You used to explore the outdoors to escape technology. You left behind the buzz of the television, the clunky sounds of cars on the freeway and the drowning ambient noise once you hit the trail with nothing but the essentials on your back. This is still the backpacking experience because no one wants to hear engines and digital noise in the backcountry; however, technology plays a new role in the outdoor experience. The right tech doesn’t deter your relationship with nature, but rather enhances it.
Before you grab any and every gadget to haul into the wild, here are three items that will improve your trip with nature and possibly even save your life in the backcountry.
Smartphone
It’s hard to believe, right? A smartphone should be the last piece of technology you want with you in the woods. Smartphone represent everything about civilization that you want to escape — social media, text messages, phone calls, Netflix. However, smartphones also have a key feature that could save your life: GPS.
Every backpacker should know how to read a map and compass, but in case you get lost, the GPS on a high-end smartphone like the LG G5 can pinpoint your location even without reception. Apps like Motion-X GPS and All Trails are perfect tools to navigate the backcountry using your smartphone’s GPS capabilities.
Smartphones also are taking the place of cameras, even on the professional level. While they may not match the quality of a good DSLR, smartphones aren’t as heavy and cumbersome to carry through the backcountry. Smartphone cameras have reached the point that they’re replacing both the point-and-shoot for pictures and the GoPro for video.
Goal Zero Solar Panel
Most phones can keep a charge for a day or two; however, if you’re setting out for a week or more on the trails, you need a source of energy to keep your smartphone going. Goal Zero has you covered with a lightweight, portable solar panel that hangs on your pack and collects sunlight while you hike. Assuming it’s not raining all week, the panel will slowly (and we stress slowly) charge your electronics throughout the day, so you can continue to use them on the go.
BioLite CampStove
So what if it rained all day and now the sun is down and your smartphone is dead? This is when the BioLite CampStove is one of the best and most useful tools in your pack. The BioLite is a clean, wood-burning camp stove that is about the size of a Nalgene bottle that uses sticks and twigs to boil your water and charge your devices at the same time. It uses the heat from the fire to power a small electric generator that keeps your phone or LED lights at 100 percent — day or night, rain or shine.
If you’re an old-school hiker and think “I’ll never use these gadgets,” you have to consider the technology you already use. LED headlamps, propane gas stoves and the compass were all cutting-edge technology at one point. The items above are no different. The key is to use them to enhance your experience, not hinder it. That way the backcountry will always be pure and free from civilization.
