Fantasy Hike

Unsponsored Recommendation #2

Surrounded by the Council of Elrond, Boromir famously said, “One does not simply walk into Mordor.” I hate to break it to Sean Bean, Peter Jackson, and J.R.R. Tolkien, but Boromir was wrong. In fact, I’m walking there right now. With only 1,372 miles left to travel, I should reach Mount Doom by September.

In my first unsponsored recommendation, I praised the Nike Run Club app. Today, I’m back with another fitness app: Fantasy Hike. This one is for all of the Lord of the Rings athletes out there. The ones who spend their weekends competing in marathons and completing Lord of the Rings trilogy marathons. The ones who hike the Alps just to marvel at Tolkien’s inspirations.

Okay, okay, I’ll talk about the app now. But just remember: A writer is never late. Nor is he early. He writes precisely when he means to.

Fantasy Hike is a Lord of the Rings-themed app that tracks your daily movement and allows you to walk to Mount Doom in real-time. If you’ve ever wanted to mimic Frodo’s (and more importantly, Sam’s) journey from the Shire to Mordor, this is the app for you.

My friend introduced me to Fantasy Hike a couple of months ago. Having recently moved to New York, she was doing a lot of walking. And as a Lord of the Rings fanatic, the app was perfect for her. I recently competed in a half marathon, so the app was ideal for my training. I was able to quickly rack up miles traversing Middle Earth.

With the basic version of Fantasy Hike, users can only log one mile per day. That means it would take over four years to reach Mordor. However, the full version of the app is a one-time $4 fee. A worthy investment, at least for me.

“There are some good (apps) in this world, Mr. Frodo… and they’re worth fighting for.” Fantasy Hike is one of those apps.