If you’ve hiked an established trail (at least an overnight—we aren’t doing day hikes yet!) or created your own route, we’d love to hear about it. Pitch us here, or shoot us an email and let’s chat. If you’re planning to hike a trail in the future, you’ll still need to fill out the pitch form, but here are some tips for taking notes during the route to make your writeup even easier.
If you’ve hiked a trail we’ve already written up and you want to submit a trip report, here’s the form.
Each person who writes up a trail on BackpackingRoutes.Com has hiked that route. Our routes are carefully fact checked, and we make sure the person hiking the trail or developing the route is an experienced backpacker and won’t include misinformation. Unlike other trail sites out there, Backpacking Routes trail profiles are run through a tight editorial process so you can trust what you read.
Q) Do I get paid?
A) Yes! We pay for each trail profile that we commission. We’re all freelancers. We know exposure doesn’t pay the bills. Pay varies based on trail length and logistics. We pay via Venmo or PayPal within 30 days of publishing.
Q) How do you decide which trails you want written up?
A) We have some in mind, but we really want to leave it up to you. Whether it’s a well-known long-distance trail, a lesser-known trip, or a route you created, send us your idea and we’ll go from there.
Q) Do you have specific things you want included?
A) Yep! All of our trail profiles follow a similar format, and there are certain inclusions we love to have in all write-ups. We have a style guide and writer materials for the site that we send over once we agree on a trail and a submission date. If you’re hiking a trail and have the goal of getting it onto the site, take notes as you hike on mileages, conditions, the permitting process, camping. We are more likely to accept pitches that you have the GPS track for. If you’re hiking the trail in the future, check out these tips for taking notes during the hike.
Q) What’s required of the writers?
A) You need to have hiked the trail, have original photos, and we don’t require a GPS track, but your pitch is more likely to be accepted if you have one. We’ll send the style guide over once we accept your pitch.
Q) What’s the difference between a trail profile and a trip report?
A) A trail profile is the main source of information for that particular trail. These go through a careful editorial process and are fact checked by our team. A trail profile has the GPS coordinates for the trailheads, and a GPX track for the route. We have a submission form for pitching and a style guide we send to you once your pitch is accepted.
Trip reports are readers’ first-person accounts of their experience on the trail, and can include as little or as much information as the person wants. We check these for accuracy, but these are the updated accounts so other readers know how the trail conditions look at this exact time of year.
Q) What about blog posts?
A) Yes! We have a blog. Since we’re so new, we can’t afford to pay for most blogs yet, so our editors have been writing them. But if you have a super special story to tell, drop us an email and we can talk about it.
