Gone over to the Dark (Light?) Side-Gaia GPS

Fwiw Gaia is being bundled by its parent company with a bunch of other things including subscriptions to VeloNews (how I heard about the bundle, I follow the races) Outside and some other stuff.

There may be fine print but anyway:
www.velonews.com/outsideplus/

When I dropped my last GPS into the Everglades waters, I decided to go with a 4 yr subscription to GAIA instead of replacing the tool. So far, I like the decision.

“ carefree, quick and easy tool to use.”

It is that. But, eggs: one basket..,,

At least for me routine backcountry navigation feels like exposing my iPhone to too much potential risk, it’s far from drop proof, so I like having that reserved more in a backup role while other items, altimeter, paper map, gps, dSLR get the frequent use heavy lifting.

I've never used any sort of GPS, but I do routinely carry my phone (turned off, deep in my pack). So, I may try something like Gaia.

Even off trail, I find that I rarely need continual access to map and compass. Some off-trail days I don't pull either out of my pack at all, especially if in the alpine. (I tend to have a pretty detailed recall of maps in my head, if I've studied them pre-trip.) But there are times where it would be extremely helpful to have confirmation of exact location: at the crux of a route, for example. I think I could probably benefit from Gaia or a similar app for those occasional confirmations, without having to add a lot of weight. I do typically take long-ish trips (6-8 days), so I'd need a charging bank for sure.

I certainly wouldn’t argue against backup navigation of course. However maps add up in weight and I’ve got 10 maps just for my immediate area downloaded. Avenza sells Green Trails maps if you are familiar so the Saguaro Park bundle is on my iPhone and the Catalina mountains bundle is as well. Those alone cover the approximate 400 square miles of desert, canyons and mountain peaks wilderness out my front door and many miles around that. They also sell Delorme Arizona Atlas pages so I can see all of the above and on down to Mexico with those two pages of topo maps, an overall view where distant peaks can be helpful. Then there are six 7.5° quads that cover my most immediate hiking area for the highest detail. They are all active maps of various scales that I can actually see and zoom in with my extremely low vision.

Avenza also sells the Nat Geo Trails Illustraded maps. I’ve not used the Avenza subscription but one thing with Gaia is you can draw out the boundaries for your own custom maps like one big contiguous map at 1:24000 that covers as many quads or parts of quads that you desire. I’ve liked maps in general since I was 12 but really only use the gps and map function sparingly. Most of the time I follow my gut if you know what I mean. I become kind of lost once many years ago and only for around 15 minutes but that put the hook off fear in me. I have used the gps plus map to make some moves through the terrain I’d likely not been able to do without them. They also warm of impending terrain obstructions.

The real barometer/altimeter on the iPhone is cool too but does have to be checked when possible with a topo line.

Coolkat, good maps for sure. I still have about 25 or 30 waterproof paper Nat Geo maps. Can’t see them well enough to use them anymore but I can see an OLED backlit screen pretty well. So I love being able to get them on my iPhone. Can’t see a physical compass well enough to triangulate anymore either but the current iPhone compass is easy to see and give huge heading numbers as well as latitude and longitude and elevation. Just a compass can save your bacon at times.

HFS, I’m not suggesting the current iPhone cameras are up to the IQ of your DSLR but I’m shooting ProRaw. Those files are from 25 mb to 35 mb so quite a lot of information to pull out. The dynamic range is astounding. So the iPhone does pretty good with difficult outdoor lighting. The main wide camera on the iPhone 12 Pro Max shoots 12 bit now, not up to a current DSLR but really very good. The ultrawide camera at 13mm equiv is very useful for some things and the tele is a bit longer this year. They are quick to get up and running. Last year I got a charging javalina in some very interesting early light with the old iPhone 7+. It was excited because I almost stepped on it. They have an aggressive streak. It just works for me nowadays.