Phone use

[Drybones]

I've been hiking for two years and now I'm ready for the long walk...I hope. I have downloaded the Thru Hiker Companion onto a smart phone and I am considering not taking the hard copy to save weight...12 oz. Any thoughts as to wheather or not that's a good move?

[RWheeler]

Smart phones tend to have shorter battery life. If you're using it for the companion, that's going to be a LOT of use, and the phone will likely die after a day.

Take a hard copy.

[bigcranky]

I like to scribble notes in my trail guide. Sort of a substitute for a journal. Harder to do that to a PDF file on a phone... :)

[bamboo bob]

I tried that just for fun. It really sucks up quite a bit of power if you refer to it all day.if you turn on any GPS gizmo it will drain pretty rapido. I usually keep my phone off. It is a pain to restart my phone, waiting for it to boot up if I just want to see how many miles to the next whatever would be frustrating. I'll take a phone but it will be off and I likely wont turn it on for days at a time. I generally just use it to call into a town for lodging in some spots that get crowded or maybe to coordinate a pick up by friends etc. If I was using it as a guide it would die for sure. I'll bring the book or at least pages. i like to refer to notes from previous hikes etc.

[Don H]

Buy the unbound copy of the AT Guide and carry a few hundred miles worth at a time.

[Papa D]

Buy the unbound copy of the AT Guide and carry a few hundred miles worth at a time.

This is my suggestion - you can do the same thing with the companion - I KNOW that I'm in the minority but I don't like electronics on the trail - so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. HYOH

[Don H]

Sure is nice to have those pages in a ziplock in your pocket where you can pull it out for a quick look.
I think turning my phone on and waiting for it to start up or leaving it on all day and having it die just to save few ounces would be more of a PIA than its worth. You'll soon discover that keeping things simple (KISS) is very important on a thru.

[BrianLe]

I'm a big fan of using a smartphone for various things on trail, but I too agree with Don H --- the unbound version of the AT Guide worked well for me, worth having this in paper format. I also had the Companion in pdf on my smartphone, but in practice I almost never looked at it. Maybe a couple times along the way when for whatever reason I wanted a second opinon.

I wouldn't do a first thru-hike starting out with a partner, but on the AT I started out hiking with folks I met doing the PCT, and found it once-in-a-great-while handy that we were carrying different guides. Overall though, I suspect that all of the guidebook options are fine. But do bring hard copy guidebook pages of one sort or another; if you have even a modest number of resupply boxes to split these up between (I had five total on the AT), the weight is not that big a deal on this trail.

[BaconTime]

I thru-hiked last year and used my iPhone the whole way. I had an extra battery case and never had a problem. I just kept it in airplane mode for the most part. Do yourself a favor and get awols guide instead. Used the companion for about a week before discovering Awols elevation profiles. It really does make a difference.

And like others, I would strongly suggest taking the paper copy. You'll be amazed just how often you are looking at it. If your concerned about the weight just mail portions of it ahead.

[Rozz]

I love my iphone on the trail too and use Gaia GPS app. However, taking it out in the rain to see how far to the next (insert place) can be risky for the phone's survival. I got TheATGuide unbound and slip a few pages in the included heavy ziplock. Its only like 15 bucks. (Of course, Companion pages can be torn out.)

[Don H]

I did keep some other trail information that I referred to occasionally on my phone such as Baltimore Jack's resupply article.