Take a Hike! An App for Swarthmore Walks and Trails
As the weather warms up, many of us are eager to escape our homes and get outdoors. Swarthmore has many options for walks and hikes within its borders. A new series of maps can help you find your way.
Carol Menke using the AllTrails app. Photo: Dan Snyder
The Swarthmore Senior Citizens Association’s Walks and Trails Committee, chaired by Carol Menke, has documented traditional local walks and added some new ones.
Working with Tara Cannon, Swarthmore College ’20, a Green Advocate with the Office of Sustainability, the committee mapped walks and trails on the AllTrails app. This makes the information easily available to anyone with a smartphone. From AllTrails, you can also download files and print paper maps. Once the Swarthmore Public Library reopens, paper maps will be available there as well.
The app currently has 13 walks as part of the “Swarthmore Community” package. The committee expects to add seven more in the coming months.
The 20 walks and trails included in this project range from the Library’s Storybook Walk in Little Crum Creek Park to the Wellness Campus Incline Walk at the College. While the Storybook Walk hardly requires GPS to navigate, a user might want to know that its paths are a combination of pavement and grass, and that picnic tables are available.
“It may seem silly to make a GPS map of Storybook Walk,” says Menke. “But that is the walk where we tested out all our theories of how this project should be done, and where we started the learning process for the AllTrails app. It turns out Storybook Walk is not only a learning tool for children, but for us, too!”
The Wellness Incline Walk, on the other hand, is fairly strenuous. “Spirited” is the intermediate designation it would be given under a three-tiered rating system developed by Road Scholar, a modified version of which is used in the Swarthmore trail descriptions. The app would inform anyone considering the Wellness Incline Walk to expect a 39-foot change in elevation over one mile of trail — and no drinking water. Several walks have historical or horticultural themes about which the app provides information as you approach each waypoint.
A description of each walk and trail is available on the recreation page of Swarthmore Borough’s website.
A video on the borough website shows how to download, install, and use the AllTrails app and connect to “Swarthmore Community.”
In addition to Menke and Cannon, the Walks and Trails Committee included Dan Snyder, Linton Stables, and a large group of volunteer testers who walked each trail with the app and gave feedback. Funding was provided by a grant from Swarthmore Borough.
Users are encouraged to provide comments and suggestions on both the app and on the walks and trails themselves. Email feedback to SwarthmoreTrails@gmail.com.
