Neat gadgets for outdoors

[TarjaS]

Show off the sort of neat gadgets you're using outdoors that would be the first to stop working in the game's scenario.

I've been using the GPS functions in my mobile phone and PS Vita, but recently I got Garmin Edge 200 to track my cycling/walking routes. It is the most affordable Garmin model at the moment and it records time, distance, speed (average and maximum), elevation, etc. When you upload the data to the Garmin Connect site, you can also see your route on a map or a satellite photo. You can read my review of the device in my blog in two parts: part 1 and part 2.

[thrasher1016]

Something that the Anomaly would kill? Oh man, the whole idea and philosophy behind my outdoor gear, survival packs, bug-out bags, etc. is that it's all either "manual" (impervious to EMP-type attacks), or hardened against such an event....

For me that would just be my phone or my Rec Truck, or as the wife calls it, the "Wreck Truck"... Old Land Cruiser stripped and built for survival and wilderness expeditions... looks like a pile of junk but runs like a train through a picket fence!

I use my phone for pictures and such while I'm in the outdoors, but even mountain biking (where I live now), I have my trails memorized, so I don't even need a map, though I carry a paper one of each trailhead I frequent in m Camelbak.

Thanks - T

[logang]

I guess my GPS and my Cell phone would be the only items I use in the outdoors that would stop working, well and of course my truck.

[robdoar]

I try to run pretty low tech, but when running Search and Rescue, this thing rocks.

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[TarjaS]

@robdoar, I've read and seen videos about flashlights and radios that get power by using a hand crank and also recharging mobile phones that way, but this was something totally new. It always amazes me to see people who are off grid using mobile phones, but it's thanks to these inventions.

@Thrasher1016, after 7 years of living in this town, I'm fairly familiar with the area around it and I have regular routes, which I can remember, but I also like to try new ones and it's nice to be able to see the distances. GPS is especially good for measuring walking distances, because the meters that calculate number of steps aren't reliable.