Hi there,

I'd like to explore two ideas today:

That technology is a barrier to your enjoyment of wilderness.

and

That technology enhances your enjoyment of wilderness.

•

When I started backpacking, technology played no role in my wilderness experience.

The only high-tech item I carried into the backcountry was a battery-powered flashlight.

When I was 11 years old, as a Tenderfoot Scout, one of our Troop's electrical-engineer-adult-leaders helped us make our own headlamps out of plastic battery holders and incandescent bulb reflectors and wires. They were powered by two "D"-cell batteries.

If you don't know what a "D"-cell battery is, then you may have missed the boom box era. I suppose that pigeonholes me into a stereotype you've created for some of your parents.

At any rate, my homemade headlamp was pretty rad. It also weighed - get this - less than a pound! (12 ounces actually).

A full 10 ounces were just the batteries.

One could argue that I made my own 2-oz (sans batteries) headlamp more than forty years ago.

The headlamp I use today is also about 2 ounces without batteries. 🤔

•

The point of this story is that I had a grand old time in the wilderness with nothing more technical than that headlamp.

I used paper maps and a finicky 1970s-vintage compass with an air bubble big enough to be hypnotic as it bobbed back and forth in my quest to level the darn thing.

I couldn't talk to anyone "back home" when I was in the backcountry. No cell phones, no satellite messengers.

I don't really remember my mom or dad or grandma being "worried sick" about me. I think they just kind of shrugged their shoulders and hoped I was having a good time out there.

•

This evening I'm staring at a desktop cluttered with tech.

A GPS watch that can track my heart rate, geographical position, and walking speed. When I upload its data to a web app in The Cloud, I get feedback about my training stress, and it tells me how hard I should train tomorrow.

There's an eBook reader, which I like when it's sunny, because the screen is crisp and natural. But usually, when it's sunny, I'm walking, not reading. I read at night. And the eBook reader's screen is bright and glowy and unnatural and I don't like that when I'm trying to experience nature.

A smartphone that houses my navigation app, which I can use in either its desktop or mobile device form for planning, navigation, and tracking.

And a little tiny thing called a satellite messenger, and its app.

The unvalue of the satellite messenger is that I can post a public track to The Cloud, provide updates to those who follow me, and let them know how fast (or slow) I'm traveling and what the mosquitoes and alpine lake trout fishing and sunsets are like. They can ❤️ my updates, and the hearts get sent back to me at my campsite! It's like my own little social network, with all the associated risks of addiction and narcissism and detachment.

Except this time, I'm becoming detached from the very thing I seek - an experience in nature.

•

And then - OMG - the cables and portable power bank(s) required to keep all of this stuff charged on a long trip.

•

On one trip, I packed more than nine pounds of technology into the backcountry.

A watch, phone, a rented sat modem, headlight, camera, lenses, extra batteries, cables, a power bank.

That was the tipping point.

•

Today, I still use technology but my practices are simpler.

I don't run all apps and all tech at the same time. This saves battery life, mental capacity, and distractions.

When tech gets out of the way, I can happily get lost in a place like this ☝️. Bighorn Range, Wyoming.

As part of this strategy, I keep two things running all the time:
 

• My watch, for tracking my route. I rarely interact with my watch while its tracking. I start tracking in the morning, stop it when I get to camp, and forget about it in between.
• And my satellite messenger, for sending tracking points to my family back home and monitoring incoming messages from Stephanie.

My phone generally stays off throughout the day unless I need to send a message (which I rarely do while hiking) or I need to consult digital maps on the Gaia GPS app on off-trail routes. I still like a small paper map and a real camera. There's tactile satisfaction at using a paper map and a camera for photography rather than using a smartphone.

And this brings me to the main point of today's letter - why I choose to use a Garmin inReach Mini 2 vs. a sat-connected brick like the Zoleo or BivyStick.

The inReach Mini 2 provides so much functionality packed into its tiny housing that other devices don't offer if they aren't paired to a smartphone:
 

• I can mark waypoints.
• I can send a wider variety of both quick text and preset messages.
• I can monitor and read incoming messages.
• I can use its digital compass.
• I can request and read incoming weather updates.
• I can use GPS features and correlate locations to my map.
• I can monitor and view my track and/or TracBack.

The bottom line is this: the inReach Mini 2 is not only the smallest and lightest satellite communicator available, it's also the most capable device in standalone mode without a smartphone.

I'm generally technology-agnostic. I grew up with tech, can figure it out well enough, and am not intimidated by quirky limitations of specific devices (and believe me, they all have their quirks).

So when I choose a device, I do so with the motivation of ensuring that the tech doesn't get in the way of my experience with nature.

Keeping my smartphone off as much as possible while I'm hiking has a lot to do with that. I use the phone so much when I'm not hiking, that when I'm out in nature, I really enjoy the break from pinching, swiping, and tapping.

I've owned the new inReach Mini 2 for several months now, and can enthusiastically say that it was worth the upgrade from the inReach Mini 1.

It has a much better menu system, higher-resolution screen, longer battery life, and faster message sending and GPS fixing. This means that I'm using the Mini 2 more as a standalone device than I did with the Mini 1. And that means less phone time in the backcountry.

Learn more about how to use the inReach Mini 2 for messaging, tracking, and navigation in my newest updates to the How to Use the Garmin inReach Masterclass.

I just completed the updates this week, and have included some additional documentation about the inReach Mini 2 menu structure, because even Garmin's support documentation is inaccurate 🙄.