This past weekend I decided to take a hike near where I live because I had a busy weekend working on my car and didn't want to take it too far from civilization. Cave Hole Trail is located about 15 miles east of the city of Bellevue, Washington. Over the years I've noticed that the closer the hike is to a big city like Bellevue, WA, or Seattle the more developed and curated the hike. You can find it on All Trails here. It is a great trail for beginners or hikers with small children.
Cave Hole is one of the most family-friendly trails I hiked this Summer. When I pulled into the nicely paved parking lot and trailhead area, the parking lines were bright white and the pavement was nice and level. I have a car that rides lower to the ground so it makes a difference for me if there is concrete rather than a bumpy, pot-holed parking area. As I suspected the trail was in great shape; no tree roots in the middle of the trail to trip over which I like because sometimes I'm looking around and filming when I should be looking at the ground in front of me. I won't get all detailed about the terrain and difficulty level, but I will say it was an enjoyable hike on a sunny day. Unfortunately, I almost got lost again but luckily for me, two more experienced hikers I ran into showed me the way back to the trailhead where I was parked. I tried to take pictures each time I made a right or left turn, but it still didn't help. Then I tried to make a brief video of each turn. That didn't work either. When I returned home and spoke to my partner about the hike she said I need to get an app that monitors your steps in real time on a map. What a novel idea! Why didn't I ever think of that? In fact, as I am writing this Forum post I am also searching for a good navigation app for iPhone and I found one called GAIA GPS. Similar to AllTrails, it is also considered one of the best hiking apps that offer a premium version but also some stellar free features. It can record and track your adventure statistics and offers an extensive amount of technical details. I'm going to take it for a test drive on my next hike and report back to you guys!
If you want more information about good hiking apps I suggest you check out a website article on the Well Planned Journey site here: https://www.wellplannedjourney.com/best-hiking-apps/