking community. It would be a nice theme to go along with the fact that the app lets you choose a “track name” instead of the display name.)

Also – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – I appreciate Walk The Distance’s pricing structure. It gives you a lot of flexibility in how you want to pay for the app, or whether you want it at all. You can do the first part or two of the big walks for free and then pay to unlock the rest. All AT unlocks are $4.99 and PCT unlocks are $9.99. A few of the national parks and city walks are free, while others are $0.99 each.

If you don’t want to pay for everything piecemeal, there’s a $2.99 ​​per month / $29.99 annual subscription that lets you do all the walks for free and unlock syncing with Fitbit or Garmin. Syncing with Apple Health or Google Fit is free (and since I use another app to sync my Fitbit data with Apple’s system, Walk The Distance gets that data right away).

So far, I haven’t gotten to the point where I have to start paying; For the AT, this happens within roughly 155 miles. When I do though, I plan to at least buy that trail. REI, an outdoor supply company, estimates he was actually hiking the Appalachian Trail. costs about $6,000so I really stand out by doing this for five bucks.

Of course, Walk The Distance’s form of motivation won’t work for everyone because not everyone is a big walking enthusiast. For those of us where it works, though, it might be the motivation we need to go to the next virtual shelter, get off the couch and get out for a bit. Personally, I’m looking forward to making significant progress on my virtual Appalachian Trail as I hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail later this summer because it’s the kind of thing I find hilarious.

Available for free on Walk The Distance. App Store and Google Play store.