Thru-hikers’ smartphone use on the Pacific Crest Trail
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) runs from Mexico to Canada across the western United States. Attempting to complete the entire trail (i.e. thru-hiking) is increasingly popular. We surveyed 560 PCT thru-hikers and found that 97% carried smartphones. This study examined backcountry smartphone use along the PCT. We assessed thru-hikers’ daily smartphone use, different smartphone use behaviours, and days on the trail. Factor analysis categorized the smartphone use behaviours into logical groups: communication, navigation, feeling safe, boredom alleviation, and photography. Regression analysis found that days on the trail, navigation, and boredom alleviation were significant, positive predictors of thru-hikers’ daily smartphone use. Additionally, females were significantly more likely than males to report using smartphones to feel safe. Smartphones are fully integrated into daily life, so outdoor recreation managers should understand how to employ the technology to enhance rather than hinder the quality of outdoor recreation experiences. Implications and future research are discussed.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".