What innovation has changed your life the most?

[Different Socks]

For me?--None! Are there really gadgets that people will ‘just die’ without? To see how vital technology is, spend a few days in the real backcountry(not the AT) w/o a cell phone, pager, PDA, laptop, cappuccino machine or an MP3 player. You’ll emerge cleansed and refreshed.

[fiddlehead]

Probably a GPS.
I don't think I could have done the CDT without it.
Maybe I could. But it made it a lot easier.
That triangulation BS is not as easy as the experts say. Especially when fog or snow is involved.

[Feral Bill]

I'd prefer not to do without my watch, which is electronic , but a mechanical one would do fine, as well. And I do like my digital camera, when I take it, The rest I don't use at home, let alone in the back country. Now get off my lawn!

[yellowsirocco]

It is funny how people don't realize that innovation is all around us. It is not just gadgets. For example these high tech fabrics like silnylon have made hiking so easy. That is not terribly different than calling for a shuttle instead of hitching. Either way you have made your life a lot easier. It seems like for some folks that if it runs on electricity it is bad and they just want to criticize people, but take their high tech camping gear away and they would probably not be able to do all this.

[moytoy]

Modern shoe technology changed my hiking life the most. I use electronic gadgets but I don't need them.

[rocketsocks]

Pit zips, custom orthodics and the Ipod (audio books)

[10-K]

I like my SUL Gravity Deflator that makes everything weight 75% less than it really does..

Other than that it's a tossup between my phone and GPS. Those are the only 2 gadgets I take besides my SPOT which I can do without but my wife can't.

[rocketsocks]

I like my SUL Gravity Deflator that makes everything weight 75% less than it really does..

I want one!

[fredmugs]

For me?--None! Are there really gadgets that people will ‘just die’ without? To see how vital technology is, spend a few days in the real backcountry(not the AT) w/o a cell phone, pager, PDA, laptop, cappuccino machine or an MP3 player. You’ll emerge cleansed and refreshed.

Cool story bro. Nice job asking a meaningless question so you can rant. Disappointed you didn't end it with HYOH.

[rocketsocks]

Cool story bro. Nice job asking a meaningless question so you can rant. Disappointed you didn't end it with HMHDI

fixed it for ya

[Cookerhiker]

In the context of hiking, I guess there's no innovation whose absence would keep me off the trail. I managed quite well 35 years ago.

But it's nice to take advantage of and utilize lighter gear, better quality maps, digital cameras, and the internet for researching and getting information that previously one could only obtain via snail mail.

[Capt Nat]

Like Mr. 10K, the cell phone and spot has changed my life the most. At my age and health, I could not drag off into the wilderness without my wife having a canniption. Spot actually gives me the freedom to get out of cell service without upsetting the family. I hope I don't need the emergency button for many years, but if I ever need it, it's good to know it's there. Even if it just facilitates the rapid recovery of my body, that is important.

[Rasty]

For hiking the internet has been the greatest upgrade. Much easier finding trailheads and trail information then pre-internet.

[poopsy]

This is a really good question. And it has really got me to stop and think. Electronics are nice to have but I don't honestly rely on them. On the other hand there are some tech breakthroughs that have really changed things.
I think the Packa is a really giant leap forward. For someone who almost died of hyperthermia in cold driving rain without any kind of cover I can see it changing my life and what I do outside.
The other thing that should be carefully considered as huge tech breakthroughs are modern fabrics and how they are used, especially for clothing. The warmth, lightness and breathability provided by polyester fleece for example is something we just take for granted but all of us have used this fabric for something in our kits. Cotton has pretty much disappeared where as it used to be in everything.

[Tipi Walter]

For me?--None! Are there really gadgets that people will ‘just die’ without? To see how vital technology is, spend a few days in the real backcountry(not the AT) w/o a cell phone, pager, PDA, laptop, cappuccino machine or an MP3 player. You’ll emerge cleansed and refreshed.

I spend a moderate amount of time in the woods on backpacking trips and know this---
** The first step out of the car with a heavy pack on the first day of an 18 day trip is the best feeling in the world, despite the weight. The weight itself is the price of freedom. The cleanse begins.

