Thinking of inch worm , if only she had been using one. :mad:
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Thinking of inch worm , if only she had been using one. :mad:
My son gave me a rescue satellite device that sends your location if activated. Under normal circumstances I do not track my location. I did when I was exploring an abandoned trail route. I had a different device that is no longer manufactured or supported. I don't have a Garmin and don't want to run down my phone battery by using it as a GPS device. It would be fun to track and map my hikes but I mostly just stay on the trails.
So here's a tipsy, Superbowl post, but here's exactly what happened to me and my hiking buddy thing. Here's a story for ya from my thru hike that involves the Spot GPS thingy. We (a few new friends and I) were around the Pearisburg area on our thru hike attempt. We decided to go into town because of a severe lightning storm. We hauled butt to the nearest highway and finally hitched a ride into town to the Church hostel (I can't remember the name right off hand). But this particular hostel was literally right behind a the local hospital! You can guess the rest of the story from what I've said so far (and you would be be correct) but here goes... We find a ride into town. Pouring rain and lightning all around, in the back of a pickup doing 75 mph down the highway. We get to the hostel and settle in. My buddy wakes me up, middle of the night and is freaking out!!! Said his family was trying to get in touch with him, so much that his phone wouldn't work and locked up because of all the texts and phone calls, he couldn't even answer any of them (finally getting a phone call to his mom saying he is OK and the hostel is right behind the hospital and we hitched a ride.) Everyone had thought he was in an ambulance going 70 MPH on the highway to the hospital via the Spot app thing. Anyway, you get the story.... but the GPS thing can truly be a hindrance. Make sure your family doesn't totally rely on GPS and all that technology crap out there. No need to worry the folks at home, they're already worried enough about you (they really are) so tech can be a good thing, but they have to understand nothing is perfect and don't jump to conclusions. They will hear from you via text. I did this almost daily, or the occasional FB post. Moral of this story, don't rely on technology to the point your family is worried sick about you. There will be days (days upon days, even with Verizon) you won't be able to contact home. The trail is safe. No bears are out to get you. There are more people out there than you would expect (right in front and right behind you). You are more safe than the family at home in the city.
Good story.
I carry the inreach mini and use it to ping my wife, once in the morning and in the evening when I get to the spot where I'm going to camp. Most times I'll also text her with the phone and maybe send a pic if there's a signal. So now, even with the ping, if I don't text she still gets a bit worried and I have to remind her all over again that sometimes there's no cell signal. Gonna add that to the inreach pre-set message.
I've carried a Garmin 60sx for many years. Super duper. Answers all my questions about navigation, mileages, elevations, spring & shelter locations, distances to any waypoint. Creates a track that can be plotted and used later on various maps.