Trek Dirty to Me: 47 days until it's to infinity and beyond (okay...north Georgia), and I'm thinking about staying connected.

First of all, I’m going to send you over to The Verge, who expertly and succinctly broke down the options for GPS devices. Now that you are caught up (or maybe you are just going to wing the rest of this post), I will say that I am mostly settled on purchasing and carrying the Garmin inReach Mini GPS tracker and communicator. It ways just 3.5oz and will pair up with my iPhone Pro to handle anything requiring typing or viewing important information.

Of course this expensive and mostly singular-use device can summon the weather when I am out of cell reception in the dead zones of the Appalachian Trail, but the real value of this tiny device is the peace of mind it can give to friends and family back home and the ability for them to contact me if absolutely necessary, where AT&T can’t find me.

The Mini will allow me to receive and send text messages (which is pretty amazing) from almost anywhere in the world that has a clear view of the sky. It also has a dedicated SOS button which will call in a local extraction team (I guess…?) for me or somebody else whom I find that needs help. So this will be useful beyond the AT and on future trails that are considerably more remote and dangerous.

To be honest, I’m not worried about myself. I’m not concerned about being able to get to safety or to survive in dire circumstances if necessary. I’m also not worried about sending a text from the middle of nowhere, when I know I can get some service sooner rather than later on the fairly social and community-driven AT.

I do, however, want my family, friends and team to know that I am okay if I am off the grid for a minute. If pressing questions or concerns arise that need an immediate response, it will come in handy. Especially considering I will have resupply boxes to coordinate and folks all over the US (and world) helping me keep this site and this project up and running with content for you.

I also need to know if big things happen that will need my immediate action. If I need to hike out and hop a plane back home, I want to know immediately and not 24 hours later. The inReach will give me that peace of mind as well. And, as indestructible as I think I am, it could end up coming handy for me in a pinch. I’m not too proud to admit that.

-AJ

Staying connected for the fam.

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