RedDoug
Trail Wise!
Trail active, stand back.....
Posts: 634 
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Post by RedDoug on Dec 20, 2018 22:33:58 GMT -8
I don't use a smart phone. I still use a GPS with topo maps and hand compass. I am watching a lot of CDT videos lately and that era is gone. Routes are all loaded into phones and people are chatting with family along the way. I am watching this tonight: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTg0mqArHzgI am on episode 3. I have done this section of the CDT. I did skip Lordsburg to Silver City. But watching and thinking, how long distance hiking has changed from when I first started on the CDT with a dozen Trails Illustrated maps in my pack for Colorado. Some embrace the new experience. I personally love leaving it all behind. For me, backpacking has been pure escapism at its finest. That isn't so any more. Except for me. Still using my maps and compass and GPS with a small Trac phone in the bottom of the pack for town. Some day I am going to really miss all this trail life. I hope I don't live much past that time of my life. |
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Post by Lamebeaver on Dec 21, 2018 4:19:52 GMT -8
You can still enjoy a tech-free experience if you want. HYOH.
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desert dweller
Trail Wise!
Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
Posts: 6,291
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Post by desert dweller on Dec 21, 2018 5:17:39 GMT -8
Dixie's (Homemade Wanderlust) has done a great job of sharing her thru-hike experience. The CDT was her final part of the Triple Crown (AT, PCT and CDT). I think you'll enjoy the entire series.
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swiftdream
Trail Wise!
the Great Southwest Unbound
Posts: 546
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Post by swiftdream on Dec 21, 2018 6:36:00 GMT -8
I don't use a smart phone. That’s clear. You have exclaimed that ad nauseum here. Can you answer one question? How did you access this forum? Telegraph or is that too high tech, perhaps smoke signals or beating on a hollow log? A smartphone is simply an ultralight computer with built in camera and gps. It runs programs like your desktop but instead of calling them programs they are called apps now. The darn things have saved me a bunch of weight and bulk over taking a camera and gps for hiking. It is really no big deal. Yeah I still take a paper map and compas which are technology too. Usually I may pull mine out for some photography and it does better than some compact cameras. I process just like I used to with my DSLR, shoot raw, process to 16 bit tiff and finish it to a sized down jpeg. I got half a dozen fine images in the wilderness yesterday with it and marked one waypoint with its gps. |
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Post by marmotstew on Dec 21, 2018 6:44:10 GMT -8
As far as I know most smart phones don’t have “GPS” so to speak. So they won’t work out of cell phone signal.
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Post by trinity on Dec 21, 2018 6:57:04 GMT -8
As far as I know most smart phones don’t have “GPS” so to speak. So they won’t work out of cell phone signal. Is this true? I just posed this question over on the gear forum. I thought the gps was independent of the cell signal. |
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desert dweller
Trail Wise!
Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
Posts: 6,291
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Post by desert dweller on Dec 21, 2018 6:58:23 GMT -8
As far as I know most smart phones don’t have “GPS” so to speak. So they won’t work out of cell phone signal. That is not correct. All recent smartphones have true GPS capability. But, without a phone signal, you can't necessarily download a map to show your location. There are apps that will have a map of the area you're at and will coordinate with the GPS signal. |
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Post by marmotstew on Dec 21, 2018 7:27:53 GMT -8
Ok I stand corrected.
But not sure what the big deal about using a cell phone GPS as opposed to regular GPS?
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leafwalker
Trail Wise!
peace on earth and good will toward all - om shanti
Posts: 526
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Post by leafwalker on Dec 21, 2018 7:37:21 GMT -8
I really never got modern teched up. Still use maps and compass. Not even GPS. Love following my route with a map and using the map to lay out my route iding land changes such as elevation. What I like.
I really don't see the sense of being on the phone while hiking. Not my thing.
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swiftdream
Trail Wise!
the Great Southwest Unbound
Posts: 546
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Post by swiftdream on Dec 21, 2018 8:32:28 GMT -8
As far as I know most smart phones don’t have “GPS” so to speak. So they won’t work out of cell phone signal. They have gps chipsets. I didn’t have a SIM card for a couple days at first and fired up Gaia in airplane mode off in the hinterlands and the gps worked at least as well as girlfriend’s Garmin. |
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swiftdream
Trail Wise!
the Great Southwest Unbound
Posts: 546
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Post by swiftdream on Dec 21, 2018 8:38:07 GMT -8
Ok I stand corrected. But not sure what the big deal about using a cell phone GPS as opposed to regular GPS? Do you ever take a camera? It is a great weight and bulk savings, something most hikers and backpackers easily get. it isn’t like you are looking at it any more than a map or the like. We hike for hours with it riding in its pouch until photography or gps is accessed. It’s no big deal. |
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Post by marmotstew on Dec 21, 2018 8:45:50 GMT -8
Ok I stand corrected. But not sure what the big deal about using a cell phone GPS as opposed to regular GPS? Do you ever take a camera? It is a great weight and bulk savings, something most hikers and backpackers easily get. it isn’t like you are looking at it any more than a map or the like. We hike for hours with it riding in its pouch until photography or gps is accessed. It’s no big deal. I bring my cell phone only. It’s my camera and use it to play music at night. |
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toejam
Trail Wise!
Hiking to raise awareness
Posts: 1,795
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Post by toejam on Dec 21, 2018 8:58:32 GMT -8
When gps for the masses hit I thought they were way too much tech tweaking for me - I go backpacking to get away from all that stuff. I stayed in the stone age until a couple years ago when a luddite friend showed me I could download a free mapping app on my phone and a free data file provided by a local guy, and know immediately where I was in relation to all the hard-to-find and historic paths in the Big Sur area. It was stupid-simple and it was a game-changer. Last summer I downloaded the Guthook Guide for the CDT in Colorado before my section hike. It was my first multi-day backpack in an unfamiliar area without a paper map, and it was fine. My backup was my hiking buddy's phone and Guthook Guide, and also those of pretty much everybody else hiking the trail. I love me my waterproof paper maps and USGS quads, but my phone does things they can't do and I didn't have to do a lot of fiddling to make it work. |
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toejam
Trail Wise!
Hiking to raise awareness
Posts: 1,795
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Post by toejam on Dec 21, 2018 9:01:25 GMT -8
But not sure what the big deal about using a cell phone GPS as opposed to regular GPS? The display screen is much bigger and easier to use. |
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Post by trinity on Dec 21, 2018 9:02:40 GMT -8
On a lighter note, related to the video; am I the only one who thinks that the ukulele is a blight upon humanity? I'll take technology in the back country over a ukulele any day!
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