I didn’t know Google even marked trails until this story, and sure enough I looked at some nearby trails I’ve been hiking for nearly 20 years, and they’ve got a few marked pretty well, but most are broken, jump wildly, are off by quite a bit, or in one case actually diverts into a posted, fenced off, active national guard firing range. I’ve been around there, the fence is spotty at best once you get about 30-50ft into the brush. Easy to walk into accidentally if you don’t see the signs.
I would never use a non-dedicated app to tell me where a trail is, and if I don’t know the trail, I will be constantly looking backward to make sure the trail is still easy to see. I’ve been up a hill more than once to turn around and the trail I just walked up almost disappeared in the changing light. I’ve been out after dark and I don’t care to do so again, or in unfamiliar territory.
I didn’t know Google even marked trails until this story, and sure enough I looked at some nearby trails I’ve been hiking for nearly 20 years, and they’ve got a few marked pretty well, but most are broken, jump wildly, are off by quite a bit, or in one case actually diverts into a posted, fenced off, active national guard firing range. I’ve been around there, the fence is spotty at best once you get about 30-50ft into the brush. Easy to walk into accidentally if you don’t see the signs.
I would never use a non-dedicated app to tell me where a trail is, and if I don’t know the trail, I will be constantly looking backward to make sure the trail is still easy to see. I’ve been up a hill more than once to turn around and the trail I just walked up almost disappeared in the changing light. I’ve been out after dark and I don’t care to do so again, or in unfamiliar territory.