Day Hike Gear review

Damien McFerran

We review Day Hike Gear, an app that'll tell you what to take on long hikes, whatever terrain you're traversing

Published on Nov 18, 2009

Here in the UK, the term “hike” calls to mind images of elderly people wearing too many coats and silly woollen socks cavorting around fields for a few hours before ending up at the local pub where they proceed to get themselves exceedingly merry on Real Ale.

However, for many people hiking is a solemn business and being prepared can quite literally mean the difference between life and death. If you’re planning on walking to some of the country’s more remote locations then what you carry in your backpack is ultimately of fundamental importance.

Day Hike Gear is an app that allows you to automatically create lists of required items for each of your walks. Before you can generate a list you need to tell the app a little about your intended hike, such as total distance, expected conditions, weather information and even if you’re intending to take your long-suffering baby along with you.

Once you’ve done this you can auto-generate your perfect pack-up. Items such as maps, food, safety gear and clothing are all listed, and while many of them are pretty obvious there’s bound to be a few that you might have otherwise forgotten.

When you have your list you can tailor it further to suit your individual needs. If you feel that the app has suggested something that isn’t necessary, and is merely going to weigh you down, then you can delete it from the list.

Lists can also be saved for future use, should you perform the same trek again. You can even choose to email them to others, should you have friends coming along for the walk.

All in all, it’s a pretty decent idea that has the potential to save you a lot of possible trouble, but the execution of the app is a little sloppy at present. Tapping some of the options forces the app the close randomly, which quickly becomes annoying.

Such bugs are commonplace in new apps and we fully expect the developer to sort them out over time, but it’s a disappointment all the same because it taints what is otherwise a solid and useful piece of software.

If you’re a serious hiker but aren’t confident enough to pack your own gear then we’d certainly recommend Day Hike Gear. Despite its stability issues, it’s genuinely useful.