Views on technology/electronics out in the backcou

Opinions on the increasing use of/reliance on technology? What do you guys use, what do you dissaprove of using? Personally I try to keep the electronics minimal and my reliance on them low, But I do tend to take my cellphone out (Emergency contact tool IF I can get signal. Not too reliable, but better than nothing) and tend to mainly run that as a GPS unit, plotting and logging position on some inbuilt topo maps, working out times, avg speeds etc. Very useful for quick navigation and that, when it works. I have a map and compass as backup, as GPS in the middle of nowhere isnt the most reliable of things, and Id rather not be reliant on something that has inherent reliability issues and a battery that can/will run out. Also carry a battery pack to charge the phone, and a pair of headphones so I can listen to music in the evening. (I have tinnitus and It can get up at night and prevent sleep, so some music can help there). Only other electronic device that I carry is my torch, and a few spare batteries for it.

I've found that if I don't use my map & compass skills, then they're not there when I need them. I don't mean the simple stuff - the 'which way is north', or 'work out where I am from bearings to known objects'. But that habit of knowing, at all times, exactly where you are on the map - knowing which vague knob on that winding bushclad ridgeline you are on, because you've been noting mentally / on a compass every twist & turn in the ridge. And thus knowing exactly what bearing you need to drop off said knob on to find the correct spur, saddle, etc.. A recent trip in the Uruweras brought this home to me. Was not impressed. Been carrying a gps for only 4 years, use it maybe twice a trip, maybe not at all - when things are confusing. But that ability to pull it out when navigation becomes challenging is all it took to lose years of hard learnt navigational savvy. Bloody thing's staying at the bottom of the pack from now on!

This is very true. I find being able to periodically check where I think I am with where the gps says I am has improved my ability to visualise the terrain and that a bit better, but I am sure to keep checking on a map and that as well. Its a safety net more than anything, and the data is useful at the end of a day for time estimates for the next etc. I might look at doing without it a bit more though. And yeah, Ive always been wary of places like the uruweras. Too easy to mentally lose track, and without something to set me right again quickly I would be in for a long while of taking bearings against nearby objects and working out where I am. Ridges and that can be tricky beasts, I have a good friend who swore he was on the right one, and everything else seemed right in relation to it, who ended up having to set up camp away from where he had intended to because he had gone down the wrong ridge. He figured out where he was in the end and made it back alright, but he (and I) am rather respectful of ridges And spurs now.

At Hamilton Hut saw that the TATers were all sitting around in the evening stroking on their ipads. Each to their own i spoze but kinda ruins the backcountry experience for me. Radio for a forcast, a spot of company or to drown out the snorers ... ok. But taking your computer/video player bush - thats taking the mickey. Mind you if theyd been on a real tramp rather than the extended stroll on prepared trails that is TAT i suspect the ipads would have died long ago. Probably at the first river they had to swim! They were walkin in flippin sandles too. And had only down jackets for warmth which were saturated-useless after just an afternoon of drizzle. Now where're those blood pressure pills ...

I like @madpom's way of thinking re nav and I also try hard to do that so I can have a decent awareness of where I actually am relative to map and surroundings, but knowing what I do about @madpom I'd imagine he's much better at it all than me. :) I bought an eTrex primarily for recording exactly where I've been (I enjoy looking at that kind of thing afterwards), and usually leave it switched on in the top of my pack. Other than that I aim to have a map and compass out and readily accessible. Compass stays tied into my front pocket, map's usually in a case around my neck, and I like to try and keep track where I am. I've been known to verify things from the GPS on occasion, though. The only reason I leave my phone switched on is because otherwise I can't lock the keypad. Nobody ever calls me, though.

Agreed. Madpom is dead onto it. I do try to limit the use of my phone and that. I use it minimally in normal life anyway, so it only gets used as a tool for alarms, gps and music to help me sleep if the tinnitus starts playing up as Im trying to sleep. And yeah, minimal tech is part of the joy I think. No offense, but madpom, do I sense a wee bit of scorn directed towards those on the TAT =p?

GPS's are becoming a joke, i saw someone walking with one in hand looking at it on the Kauri trail in the coromandel... thats a footpath, i dont think its possible to get lost there. heaven help them if their GPS failed on a real track...

@size12: yes and no. One one hand I have immense respect for the commitment and physical effort required to walk such a long trail. But as the trail has become developed in recent years, I have ceased to regard it as tramping. It falls much more into the international practice of trekking / hiking. The 'disengage brain and follow the little orange triangles' type of experience. Skills: For me, this negates at least one the fundamentals that makes tramping tramping. For me, that route-finding, map & compass skill is essential and one thing that makes tramping what it is. I'd not go as far as to say a tramp does not start until you leave the tracks - but if all you have to do is follow signposts it definately does not qualify. Its also about refining those skills. For a new tramper, finding that next orange triangle may be new and challenging. So they're learning and developing their skills. They're tramping. Likewise @size12 and his use of gps to allow him to check/refine his map&compass skills. But if you're walking on autopilot following triangles or an arrow on a screen, then you need to turn it off, get off the track, and challenge yourself. Mindset: Likewise the respect for the bush, and for other users is another fundamental feature of tramping. That concept of leave it as you find it, for example. If people leave fecaes and toilet paper scattered round a campsite then they're not a tramper - because the whole mindset is wrong. If they sit around a hut playing computer games, then they've also missed the point. So - TAT people are fine. And the TAT experience seems a valuable contribution to the network of international hiking trails. But if they view their experience there as typical of tramping, then they are a) wrong, and b) about to make some very dangerous decisions. Take Mr 900huts for example. His take, having walked TAT is that he can spend 900 days walking some of the most remote, untracked parts of NZ with nothing but one piece of electronic gadgetry to guide him. That, is a disaster not merely waiting to happen, but destined to happen. The conflicts and borderline xenophobia we see here are also part of taking that TAT/great walk mentality and going tramping with it.

Yeah, dead right. I agree with you totally there, and well put. To be honest, the TA misses a few places that I wanted to hit on the way. So Im going to do a few shorter tramps beforehand, and the north island route Ill be taking isnt quite following the TA route. Agreed, that it doesn't require as much navigational savvy as other trips would.

I normally bring my phone with me, its a great way to check the forecast and study the updated weather maps. It also allows me to give people a update of my location and intentions. waynowski, the guy you saw could have been looking for a geocache somewhere along the track, I do know they put caches in some weird place.