The Field Journal.
Source-based guides on hiking safety, live location sharing, and gear — written for people who'd rather be outside than reading about it.
- Oct 11, 2026 · 5 min read
Hiking in the Heat: What Actually Keeps You Safe
Heat illness builds quietly over hours, not suddenly in one bad moment. What the water-per-hour math actually is, why too much plain water is its own danger, and what heat does to your phone mid-hike.
Read entry → - Oct 9, 2026 · 6 min read
Hiking in the Rain: What Actually Keeps You Safe
Hiking in the rain isn't just damp and miserable — it's the weather where hypothermia actually happens. What to wear, how to keep your footing, and what your phone's water rating really covers.
Read entry → - Oct 7, 2026 · 4 min read
iOS 27's Find My Changes: What They Mean for Hiking
iOS 27 lets you hide your location from one person in Find My, with no notification sent. Here's exactly what Apple documents, what's still unclear, and what it means for a hike.
Read entry → - Oct 5, 2026 · 5 min read
A Hiking Check-In, Not a Family Tracker
You don't need a standing family tracker for one solo hike — you need a check-in. How Apple's Check In, Homebound, Life360 and TrailsPals each handle "tell someone, and alert them if I'm late," sourced from what each product actually documents.
Read entry → - Oct 3, 2026 · 5 min read
Finding Hiking Partners: Clubs, Apps, or Meetups?
AMC group hikes, Meetup groups, and apps like AllTrails and TrailsPals each find you a hiking partner a different way. How each works, sourced, including what changed in 2025.
Read entry → - Oct 1, 2026 · 5 min read
Live Trip-Sharing Apps Compared, By Job Not By Winner
Apple Check In, Google Maps, Life360 and Glympse each solve a different location-sharing job. A sourced, app-by-app comparison — and where a hiking app like TrailsPals fits, and where it doesn't.
Read entry → - Sep 29, 2026 · 13 min read
Hiking Alone as a Woman: What the Published Guidance Actually Says
Hiking alone as a woman, answered from published sources rather than personal anecdote — which widely repeated safety tips appear in official guidance and which are folklore, what the search-and-rescue record and the harassment surveys actually say, and how to leave a trip plan that helps.
Read entry → - Sep 15, 2026 · 9 min read
How Accurate Is Phone GPS on Trails? What Affects It, and What Helps
How accurate phone GPS really is on a hiking trail, using the published U.S. government accuracy figures — why canyons and tree cover make it worse, why elevation is less reliable than distance, why a recorded track can read long, and what actually helps.
Read entry → - Sep 13, 2026 · 11 min read
Beginner Day-Hike Gear Checklist: What Goes in the Pack, and Why
A beginner day-hike gear checklist built from published National Park Service and CDC guidance — the Ten Essentials, what each one is actually for, what you can wear instead of buying it, how much water to plan for, and what to skip on your first hikes.
Read entry → - Sep 10, 2026 · 10 min read
Hiking with Kids: Pacing, Safety, and Keeping It Fun
Hiking with kids — how far they can realistically walk, how to set a pace that works, what to pack, what to teach them about getting separated, and how to keep the day fun. Built on published National Park Service, AdventureSmart and American Academy of Pediatrics guidance.
Read entry → - Sep 8, 2026 · 10 min read
What to Do If You Get Lost on a Trail
What to do if you get lost hiking — the first thing to do, whether to stay put or walk out, how to call for help with no cell signal, how to be findable, and what actually starts a search. Built on published search-and-rescue prevention guidance.
Read entry → - Sep 6, 2026 · 9 min read
How to Record and Relive a Hiking Route
Record a hiking route that survives dead zones — the permission to get right, photos and voice notes pinned to the track, and how to export the GPX file.
Read entry → - Sep 4, 2026 · 9 min read
Phone GPS vs Dedicated GPS Device for Hiking: An Honest Comparison
Phone GPS or a dedicated handheld for hiking? Accuracy, battery, offline maps, satellite messengers, and the one job neither device does — letting people at home see where you are.
Read entry → - Sep 2, 2026 · 7 min read
Solo Hiking Safety: A 5-Habit System for Hiking Alone
Solo hiking safety without the paranoia: the trip plan, gear, staying reachable off-grid, and what to do if you get lost — a 5-habit system for hiking alone.
Read entry → - Aug 31, 2026 · 5 min read
Share Your Live Location While Hiking: Every Option Compared
Find My, Google Maps, WhatsApp, satellite messengers, and hiking apps compared for live location sharing on the trail — what still works once you lose signal.
Read entry → - Aug 29, 2026 · 5 min read
Day Hike Safety Checklist: What to Do Before You Hit the Trail
A practical pre-hike checklist — trip plan, live location sharing, the ten essentials, weather windows, turnaround times and battery discipline, answered question by question.
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