** Nature herself, who I call Miss Nature, is the place humans have spent the great majority of their time as a species---it's only been until recently that we have "left" nature and sought the indoor life. Then came the gadgets. So, getting out into nature comes easy for some of us and allows us to reclaim our neanderthal roots, etc.

** It's all about bag nights and becoming a Nature Boy. The act itself is the cleanse. So, you find these sorts sleeping in the backyard every night or living in yurts or tipis or figuring out ways to devote a lifetime to living outdoors---minimal work with maximum bag nights. Some of the lucky ones are cleansed and refreshed but never emerge.

It is funny how people don't realize that innovation is all around us.

This is very true. No matter how deep you go into wilderness or for how long, there will always be 87,000 jets flying overhead every day and helicopters buzzing and distant traffic noise and the hateful roar and whine of the mufflerless motorcycles. The only time I ever experience a "true wilderness" noise wise is either in a ridgetop windstorm, a heavy rainstorm, sleeping by a waterfall or inside a major blizzard. You could be living out in a loin-clout with a bone thru your nose and still you'd be bombarded by near constant airline traffic. And I hear that 30,000 drones will be flying overhead, too.

To really get away from these gadgets you have to enter a storm like the Blizzard of 1993. I was living in a ridgetop NC tipi during the storm and it shut down syphilization as we know it and put us back to 10,000 BC for a week. THEN we had silence.

[BirdBrain]

The cell phone.

The progression of improvements goes like this for me:
1) Party line to private line. No more is that my ring or the neighbors. No more nosy neighbors listening to your calls.
2) Rotary phone to digital phone. No more hanging up because you didn't spin the dial quite right.
3) Wired phones to wireless phones. No more untangling that 100' cord you bought so you can walk around the house with your phone.
4) Land line to cell phone. No more telemarketers. No more answering machine. Ability to make calls from your "home phone" thousands of miles away. And the big one, the main one, the one I could not live without (I could, but I don't want to): The 160 character text message. I could write a thesis on this innovation. This has radically changed my life. But it is also two of my biggest pet peeves. I hate when people type a message that is 1000 characters long and it becomes a game of "can you reassemble the shredded message". It ought not be possible to send one longer than 160 characters. If you can't say it in 160 characters, pick up the phone and dial it. I also hate it when people text and drive. 1st offense you should lose you license for a year. 2nd offense you should lose it for life. 3rd offense you should go to jail. I would rather have a person driving while drunk then one driving while texting. At least the drunk is trying to look at the road.

But ya': The cell phone.

[garlic08]

Funny, I just had this conversation with some city friends the other day, though not in the context of backcountry travel. We agreed the biggest change for us was having information on the WWW, the world at your fingertips. We talked about school research projects not very long ago, and the time spent in library stacks, waiting for library clerks to find books for you, scanning indices and paging through most often in vain.

In my mind, the development (by the Swiss at CERN) of the WWW was one of the most crucial ones in my lifetime. I was a practicing electrical engineer at the time and I watched that in wonder. I believe it is changing the way we live.

[Mags]

For me?--None! Are there really gadgets that people will ‘just die’ without? To see how vital technology is, spend a few days in the real backcountry(not the AT) w/o a cell phone, pager, PDA, laptop, cappuccino machine or an MP3 player. You’ll emerge cleansed and refreshed.

We get it. You like to hike without interactive electronics. Cool. Good for you.

Neither do I. Just don't feel the need to start a troll-bait thread.


As other said, though,for day to day use, the sheer amount of info (Da Google!) I can get from a device that fits into my pocket is amazing. Of course, we mainly use it to look at photos of LOL cats or Justin Bieber videos...but hey!

[Old Hiker]

I dunno. Clean running water INSIDE my house, along with a system to remove human waste from the immediate area works pretty well for me.

[Different Socks]

I'd prefer not to do without my watch, which is electronic , but a mechanical one would do fine, as well. And I do like my digital camera, when I take it, The rest I don't use at home, let alone in the back country. Now get off my lawn!

Yep, I didn't include the camera b/c I knew myself as well as others would take at least a small pocket model.