Fitness in Frodo’s footsteps

It’s a dangerous business, going out your door,” said JRR Tolkien’s iconic hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Unfortunately, if you’ve worked remotely since long before Covid, use grocery delivery apps, and the virtual option for meetings, you seldom go out your door at all. Or maybe that’s just me. I wanted to change that this year, but I’m not a natural gym bunny or one of those bandana-wearing Lion’s Head-hiking types. Power to them; I’m just more of an ambler. Instead, I have found inspiration in the geekiest of apps, Fantasy Hike.

The app tracks distance, but instead of chasing 10 000 steps, you’re on your way to “Mount Fire”, an off-brand Mount Doom. You know, of Middle Earth? From Lord of the Rings? If you didn’t get the reference immediately, this might not be the app for you. Fantasy Hike is a “walking tracker for fantasy nerds and everyone that loves adventure”, as Swedish developers Forge7 put it.