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Poll: How much do you use electronics on the trail

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  1. #41

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    Why am I going to the trail and the woods to escape yet staying plugged in via electronics.
    It depends on what your trying to escape from and how plugged in you stay while escaping. Realistically, your not going to leave your phone home. But you can limit its use.

    My phone is used primarily for weather, GPS based guide book, photos, ebooks, clock and music. Being able to occasionally check email and be able to make travel arrangements is a bonus.

    Just having up to date weather is worth whatever the price. Hum, should I get up now or wait until the rain stops? I think I'll check the radar...
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  2. #42

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    You're bucking US cultural standards so expect a backlash of justification for mindlessly adhering to them.
    Most of the backlash seems to be coming from the 12% that don’t carry them.

  3. #43

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    R U saying only 12 % of hikers don't carry a phone on trail?

    If so where are you getting those stats?

  4. #44

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    Find your own happy medium.

    That may be going without an electronic device or it may be doing what you are doing now.

    Personally I can escape and still carry a phone.

  5. #45
    Registered User BuckeyeBill's Avatar
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    The sad part is Cell Phones have tak3en the place of the old pay phones. I will carry a small digital camera. the extra weight will make up for more quality pictures. its small enough to fit into a hip pocket on my pack's belt. I can get it out in a matter seconds. Its pretty much blank-proof any thing, water, dust, temp, shock to name a few. Carry 4 64 gig cards and can switch modes and zoom in really no effort. What matters is that it works for me but may be not for any one else. It's your hike, do it your way and don't let someone else tell you your wrong.
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  6. #46

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    I try to send my wife a text every day or two if have signal.
    Sometimes that a week in some places before can send.

    I will take pics, review at night, possibly read a kindle book if wired and not sleepy yet. Then theres checking gps position occassionally. Phones have offline uses that replace other things.

  7. #47

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    I always get a chuckle when people, currently using electronic devices, have really strong opinions on people who use slightly different electronic devices, in a slightly different manner.

    It's not the cell phones that people are really upset about. It's the behavior of the people using them, that you think might impact you. That behavior is going to happen, with or without cell phones.

    Some are fairly valid, such as loitering in busy doorways, while people are trying to get through, distracted driving, and noise complaints. Some are just juvenile, such as ignoring you, and not liking the exact same things that you like. Any of these things can happen, with or without cell phones.

  8. #48
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    I don't carry a phone. I fall in the increasingly rare (14% at the time of my vote) category of leaving the house to get away from the phone.

    Doing that for months at a time is not easy, but that's sort of the whole point. Nothing worth doing is easy. My first thru-hike was a difficult, life-changing experience, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

    It's seldom mentioned, but there's also a cost factor. Not owning a phone is one of those avoided costs that allowed me to become (and stay) financially independent enough to go hiking in the first place. (I retired in the 1990s and never needed a portable device to earn a living.)

    (By the way, it should be "kibosh" in the thread title.)

  9. #49
    Registered User Christoph's Avatar
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    I carried mine for keeping in touch at home (mostly by text) a few times a week, to let them know I didn't get abducted by a sasquatch or eaten by bears. Mostly, I was already going to carry it for that purpose but it played multiple rolls as a communication device, camera so I didn't have to carry another electronical thingy with batteries, and my guidebook. That saved a little weight. Puddlefish is correct though, it's the nature (no pun here) that people use 'em. You should also at least have a bit of navigation skill and not rely on any electronics when headed in the woods/wilderness.
    - Trail name: Thumper

  10. #50
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    I've never owned a smart phone or cell phone or any other handheld communications device. When others find out by asking to use my cell phone or when it comes up in conversation, there are two common responses: (1) I wish I could do that (I've never met anybody who carried through on the wish), and (2) what happens if you have an accident, etc.? (I've assumed a risk and my family has graciously accepted my lifestyle preference.)

    I'm at home in the woods, so the risk of getting lost or having a mishap through unfamiliarity is somewhat lower. I know which snakes and plants are poisonous and which plants are edible. My college days were spent in forestry and as an intern in the forest industry. I'm experienced at compass and pacing and orienteering. I know how to read topographic maps. I've spent my adult years in the woods hiking, backpacking, canoeing, mountain biking and whatever else you can do outdoors, often solo. I love maps, read them avidly, and usually have a good feel for the terrain before I step outdoors. So I'm comfortable being outdoors without a way of communicating.

    I've never found the outdoors boring, so there's never a desire to plug into music or other entertainment. Long hikes give me a chance to think and to listen - and to interact with others when I meet them, which I enjoy. I know birds and their songs, butterflies, botany, geography, climatology and just a smidgeon of geology. I can't sing a lick, but songs go through my head and sometimes I sing aloud when I'm confident I'm alone. But above all, being outdoors gives me time to think.

