The Future of Making Friends May Start on a Hiking Trail Instead of Another Night at the Bar
Book clubs are booming. Run clubs pound the pavement in every major city. And now hiking clubs, the next frontier in group hobbies, are pulling Americans off their couches and onto the trails in record numbers. For a generation branded the loneliest generation, hiking clubs are becoming more than a workout. They’re a way to find friends, meet dates and rebuild the everyday community that remote work and dwindling nightlife have chipped away at.
The appeal is easy to understand. Hiking doesn’t require expensive gear, elite fitness or years of training. Grab shoes, find a trailhead and go. That low barrier, combined with fresh air, novelty and a serious cardiovascular boost, is turning hiking clubs into one of the defining social movements of 2026.
Why hiking clubs are exploding in popularity
The growth is not anecdotal, it’s showing up in the data. Strava’s 12th annual Year in Sport trend report, which drew on activity from more than 180 million users and a survey of over 30,000 users and non-users, found that hiking clubs grew sixfold in 2025. That’s nearly double the pace of the run club boom that dominated headlines the year before. Hiking clubs are quietly outrunning the running trend.
Part of what’s fueling that surge is simplicity. Run clubs still have their devotees, but they demand stamina, pace-matching and, for many, a chunk of money spent on shoes and gear. Hiking and walking deliver similar health benefits and even stronger social perks without the same physical or financial ask. It’s easier to talk on a trail than at a 9-minute-mile pace.
What the AllTrails numbers show about the hiking club boom
The trailhead traffic is only part of the story. AllTrails’ 2025 Impact Report shows the platform grew 20% in users last year and now counts 90 million accounts. Even more telling, many hikers are searching for trails more than 200 miles from home, using the app to plan trips as much as to find local paths.
“So we know that people are using us for planning travel and then for navigating and exploring National Parks and other destinations,” Carly Smith, chief marketing officer at AllTrails, told Business Insider.
Hiking clubs are increasingly the vehicle for that travel, whether group trips to national parks, weekend meetups at regional trailheads, or multi-city hiking club networks that link members across state lines.
How hiking clubs are filling the remote-work community gap
Remote work reshaped where Americans spend their days, and for many people it removed the built-in social scaffolding that used to come with an office. Hiking clubs are stepping into that vacuum.
“There are more people working remotely than there were in the past,” Smith told Business Insider. “Hiking clubs in particular can give people a good sense of community in ways that maybe they aren’t finding in other parts of their life.”
Jeb Jagne, a hiking club member profiled by Refinery29, described a similar dynamic. “A lot of my friends were moving away, so I was confronted for the first time with actively trying to make friends. Also, I’m a florist, so I work unsociable hours,” he said. He started hiking on his own, then used social media to find other people who wanted to join. The group snowballed.
“What started as something I really needed in order to add structure to my routine has now become other people’s structure. It’s become that anchor. It now exists for other people,” Jagne said.
He also pushed back on assumptions about who hikes. “Whenever I would tell people what I was doing, their first thought when they hear ‘walking group’ is 80 year olds, right? But young people want to get outdoors, and as a queer person of colour I never see myself represented in the outdoors.”
Hiking clubs and the shift away from drinking culture
The rise of hiking clubs is running parallel to another cultural shift, as young Americans are drinking less. Bank of America economists analyzed aggregate credit and debit card spending across 70 million consumer and small-business accounts and found Gen Z spending on fitness categories grew roughly 9%, compared with less than 4% growth in bar spending. Spending at liquor, wine and beer stores is sliding. Bar spending is still rising, but the driver is social atmosphere, not alcohol.
“Younger Americans are really driving this movement that we’re calling ‘The Great Moderation,’” Joe Wadford, an economist at the Bank of America Institute, told USA TODAY.
For Jagne, the change is personal. “It’s in the news a lot at the moment that our age group is just not drinking. I used to be a DJ and I met so many great friends through nightlife. I almost think now, if you were moving cities, aren’t big on going out, and you just started a new job, you wouldn’t know where to look for friends. Like, where would you meet people?”
Increasingly, the answer is on a trail.
Hiking clubs as a new dating scene
Singles worn out by dating apps are also finding their way to hiking clubs, and psychotherapists say the format is uniquely suited to romantic connection.
“A hike gives singles the opportunity to connect and talk in a way that isn’t threatening. Having a common goal of meeting and spending time outside, all while getting to know each other, allows people to open up more naturally,” Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist in New York City, told the New York Post.
Her advice for anyone stepping onto a trail hoping to meet someone is to keep expectations flexible. “What the world needs right now is interpersonal interaction, so say ‘yes’ to everything, and view whatever you do as a win, no matter what. In other words, don’t think of it as a success only if you meet your person,” Ludwig said.
“Either way, you’re being brought into a whole new community. When you’re single, you want to widen your circles as much as you can. You may be surprised to see what this does for you.”
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
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