Do you hike alone? Yes, but...long-distance trails have a "hiking season" with goals like avoiding the desert in the heat of summer and the mountains in the spring when they are still packed with snow. It is not unusual to meet other thru-hikers during the "hiking season." It is also common to meet day hikers in popular sections of the trail, especially near trailheads. How do thru-hikers identify day hikers? The most common method is smell: It is not uncommon to smell laundry soap, deodorant, or body spray before I see or hear them!
Do you have cell service? The closer I am to a civilization, the more likely I am to have cell service. In the more remote sections of the trail, I often don't have cell service for several days at a time. Even in some of the smaller resupply towns, cell service and Wi-Fi access will be very limited.
How do you navigate? I used to carry paper maps and a compass, but now I use GPS apps on my phone like Far Out or Gaia to help me stay on trail, plan my daily mileage, and find water and campsites. These GPS apps work even when I don't have cell service!
Do you get lost? I almost never feel lost and can't remember actually being lost. Sometimes I take a wrong trail and realize it after walking a mile or two, but that's not really the same as being lost. The bigger problem is not losing THINGS on trail. One time I lost my trekking poles and felt like an idiot for a week!
What if you get hurt? I try to avoid getting hurt although I usually fall down at least once on each hike. With age and experience have come skills and caution that help me know when to slow down, pay attention, be careful, and avoid situations that are above my risk tolerance.
What's that little orange thing hanging from your backpack strap? It's a Garmin inReach Mini 2! New technology...how exciting! As GPS technology has improved, many thru-hikers are now carrying GPS navigational devices. Since I will be hiking the Arizona Trail in the fall when there will be very few thru-hikers and even fewer day hikers, I decided to purchase a Garmin inReach Mini 2 (cross that off of my Christmas list). It serves as a backup navigational device to my cell phone, an emergency notification service in case I need rescue, and will allow me to communicate with Eva even when I don't have cell service. But the exciting benefit for you is the ability to track my location in almost real-time on a map! So when you wake up in the morning and ask yourself: Where is my thru-hiking friend, it turns out the answer is simple: click the Gamin button below!
I scheduled this blog post to go live the day my hike begins so hopefully the technology will work and you'll find a map with some "tracks" on it. If not, don't panic, I'm probably not dead. I'll try to get the technology working when I get to Flagstaff and have good internet access. This Garmin tracking button below can also be found by clicking on the menu tab "Where's Loren" and the "Where in the world am I" image in the sidebar. (Now you have no excuse for not following along!)
The map only shows the most recent "track" by default.
If you want to see all tracks, click the "View All Tracks"
button in the upper right-hand corner of the map.
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