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Out of context: Reply #72721
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- zaq26
Last Tuesday I went on a hiking trip with my 13 years old son that was supposed to be a 2 nights camping, covering the distance of 22 miles in Adirondack (West Canada Lake Wilderness) It was our first time in that area. We traveled 11 miles the first day, stayed 2 nights at a beautiful lake, then planned to walk another 11 miles through a different route back to the car.
That's where I learned the hard lesson of relying on technology.
The app Alltrails was used to guide me. It did a pretty good job, even sending me notifications as soon as I am off the path. But the app also drains the battery fast. My phone died the second day. I had a small battery charger, so I thought it would be enough to get us back the next day. However, it ran out of juice half way.
Then I thought it's not a problem, we will just follow the trail marks and eventually get back.and ...
we missed a turn that resulted in 15 extra miles and 1 extra night and a day in the wilderness.
Since we had to carry everything ourselves, we took enough food just to get us through 2 nights. So we were out of food too.
The red line on this map is our original path, the orange line is the detour.
When we got to the lake (the end of the orange line) that's where I realized we are completely lost. We turned back, but it was too dark at that point, so we decided to spend the night right there and continue our search in the morning.
Meanwhile, my wife freaked out that we haven't returned as promised. She got contacted the rangers, who started a full-blown search for us in the morning.
Luckily, overnight the charger miraculously got a little juice. It was enough for my phone to receive 1%. I was able to launch AllTrails app for a few seconds, locate us on the map and see where we missed the turn.
A few hours later, we bumped in to the rangers, who escorted us to the car and notified my wife that we were ok.
When I got home, I ordered a real map and a compass. I will never travel without that in my backpack.
- Glad oit all worked out - how was the 13yr old ?_me_
- He took it very well. I am proud of him. Although he said he will never go again with me :)zaq
- HA! dont think the missus is gonna let you anyways !_me_
- that is quite the scenic detour !_me_
- The Life and Times of Grizzly Adamsutopian
- Man...I can’t even imagine what was in your wife’s head. Still you did good. Happy everything ended well.oey_oey
- Wow! And always Carry more food than you need and life straws.Hayoth
- Damn, glad you have a sense of humor about it. Great bonding experience.bezoar
- Next BD gift for you: a solar / hand-crank Charger.uan
- sounds like you got more than the adventure you were seeking plus a lifelong bonding memory for you and your son. glad you made it back safely.Krassy
- "... a lifelong bonding memory for you and your son ..." - those were my thoughts as well.SimonFFM
- Wow, that's a great learning experience.Chimp
- https://images-na.ss…pango
- Glad you’re ok but your poor wife! :)_niko
- Damn dude, glad ur goodGuyFawkes
- Awesome experienceGnash
- Into the wild!PhanLo
- great tips. glad you made it out ok!kaiyohtee
- Moral of the story, have analogue backups, understand how to use them and take more batteries.kalkal
- Hope you got to enjoy the camping part anywaystoplying
- Glad you made it out! I also second the hand crank charger. It’s a literal life saver.monospaced
- I recently bought a solar powered brick that will charge a phone about 10 times to full and can be recharged by solar cells on its face.shellie
- how fast does it charge? and ... its always cloudy here... usually those are the reason i haven't bought a solar powered battery.pango
- Come to Denmark! Here, there's a Lidl in walking distance wherever you are :)jagara
- I got a rugged solar-powered charger too, in addition to a map and a compass.zaq