I looked into GMRS for hiking on the trail but decided using my 2 meter ham ht was a better idea. I could use simplex with those hiking around me who had a ham radio and there were a lot of repeaters available which would be handy to get a hold of someone who could put in a call for you in an emergency. There were linked GMRS repeaters with a very large coverage area but they were not open, only there for paid users. I think this is harmful, you are 'consuming' a resource when you put up a repeater and with GMRS there are only 8 pairs that we have available to put repeaters on, if you are locking down 100 square miles with your repeater, no one else can use it, so don't be 'that guy' and not share the repeater.
