tech on trail

[cliffordbarnabus]

i've thru'ed the AT twice. and almost thrice but only 80%. also thru'ed the PCT. blah blah.

i don't carry, nor do i own a cell phone. or any of those gidgets or gadgets. so i don't know what trump's doing, what the weather "should" be. and the only facebook in my face is a book by kerouac or salinger.

question : what % do you think of thru'ers these days carry a phone/ipad/thingamabob?

[Deacon]

95%


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[Cheyou]

i've thru'ed the AT twice. and almost thrice but only 80%. also thru'ed the PCT. blah blah.

i don't carry, nor do i own a cell phone. or any of those gidgets or gadgets. so i don't know what trump's doing, what the weather "should" be. and the only facebook in my face is a book by kerouac or salinger.

question : what % do you think of thru'ers these days carry a phone/ipad/thingamabob?

.

no camera ?

[Traveler]

The percentage of people carrying interactive gadgets like GPS devices and smart-phones on the trail are likely similar to the percentage of people who carry these daily in the general population.

[adamkrz]

I'll say 98%, I carry a flip phone and a old camera, My phone rarely gets turned on.

New technology has made the world an eerie place.

[MuddyWaters]

I used to carry old flip phone
2.8 oz
Batt last a month taking it out, only put in to send text in evening.

But being able to make travel arrangements on fly, in town entertainment and communication, drove me finally to smart phone. My old phone wasnt finding many towers it could talk to anymore either

On trail its just a camera, unless use guthook to check position.

Yeah, theres a lot of younger people addicted to social media, waste all their time seeing what 1000 people they barely know is tweeting.

[rafe]

Many years of hiking w/o phone. Since 2000 or so, have carried some sort of phone. It provides obvious conveniences. More often than not, I carry a camera also. Lately, an altimeter/compass watch as well - surprisingly useful.

[garlic08]

While downsizing after my first thru-hike, I decided to go through old photos. I threw away about 80 pounds of photos. They all looked the same, just me and some friends on various peaks or trails, various seasons. I decided to stop carrying a camera right then.

And one of my greatest pleasures in going for a hike is getting away from the phone.

Nothing wrong with tech in my mind, but I prefer to leave it at home.

Someone recently gave me an old smartphone that works on the house Wifi with various useful apps. (I no longer need to go to the bank to deposit checks.) The thing weighs 8 oz w/charger. I won't carry it with me.

Friends call me retrogrouch.

[cliffordbarnabus]

While downsizing after my first thru-hike, I decided to go through old photos. I threw away about 80 pounds of photos. They all looked the same, just me and some friends on various peaks or trails, various seasons. I decided to stop carrying a camera right then.

And one of my greatest pleasures in going for a hike is getting away from the phone.

Nothing wrong with tech in my mind, but I prefer to leave it at home.

Someone recently gave me an old smartphone that works on the house Wifi with various useful apps. (I no longer need to go to the bank to deposit checks.) The thing weighs 8 oz w/charger. I won't carry it with me.

Friends call me retrogrouch.

yes man! yes!!

[Venchka]

Friends call me retrogrouch.

A select and prestigious club.
Welcome!
Wayne


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[rafe]

While downsizing after my first thru-hike, I decided to go through old photos. I threw away about 80 pounds of photos. They all looked the same, just me and some friends on various peaks or trails, various seasons. I decided to stop carrying a camera right then.

And one of my greatest pleasures in going for a hike is getting away from the phone.

Nothing wrong with tech in my mind, but I prefer to leave it at home.

Someone recently gave me an old smartphone that works on the house Wifi with various useful apps. (I no longer need to go to the bank to deposit checks.) The thing weighs 8 oz w/charger. I won't carry it with me.

Friends call me retrogrouch.

OP was asking, I think, more about smartphones and such. I'm thinking cameras aren't "tech" gear in that context. I personally try to always have a camera when I hike. That was true 40+ years ago when I first got the hiking bug.

We rely on tech in any case... I'm sure most of our gear is CAD designed nowadays - tents, packs, shoes, etc. We wouldn't be having this discussion without it.

[cliffordbarnabus]

OP was asking, I think, more about smartphones and such. I'm thinking cameras aren't "tech" gear in that context. I personally try to always have a camera when I hike. That was true 40+ years ago when I first got the hiking bug.

We rely on tech in any case... I'm sure most of our gear is CAD designed nowadays - tents, packs, shoes, etc. We wouldn't be having this discussion without it.

yeah, i was talking smart phones and ipads and connectivity stuff. not that there's anything wrong with it. not that there's anything right with it. just wondering about % and changes to dynamics of thru-hiking!

