Frequently Asked Questions

Please do not repost or use our content for any non-profit or commercial use without contacting us for permission. This includes all of MyHikes' data, including GPX files that may have been downloaded by a Supporter user.

As of Fall 2023, you can now download the MyHikes app for Android and iOS! Please note that all app development, along with MyHikes.org development, is done by one person (Dave Miller, Founder & Admin). Due to this, Android and iOS rollouts are staggered.

MyHikes has a very small list of volunteer contributors and relies on registered users adding hikes to expand our data set, so trails may be scarce or completely missing from certain areas.

Feel free to sign up and add trails you know and love. Trails added with a GPX file will likely get published to the site for other users to find if included with notes and pictures.

If adding trails is not your thing, make sure to bookmark the site and check back from time to time.

Note that MyHikes (MyHikes LLC) is a single-member LLC that is not tax-deductible, so we pay Federal, State, and Local taxes. All Supporter dollars are spent on site operations like server fees and very small and seldom pay-outs to a tiny selection of vetted contributors.

MyHikes advertises very seldomly and I (Dave Miller) spend my own money on trail maintenance equipment, gas, hotels, traveling expenses, sign-making equipment, and all/any advertising. Many people don't realize that simply serving map tiles (digital trail maps) costs money in itself, running servers costs money, SSL certificates and more add up each year, hence why we accept donations and have Supporter account perks.

I Dave Miller (Admin) get this question a lot. The biggest difference between MyHikes and corporate trail apps is that MyHikes has no investors, no shareholds, run on a volunteer basis, and is owned and operated by just me - there aren't teams of people behind the scenes at MyHikes. I have personally walked, mapped, and written about over 65% of the hikes available on the platform (1,266 individual hikes / 2,025+ miles as of August 2023). I only publish content from contributors who've proven to add quality and consistent data to ensure that folks exploring these places have the best information to reduce chances of getting lost. I take pride in ensuring the data published is as accurate as possible - which sometimes means calling park systems and private land owners (with regard to public right of ways). I cross-reference user's content with park's information (for things like "are dogs allowed?") and I try to dig into local history to help the general public understand why they see certain things out on the trail or in the woods. MyHikes partners directly with several park and land trust organizations on a volunteer basis to host public trail data that come directly from the folks who manage those trails. I work on MyHikes as a way to help other people find something new and interesting to explore and to continue exploring for myself - both in the woods and in the world of software.

Last, I've personally named two mountains within Potter County, Pennsylvania - Stony Peak and Twin Top Peak. I maintain public trails within Tioga State Forest and Susquehannock State Forest, I make trail and summit signs, and am currently in the process of building a trail in Tioga State Forest based on my own route idea, which has been approved by the state forest officials.

Explore some of our content, hike a trail listed on the site, and then see what makes MyHikes different for yourself!

Check out our How To Track Trails page.

Check out our How To Add Trails page.

All operational costs are paid out of pocket by MyHikes Founder, Dave (Admin). However, our awesome Supporters help supplement our costs tremendously.

If you find MyHikes useful and want to help support our cause, consider becoming a Supporter or making a small donation.

Before discussing the differences in our trail Difficulty Ratings, first, it must be understood that everyone has different physical abilities, and thus any Difficulty Rating will be subjective to the hiker experiencing the trail on their own.

These Difficulty Ratings are one of the hardest things we validate and consider at MyHikes before publishing our trails. After considering the length of the trail, elevation gain and loss, terrain type, hazards and dangers, we set the Difficulty Rating accordingly.

You may find that our trail's Difficulty Rating differs from your own opinion — just hike one of our trails to find out!

Great question! I used to run my own mail server and accepted email @myhikes.org, which were forwarded to myhikes1@gmail.com; however, due to maintenance, hackers, and spikes in server load, I decided to stop maintaining my own mail server through myhikes.org and now exclusively use @gmail. Feel free to contact us at myhikes1@gmail.com.

Whatever the user base needs that seems worth while. Please contact us with any feature requests, comments, or concerns!

If you find a bug, please contact us with a description of what you were doing, what you clicked on, and when it happened. If you can, include a screenshot.

Any and all bug reports are much appreciated!

We believe that star ratings can skew the idea of what a "good hike" consists of. If you only like to hike to mountain summits, vista points, overlooks, waterfalls, or interesting POI - then search MyHikes accordingly before hiking a new trail. If you just want to experience a new trail, then read the notes before heading out and please remember that conditions on the trails can change at any time. If your experience differs from the trail notes, please leave a trip report on that trail for future hikers!

We believe MyHikes is awesome because it's built for hikers by hikers - albeit we're just a small group of volunteer contributors!

Yes you can! Please contact us via email with a subject of "GDPR Request" and include your username or IP Address if you do not have an account.

For users with existing accounts: this email must be sent from the email you currently use to log into MyHikes.

For users who have uploaded published trail data, or trip reports: we will work with you to determine the best way to preserve the trail data, but remove your personal information.