High-tech to get you home - Part 1

Story & photos by Budd Stanley, additional photo by Garmin

Gizmos and gadgets that help keep you safe on the trail

It is absolutely incredible what technology is capable of achieving these days. We found some cool technologies to help us go farther with confidence and stay safe.

DeLorme inReach Explorer GPS Personal Locator Beacon

Having a dedicated GPS signal to keep you on track is a fantastic luxury, but what happens when the unplanned happens? What happens when the truck rolls off an off camber track and down a hill? Or perhaps some inclement weather moves in, trapping you up in the mountains. Or worse, you fall and break a leg deep in the backcountry while on a solo trek, what do you do then?

The inReach Explorer uses GPS satellites to do several functions, connecting you from the backcountry to civilization. It works as a GPS mapping device - tracking, plotting and waypointing routes. Beyond mapping, this is an excellent communication tool, allowing you to text or email contacts. Communicate with preprogrammed contacts using preprogrammed messages to keep everything short and sweet with the push of a button, or you have the option of creating custom messages to new contacts on the go. The inReach is a two-way communicator, so contacts are able to reply. Users can also check in or track progress on social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Most important however is the SOS function. When life decides to make you its bitch, all that is required is to unlock the SOS button then press SOS. Once the SOS has been triggered, the signal goes to GEOS, a 24/7 emergency monitoring service. They will dispatch Search and Rescue to the coordinates of the inReach as well as communicate back to you to confirm the SOS and assess the situation.

In today’s tech junkie world, the device itself is fairly old school, it has a small screen, big antenna and few buttons, which means you must relearn the days of pre smartphone texting. Thankfully, there is an app for that, yup - cue up the iPad, its going to make itself useful once again as all the inReach functions can be operated on a modern touch screen when connected via Bluetooth.

The inReach is a bit pricey and requires a service plan that can range from $11.95 to $99.95 per month. But for the peace of mind it provides the avid adventurer and their friends and family, the upfront cost is well worth the investment.

Part Number: NA - Price: $379.95    www.inreachdelorme.com

Garmin GLO GPS Receiver

Todays GPS maps for electronic devices such as phones and tablets have come a long way in the last half-decade . Tablets like my iPad Air 2 come with GPS built in, however not all devices have this feature.

Not to worry, Garmin know a little something about GPS connectivity and have designed the GLO to be a smart phone or tablets best friend once you go off the grid. If you’re using a mapping app on a phone, tablet or laptop that doesn’t have GPS, the Garmin GLO will allow that app to see exactly where you are, no matter how far away from civilization you might be.

This little receiver connects to both GPS and GLONASS satellites and then sends position information via a Bluetooth connection to either a smart phone, tablet or laptop computer. As long as it can see the sky, it will tell your mapping program everything you need to know.

The GLO has provided us with an accurate signal for about three months now. Its compact size and light weight allows it to be easily tossed into a day pack and stays out of the way when placed up on the dash during use. The battery is good for 12 hours, something we’ve proven on a fairly long expedition that took us well into the night.

Unfortunately, Garmin do not supply any kind of lock down mount, only an anti-slip pad (so it likes to go shooting across the dash on rough terrain), and there is no weatherproofing. We connected ours to a GoPro mount keeping it dry and stable in the windshield.

Part Number: 010-01055-15 - Price: $129.99    www.garmin.ca

Outdoor Tech Kodiak Plus Portable Power Bank

While all these cool gadgets provide today’s off-roader with an incredible amount of easy information and peace of mind, they all come with two rather annoying drawback s. One, you now have a massive collection of wires that you must now keep track of and store accordingly. Two, all these battery powered devices are at some point in time going to run out of power. If you find yourself well off the grid and hours from home, all the modern conveniences of these magical devices is all for not if they don’t have any power.

Thankfully, Outdoor Tech has just the answer for the second – and most important – of these issues. Outdoor Tech produce a collection of portable power packs specifically designed to keep all your battery powered devices alive and well when a 120v wall socket is impossible to get to.

With the large collection of devices we were testing, Outdoor Tech sent us their most powerful charger, the Kodiak Plus, to keep all our powering needs topped up off the grid. What you get is a lithium-polymer battery pack that only weighs 301 grams, can fit in your pocket and will pump out 10,000 mAh worth of electricity. The Kodiak Plus quite handily charged my iPhone4 five times plus another 16%, and it charged my iPad Air2 once from dead plus another 22%. That outperforms Outdoor Tech’s own published specifications.

At the business end of the Kodiak you will find a 1A USB port as well as a 2.4A high-speed USB port for charging tablets. This is also where the power button and LED readout is located. Four LED lights tell you how much power is left in the Kodiak, lit up pushing the power button. Even with the cover closed, you can still operate the power button and the LEDs will shine through so you can keep the charge ports clear of water or debris in inclement weather.

Portable power is a must in the backcountry, but if the battery pack can’t take a hit, it is of no use to me. The Kodiak Plus comes wrapped with a shock resistant silicone casing that comes with an IP67 rating for dust and waterproofing. In English, that means you can submerge the Kodiak Plus a metre under water for up to half an hour with no ill effects. Easy enough for Outdoor Tech to claim, but we put them to the test.

Shock resistance; we wound up and tossed the Kodiak down a forest service road five or six times. The silicone case soaked up the shock with no damage found under the skin. The skin itself held up well with no chipping and only a minor little scrape from hitting a large rock.

Water proofing. We reluctantly tossed the Kodiak into a running creek and walked away to let it marinate for 20-minutes. When we pulled it out, we opened the access port cover to find everything to be dry inside and proceeded to charge an iPad from dead. It is imperative that you ensure a good seal around the cover. It is easy to forget to check behind the flap holding the cover to the main case, it’s an easy place to misjudge whether the seal is connected or not.

Overall, the Kodiak Plus was a fantastic piece of kit that now resides permanently in my pack.

Part Number: NA - Price: $98.00    www.outdoortechnology.com