    A few years ago, I read a magazine article that touted time to think as intrinsic to many of the breakthroughs in arts and sciences and technology and just about everything else men and women can achieve. Time to think used to be commonplace but isn't any longer, since we tend to be bombarded with outside stimuli today. It used to be when people were engaged in mechanical labor or other physical pursuits that their mind could "run free," seeking answers or puzzling through mysteries or taking on challenges or problems. The great Georgia novelist Terry Kay told me that some of his greatest inspirations came as a child plowing behind a mule. He suspected that the same was true of Byron Herbert Reece, the poet from the Georgia mountains who grew up an lived on a farm and plowed behind a mule.

    I don't mind others being plugged in. Often they provide helpful information (weather, a sports score, interesting news). But occasionally its humorous or disconcerting to observe the reliance of some on technology (hikers used to be invariably friendly, but now sometimes they have earbuds in and won't even make eye contact). I don't ever recall somebody's use of tech being annoying on the trail.

    I am glad there's not a law that requires us to be plugged in against our wills. To each his own.

  11. #51

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    R U saying only 12 % of hikers don't carry a phone on trail?

    If so where are you getting those stats?
    From the poll at the start of this thread.

  12. #52
    NOBO Mar '21 BowGal's Avatar
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    what I’ve been doing to prep for my AT thru hike attempt in 2019 is reading books and watching videos while following along in the AT guide.

    I’d love to ditch the guide in favour of the Guthook app to save weight...but unsure if the Guthook app shows all the towns ammenities ie. services, lodging, phone numbers etc. for when I need to book a room in advance, arrange for shuttle etc.

    Anyone know?
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  13. #53

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    Quote Originally Posted by garlic08 View Post
    It's seldom mentioned, but there's also a cost factor. Not owning a phone is one of those avoided costs that allowed me to become (and stay) financially independent enough to go hiking in the first place. (I retired in the 1990s and never needed a portable device to earn a living.)
    It doesn't have to be expensive. I use a Trackfone I got for $20. Another $20 buys 3 months of service. I splurge by spending an extra $10 for more data, since that's what I mostly use. 60 minutes of talk and text time is 50 minutes more then I typically use in 3 months.

    I only activate the smart phone when I'll be on the trail for a month or two. I have a dumb cell phone I use as my home phone. I rarely carry it outside the house. I have 380 minutes banked on it, which shows how much I talk on it.
    Last edited by Slo-go'en; 03-03-2018 at 11:47.
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  14. #54
    Registered User ldsailor's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    Really? Not necessarily! What if she didn't or couldn't use the navigational apps on her phone? Are you incorrectly assuming she had already downloaded detailed enough topos to navigate 2 miles away from the AT in Maine. What if her energy source for running the device had expended or was no longer usable? Ignorance is ignorance. Geraldine didn't have reception. Her calls and eMails weren't getting through. She relied too heavily on an electronic device rather than her brain(another useful electronic device!) and knowledge, some of what was shared when she attended Warren Doyle's 5 day AT thru-hiking class! She went high to a mound to possibly get a view but very likely to gain cell reception. I sincerely wonder if part of her getting increasingly more lost and further from the AT didn't involve paying more attention to her device and attaining reception than awareness of her surroundings and applying techniques to get unlost that didn't involve an electronic device.
    1. She had been on the trail for 900 miles. If she had a navigation tool on her phone or a separate navigation device, hopefully she would have had a working knowledge of how it works. Let's face it. Guthook and similar apps are a world easier than navigating using a map and compass.
    2. Who said anything about Geraldine downloading maps? My point is she did not have navigation tools on her phone. This observation is borne out of the media reports that made no mention of any navigational aids on her phone. The phone was obviously thoroughly inspected after she was found according to media reports.
    3. The phone's power source was more than enough to view a navigation app for a few minutes to figure out which way to go, and then to periodically review her progress toward her goal. The most used app, Guthook, running in airplane mode, can last for days. It does for me. Remember she was texting and emailing for some time after getting lost.
    4. Texting and emailing her husband was not a smart use of her phone. It was of desperation. That fits with the reports that she probably should not have been on the trail.


    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    What could have also saved Geraldine Largay's life was having a map and compass knowing how to use them, not so absolutely relying on a cell phone for survival, and not just hearing but also grasping by applying what little Warren Doyle taught his pupil should one get lost on an AT hike.