[rafe]

yeah, i was talking smart phones and ipads and connectivity stuff. not that there's anything wrong with it. not that there's anything right with it. just wondering about % and changes to dynamics of thru-hiking!

We've been arguing this matter for I dunno, twenty years now?

I'm generally in favor of tech, made my living by it, but I just had an epiphany, about an epiphany.

A gazillion years ago -- 1990 -- I had an amazing, almost religious experience on my hike through the hundred mile wilderness. It was on the ascent of Whitecap, southbound, pausing to look back north. Seeing no signs of civilization whatsoever. Fifty miles of wilderness, as far as I could see. I hadn't seen another hiker for a day. Feeling extremely vulnerable but amazingly alive. Nearly in tears from the vastness and serenity of it all, yet proud and deeply grateful to be exactly where I was.

Back then the HMW really felt like a wilderness. And of course this was many years before cell phones.

Now I wonder if not having a phone was essential to what happened. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

(PS: I did have a camera with me...)

[Maineiac64]

i've thru'ed the AT twice. and almost thrice but only 80%. also thru'ed the PCT. blah blah.

i don't carry, nor do i own a cell phone. or any of those gidgets or gadgets. so i don't know what trump's doing, what the weather "should" be. and the only facebook in my face is a book by kerouac or salinger.

question : what % do you think of thru'ers these days carry a phone/ipad/thingamabob?

We all know the % to be very high, it seems like you might have a thesis as to how it affects the trail experience?

[fiddlehead]

Just finished a 783 mile hike in Eastern Europe and couldn't have done it without the phone.
There are no maps. Only an app and GPS track.

The Outdoor Active app is the ONLY way to tell (through past hiker's comments) where there might be water (and 1/4 of the time, the water was locked anyway, so we left comments for future hikers)

Google maps: To get a ride to a town for resupply, we google mapped a hotel, called them, and if they had vacancy, asked them to come and pick us up (the ones who had

There are no maps. Only an app and GPS track.
The app is the ONLY way to tell where there might be water (and 1/4 of the time, the water was locked anyway, so we left comments for future hikers)

To get a ride to a town for resupply, we google mapped a hotel, called them, and if they had vacancy, asked them to come and pick us up (the ones who had vacancies ALWAYS did)

Not only took photos, but a bunch of video too and now I'm working on a youtube vid about the amazing trip.

The compass app I downloaded was great and I used it quite a bit.

Flashlight: came in handy a few times although we were mostly always in bed when it got dark.

Google maps (to help figure out which town to resupply in (put it on satellite and you can even see coffee shops, pizza places, bars, etc.)

Google translate: Couldn't have communicated sometimes without it. Messenger: was great to show live vids to people we hiked with after they went home (and we were still out there). We figured out how to just speak into it and then hit a button and show our phrase to a local in each of the 4 different languages we encountered: Sovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Albanian, (Bosnia and Montenegro spoke mostly Croatian, except some old people who only spoke German or Russian (we knew a few words in those languages already, and hadn't downloaded them, so we were quite limited with those people)

Other (not so important things) we used it for
Sky map for stars,
Posted to instagram and FB from the trail (right before sleeping),
Airbnb (used it twice and weren't so happy with the results as the location wasn't as stated.
Recorder: every other day, we did an aprox 3 minute recording to remember things that we hope to put in a blog someday (since so few people have hiked the Via Dinarica, any info out there is a BIG help)
Called a taxi once with the phone. (but used it more for booking rooms, like I said above)
Figured out the bus schedules when we finished from Google (in Albania and got a bus to Kosovo) (there's only one mini-bus a day, so important to know the schedule)

Probably a few more, and calling my wife and son for free from my hotel room and doing free video chats for up to an hour sometimes was another biggie.

All in all, it made our hike possible, all in one device, that I kept in my pocket all the time (the trail disappears a lot, so it's important to have it handy)
Don't know how anyone could do this trail without it. (the trail is only 3 years old)

[cliffordbarnabus]

Just finished a 783 mile hike in Eastern Europe and couldn't have done it without the phone.
There are no maps. Only an app and GPS track.

