Social Network for Backpackers

Hi guys,

What's your go-to social network to connect with fellow backpackers? I understand there's facebook groups and forums which people use to meet new people. Are there anymore?

I'm not aware of any (and am interested if there are). In recent years I'm finding that the "current year" per-trail facebook page or group is the go-to place to connect with other hikers while actually on the trail, to pass on important info --- water sources, trail closures/re-routes, trail angel stuff, whatever. It can also be helpful post-hike to stay in touch with folks you met, or even connect with mutual acquaintances who hiked the same year.

Being very much anti-facebook--I value my privacy!--if all communication goes to that, I'm gone!

At least with this forum, we don't have to reveal who we are yet get along fine nearly all the time (and have good moderation for those who step over the line).

I'm with OM. This forum works really well for a lot of things...

Current trail conditions? Ask, and often ye shall receive.

I spend 30 minutes a month on Facebook---enough to find out that I've missed a few things that are important, and s thousand things that are not important.

Specific through hikes (PCT, AT, etc) have on-line communities that are more focused on current conditions. For hikes in various parks or mountain ranges, there are communities that focus on the Sierra, for example.

But this place is as good as any---and we have experts from a lot of the major hiking areas in the US.

Welcome to the forums!!!

I'd have to say this is as good as anyplace too, and go a step further and say it's the best place I've found.

I use FB a lot, but almost exclusively to keep in touch with family and close friends. For all things backpacking I come here.

I just started a project to create a "Social Networking" site. Feature wise, it's about the same as this forum, which programmatically isn't much different than FB.

You can post "Instant Messages" here with the "Shout Box" that are available in real time to all users, and you can send "Private Messages" to one, or many users here to create a private conversation, and link photos and videos, etc.

On the trail Delorme InReach kinda sorta allows you to do this, but the ability comes with a subscription cost. Also links to FB and the Twitters as desired. Impractical for other times than hiking but the ability to piggyback can mean always being in touch should that be what one wants.

The very last-century Yahoo groups have many specialized lists, such as the John Muir Trail group.

Cheers,

This website, and my local backpacking shop (which runs classes, beginner trips, and guided trips for more experienced hikers.)

That being said, most of my trips are taken with a couple of good friends. We all met on one of those beginner trips (though none of us were beginners), hit it off, and have been hiking together ever since.

Meet Up is one source for finding others with similar interests, not just hiking, btw. Other sites such as Views from the Top are geographically oriented. VFTT is a NE site with regional trail conditions as well as a general backpacking forum but it's not really a social networking site that links people up like Facebook or LinkedIn.

Keep in mind that the skill levels of people you meet online may not be as advertised. Back in 2007, a Meet Up group of beginner winter campers had to be rescued by a big SAR effort during a major blizzard in the PNW because of poor planning by the group leader.

Out here in the Pacific NW we have two active hiking forums: portlandhikers.org (in Portland, obviously) and nwhikers.net in Seattle. The former has a Field Guide which is most useful in finding hikes. The Washington Trails Association (wta.org) has a similar database for Washington trails. There are a plethora of hiking and climbing clubs. Finally, many many excellent trail guidebooks have been published. For Washington, the best known are published by the Seattle Mountaineers. The best-known ones in Oregon are by William Sullivan. Of course there are many others!

There's a r/backpacking sub-reddit that's pretty active, and they have links to tons of related sub-reddits

There's a group called "Backpacking" on Facebook that has a few thousand people in it... I just joined within the last couple days. Looks like it might be a good way to "passively" pick up information as it flows onto my news feed. Sometimes I don't know what I want to learn about until I see it mentioned somewhere. ;-)

Maybe TripAdvisor or something like that.

Just note that for much of the rest of the world (outside North America), "backpacking" has become a synonym for "budget travel." We get a lot of travel inquiries here, for most of which we have to say sorry, folks, wrong site. You'd think that they'd take a quick look at the topics and posts here before posting!

Or the articles!

Maybe TripAdvisor like that.

This seems like a good place to socialize.