Volunteers were timed walking 100-meter transects chosen to represent off-path landscape conditions, including nearly impassibly steep slopes and extremely dense vegetation.

Simulation of a scenario in which emergency responders are planning to rescue an injured hiker. From a central point, the authors chose 1,000 random destinations and mapped hiking routes using two different models: one that only accounted for slope steepness, and on based on STRIDE that accounts for slope, vegetation, and surface roughness. STRIDE (right, red) reused established paths as long as possible before branching off, identifying the routes most intuitive for somebody on the ground. The slope-only model (left, blue) generated few overlapping pathways with little regard for roads or trails.