Garmin In Reach Explorer

[Roadtrek Adventuous RS1]

Originally Posted by ponti33602

Awesome. Honestly all this tech will in our cell phones in a few years. The cell app is great so no need to ever use the mini screen. Just hook to your backpack and forget it.

That would be very nice....are you saying "satellite technology" is coming??

I have a pretty advanced phone... Google Pixel 2.... but, it's on their Google Project Fi Network and there's places where service is not available...I know that and understand .....

I found out the hard way when traveling through Wyoming.... practically non existent....
Got to a location with cellphone service , called Google...and asked.... their answer was classic...."yeah we have no service there".....

Unfortunately....no cellphone service is everywhere....

[MsNomer]

We quite often hike off the grid, sometimes backpacking for weeks at a time, but more often long day hikes. It is not unusual to go the whole day without seeing another human.

We have twice called for emergency helicopter rescue of fellow hikers--one was epileptic seizures, the other was altitude-induced pulmonary edema--when we were 13 miles from the nearest road--different years, same place in the Wind Rivers, WY. Next time, it could be one of us, especially considering that we are in our 70's.

The Mini arrives Friday. It will live on the pack.

[ponti33602]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

We quite often hike off the grid, sometimes backpacking for weeks at a time, but more often long day hikes. It is not unusual to go the whole day without seeing another human.

We have twice called for emergency helicopter rescue of fellow hikers--one was epileptic seizures, the other was altitude-induced pulmonary edema--when we were 13 miles from the nearest road--different years, same place in the Wind Rivers, WY. Next time, it could be one of us, especially considering that we are in our 70's.

The Mini arrives Friday. It will live on the pack.

We were surprised how intuitive it was to get working and synched to the phone as well as start and then stop service. A lot of Garmin stuff we think is "quirky" to use. It prob is quirky if you try using the device and its screen. We treat it much like a "beacon only" and use our phone app called EarthMate. Provided you have a phone that will last long enough I think most would prefer this method. We have a charge stick that will take care of the phone so we could get 2-3 days. The mini claims 50 hours of battery and seems only slightly high as an estimate. Pretty close though.