And while at the time I wrote about that trail there were probably only a dozen or so people reading this site, it would be disingenuous for me to pretend that Modern Hiker isn’t partially responsible for more people showing up on the trails.Ī backlash has already started to bubble up - with a group of concerned hikers even petitioning the Leave No Trace Foundation to add an eighth item concerning the impact of social media to their established seven principles. Neither the trail nor the public land is theirs, or mine, or any one person’s. One of the very first comments I ever received on a hiking post was someone complaining that simply writing about a trail on the internet was going to ‘destroy’ a place that was ‘theirs.’ This is an issue I have personally been dealing with since I started Modern Hiker in the ancient days of 2006. And yes, you can certainly trace a chunk of those crowds back to some sort of promotion online - by individuals and tourism boards. And yes, visitation is up at parks all across the country. Yes, social media is a relatively new thing for the outdoors. You’ve been hiking a trail for years, then suddenly you see someone post about it online and now you can’t find parking at the trailhead and now there are all these - ugh - young people on the trail taking selfies with their phones at the same spot all day and now the whole thing is ruined. Anecdotal evidence is likely reinforcing that for you. You’ve no doubt seen the sentiment in headlines dozens of times: Instagram is killing a trail Social media is ruining the outdoor experience Parks are being loved to death.
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