The Outdoor Active app is the ONLY way to tell (through past hiker's comments) where there might be water (and 1/4 of the time, the water was locked anyway, so we left comments for future hikers)

Google maps: To get a ride to a town for resupply, we google mapped a hotel, called them, and if they had vacancy, asked them to come and pick us up (the ones who had

There are no maps. Only an app and GPS track.
The app is the ONLY way to tell where there might be water (and 1/4 of the time, the water was locked anyway, so we left comments for future hikers)

To get a ride to a town for resupply, we google mapped a hotel, called them, and if they had vacancy, asked them to come and pick us up (the ones who had vacancies ALWAYS did)

Not only took photos, but a bunch of video too and now I'm working on a youtube vid about the amazing trip.

The compass app I downloaded was great and I used it quite a bit.

Flashlight: came in handy a few times although we were mostly always in bed when it got dark.

Google maps (to help figure out which town to resupply in (put it on satellite and you can even see coffee shops, pizza places, bars, etc.)

Google translate: Couldn't have communicated sometimes without it. Messenger: was great to show live vids to people we hiked with after they went home (and we were still out there). We figured out how to just speak into it and then hit a button and show our phrase to a local in each of the 4 different languages we encountered: Sovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Albanian, (Bosnia and Montenegro spoke mostly Croatian, except some old people who only spoke German or Russian (we knew a few words in those languages already, and hadn't downloaded them, so we were quite limited with those people)

Other (not so important things) we used it for
Sky map for stars,
Posted to instagram and FB from the trail (right before sleeping),
Airbnb (used it twice and weren't so happy with the results as the location wasn't as stated.
Recorder: every other day, we did an aprox 3 minute recording to remember things that we hope to put in a blog someday (since so few people have hiked the Via Dinarica, any info out there is a BIG help)
Called a taxi once with the phone. (but used it more for booking rooms, like I said above)
Figured out the bus schedules when we finished from Google (in Albania and got a bus to Kosovo) (there's only one mini-bus a day, so important to know the schedule)

Probably a few more, and calling my wife and son for free from my hotel room and doing free video chats for up to an hour sometimes was another biggie.

All in all, it made our hike possible, all in one device, that I kept in my pocket all the time (the trail disappears a lot, so it's important to have it handy)
Don't know how anyone could do this trail without it. (the trail is only 3 years old)

super interesting post. thanks. when you say no maps are available....like, literally no paper maps? even if they're from the 90's or something? that's bizarre! not doubting you ~at all~, but it just sounds whacked!

[Leo L.]

I can easily belive that there are almost no hiking maps of these countries, maybe except some very limited areas around famouse summits and national parks.
Remember, these countries had a strict communist government for many decades, then had a raging war for many years and are now just recovering from all this.
If there were any detailed maps at all, they would not be available to the public, but for military only.
Street maps is the only stuff I've ever seen, the best one I have is an Austrian make, scale 1:200.000. Good for riding a bike, no good for hiking.

Looking forward to hear some more, fiddlehead!

[fiddlehead]

I can easily belive that there are almost no hiking maps of these countries, maybe except some very limited areas around famouse summits and national parks.
Remember, these countries had a strict communist government for many decades, then had a raging war for many years and are now just recovering from all this.
If there were any detailed maps at all, they would not be available to the public, but for military only.
Street maps is the only stuff I've ever seen, the best one I have is an Austrian make, scale 1:200.000. Good for riding a bike, no good for hiking.

Looking forward to hear some more, fiddlehead!

Yes, Leo knows.
I shouldn't have said "no maps" . Some of the National parks had some maps, although they didn't have our trail marked as such... how would we know which one was ours??? (possible with tons of preplanning I guess)
But that was only 10% of the hike (national parks)

We did meet some hikers who printed out maps from the viadinarica website.
They were very lost and followed us for the remainder of their hike.
The maps were too low of a scale for the detail needed for the sections without marked trail (or no trail even, sometimes)

The GPS was our most used item. 30% of the time, we would hold it in our hand while walking.
The phone app had the exact same track on there, but the batteries were much better in the GPS. (Lithiums lasted 11 days, Duracells about 2 1/2)

It was a learning exerience for both of us, even though we have both completed the Triple Crown.
(it was great)

[TexasBob]

..........question : what % do you think of thru'ers these days carry a phone/ipad/thingamabob?

I bet that 100% of hikers 25 and under take a smartphone on the trail. Smaller percentage for us older folks but still probably 90% or better.

[jgil]

I bet that 100% of hikers 25 and under take a smartphone on the trail. Smaller percentage for us older folks but still probably 90% or better.

I'll take that bet. If I'm day hiking I never bring my phone, if I'm going on multiple day trips I have my phone in my pack but I don't even think about it until I finish. I hate phones, I only have it for emergency really. But I see why you would think that because I don't know anyone else who isn't constantly looking at their phones all day.