    She had a compass. See the image of what the searchers found. According to this report, she either did not want to use it or didn't know how to use it.
    Geraldine Equipment.JPG

    My point here was not to rehash this ladies mistakes and misfortune, but to show how technology could help every hiker. Should it be the only source of navigation? No. But there is no reason to eschew it just because you want to eliminate a few ounces or go really "primitive." And I don't see where Geraldine was over reliant on her phone. In her mind, there was no alternative even if the way she used it was not smart. Who knows? Maybe she could have got a signal and we wouldn't be talking about her now. The reality, though, is she didn't know how to use the compass she had and she left her Spot tracker at a motel.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    I never said or implied all electronic usage or electronics is always bad. I don't recall anyone else doing so either.
    It's not hard to reach that conclusion. Okay, so now I'm confused. What are we arguing about?
    Trail Name - Slapshot
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  15. #55

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    Started out using a phone for navigation, photos, communication to family, reference, and occasional reading. With each year, usage of electronic decreased.
    Looking back, photos taken were really good and I wouldn't trade them for anything, but there is a price. Time spent documenting your hike means not being present on the trail at times.
    A lot of time can also be wasted doing this. Same for phone navigation, it wasn't necessary to check location so often.
    Every few nights I listen to music. Battery consumption is minimal on downloaded music. Never listen while hiking because I want to be in touch with surroundings.
    My first year of hiking consisted of daily emails which doubled as a trail journal (I'm not a social media kind of guy). Before you know it, too much time is being devoted to this communication at the end of the day. Daily correspondence has been replaced with a Google Sheets page that lets family know that I am alive and my location. Family is aware they may not see an update every day.
    Keeping a battery charged is always a challange on the trail. Then it dawned on me, what would happen if I was without a cell phone at all? Absolutely nothing. The phone remains in airplane mode most of the time, and the trail is now center stage.

  16. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    R U saying only 12 % of hikers don't carry a phone on trail?If so where are you getting those stats?
    See the OPs poll that is a part of this thread. Now 14% as of 12:51pm 3/3/2018.
    "Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen." Louis L’Amour

  17. #57

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    She went high to a mound to possibly get a view but very likely to gain cell reception. *I sincerely wonder if part of her getting increasingly more lost and further from the AT didn't involve paying more attention to her device and attaining reception than awareness of her surroundings and applying techniques to get unlost that didn't involve an electronic device.


    You conveniently left that last sentence out of your last post IDsailor.


    This is contrary to what was briefly covered should one get lost on an AT hike in the 5 day class she attended with Warren Doyle. Doyle was interviewed to possibly provide clues in helping find Mrs Largay although Warren himself notes he's not conducting a survival school. She already had some limited information. She didn't necessarily require more information. She didn't use that info or remember it or was paying attention in class. Sincerely, maybe, she was on her smartphone in class or had a problem focusing on using her brain for self surviving self getting un lost because an over reliance on her smart phone?


    This is a common mistake...we need more information...or we need that info from being connected to electronics because that's the source of information that can save us. How about utilizing more fully the info you've already been exposed or know? How about being aware of information not provided by a navigational app? Couldn't that info, that awareness led her back to the AT too rather than over relying on tech?

    Idsailor, as you willingly rehash Mrs Largay's fate in support of electronics, you're doing exactly what I previously posted when we ignore the potential downside of over reliance on electronic devices - a mobile hand held computer. It's well known, and not being contended, what electronics positively can do or help us with. It's the side that limits us that backs us into a corner through over reliance of them that causes problems. We can become complacent dumb downed utilizing our own computers between our ears. You of all people being in the Navy should recognize this if you understand the tools the terrorist of 911 used inflicting great damage. They used what we thought was our strength- technology - against us. YES, sometimes over reliance on tech or electronics can be a downfall.

  18. #58

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    Quote Originally Posted by gpburdelljr View Post
    From the poll at the start of this thread.
    Quote Originally Posted by Furlough View Post
    See the OPs poll that is a part of this thread. Now 14% as of 12:51pm 3/3/2018.
    Duh. I didn't take the poll because none of those choices fit me so didn't look at the results.

  19. #59
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    Quote Originally Posted by LittleRock View Post
    What really makes me cringe is when I see people who spend all day listening to music or (god forbid) podcasts while hiking, or spend half their time at the shelters/campsites on social media, watching movies, etc.
    in other words they are not doing it the "correct" way IYO

  20. #60
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    I didn't take the poll because none of those choices fit me .
    same here, my answer would be:

    I am a very light cell phone user - no idea how to use most of what it does

    but now that I have a smart thingy, I will learn/ use it more on the trail as there will be no access to laptop, gps and I will probably read some/ quit using a paper guide book - maybe even use it for music

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