The new app is the brainchild of Jim Parham, guidebook author and founder of Milestone Press, a Swain County-based publisher who has been producing outdoor adventure guidebooks since 1992.

The iPhone app allows hikers an easier way to carry tools they might bring anyway such as a camera, GPS and a guidebook with maps, directions, distances, elevation gain and trail highlights with less weight and bulk. The app also takes advantage of the GPS function on the phone to show hikers their precise location on the trail.

The app covers Western North Carolina, Upstate South Carolina and North Georgia. Users can also choose a hike by category — for example, a day hike, an overnight, or a waterfall hike — or choose from hikes closest to their current location, whether they are at home or on vacation in the mountains.

“Great Hikes of the Southern Appalachians” is a free app with an in-app purchase option. Users get a “catalog” of hikes with basic information — trailhead location, distance, elevation gain, a photo, and hike synopsis — to help them choose which hike they want to buy; each individual hike is priced at 99 cents. Once a hike is purchased and downloaded, the app functions with no data plan or phone service required.

www.milestonepress.com or 828.488.6601