Welcome to episode 97 of the first 40 miles.

If you're new to backpacking, or if you're hopelessly in love with someone who wants you to love

backpacking, then this podcast is for you. We'll talk about the

essentials, how to lighten your load, and how to make the most of your time on the

trail. I'm your host Heather Legler. And'm Josh Legler and this is the first 40 miles

today on the first 40 miles Google Maps is awesome but what if you could brainstorm a new Google initiative called

Google Trails? What would you include? Then on today's top five list, a few simple suggestions to help diffuse

conflict on the trail. For the summit gear review, a neckgator that does double duty

with a secret storage compartment.

Then for the backpack hack of the week, a trashy way to keep your pack contents dry.

All this and that's about it. Today on the first 40 miles.

Google is always doing fun, innovative stuff. Who would have thought a few years ago that it would be practical at all to drive every street in the world and take a picture every 10 feet and have Google Street View.

That just seemed impossible and then they went and did it.

And now we use that all the time and we just, I mean we expect it now we look at street view and say oh that

pictures a few years old come on it needs to be updated we're just so used to it and

we found all kinds of uses for it it's really helpful. I use it almost on a daily

basis to figure out the best route to a particular place and not only that I know

what the traffic is going to be like right now I know about any construction delays all of this stuff on Google Maps

but if we change the topic from roads to trails we get nothing.

And that's where we think Google really has an incredible opportunity to use the technology

that they already have and create Google Trails. I mean think about it.

You would know every trail in the United States where the campsites are, just getting the trail system mapped in the United States

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