Technology and Hiking

Remix said:

Is there an app that can identify a tree species by taking a picture of the bark or the leaves? Or how about plants and shrubs. Or possibly identify bird species by call? It would be so much easier than carrying books.

I don't know a better way to learn map and compass by actually using them to identify your position, and then checking the results on a GPS.

Technology can be empowering...

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I've been really enjoying the varied replies on this thread. First to respond to this post - Google Goggles had promised to add the ability to ID plants, flowers and trees from images a while ago. Not there yet but hopefully coming soon. In the meantime, the Audubon apps for this (as well as birds, insect, butterflies, mammals, etc.) are awesome!

So, I have to confirm that I'm a geek and love technology. It's my job and it's my life. Hiking, paddling and otherwise being in nature is my semi-escape, but that's the best it gets. I carry a GPS, smartphone and digital camera (with GPS) when I hike. I try to make the use of them as unobtrusive as possible while I'm out there and forget that I'm using them and focus on where I am, but there results are clearly limited. Being able to bring back my hikes as GPS tracks and photos to share and being able to communicate (briefly) from a summit are valuable to me. Being disconnected by about 90% from my typical day to day experience also is. Technology is here to stay and is becoming a more and more unavoidable part of every minute of our lives. Learning to manage it and use it to best advantage (and occasionally turn it off or ignore it) is about the best that I think we can hope to achieve.

mtruman said:

I've been really enjoying the varied replies on this thread. First to respond to this post - Google Goggles had promised to add the ability to ID plants, flowers and trees from images a while ago. Not there yet but hopefully coming soon. In the meantime, the Audubon apps for this (as well as birds, insect, butterflies, mammals, etc.) are awesome!

So, I have to confirm that I'm a geek and love technology. It's my job and it's my life. Hiking, paddling and otherwise being in nature is my semi-escape, but that's the best it gets. I carry a GPS, smartphone and digital camera (with GPS) when I hike. I try to make the use of them as unobtrusive as possible while I'm out there and forget that I'm using them and focus on where I am, but there results are clearly limited. Being able to bring back my hikes as GPS tracks and photos to share and being able to communicate (briefly) from a summit are valuable to me. Being disconnected by about 90% from my typical day to day experience also is. Technology is here to stay and is becoming a more and more unavoidable part of every minute of our lives. Learning to manage it and use it to best advantage (and occasionally turn it off or ignore it) is about the best that I think we can hope to achieve.

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I'm with you, Mark. I find that, so long as one is unobtrusive towards others in one's use of such technology out in the woods and hills, then it adds to the experience.

I have limited backpacking and camping experience, but I guess I've been fortunate with it so far. Have yet, at a campsite, to run across anyone making imposing use of tech at camp. Indeed, the night of July 6-7 at Beaver Brook, I was the only one to get a call, that I know of, while I was in camp. It was from a client with boundary issues - fortunately my phone was on silent, as usual, and I spiked it rather than take it. As a group, we pretty well all got our phone/cams out for the particularly lovely sunrise the Whites treated us to. It was a one hour light show, and we all enjoyed taking it in and getting a few pics to share. Turned out to be the best views we got for the day, as after rising the sun went above the cloud bank at around 7000', the light level and views on ground diminished pronouncedly.

Anyhow, I enjoy tech and make a point not to impose that enjoyment on others I meet out and about. It seems to work ok.

Remix said:

Is there an app that can identify a tree species by taking a picture of the bark or the leaves? Or how about plants and shrubs. Or possibly identify bird species by call? It would be so much easier than carrying books.

I don't know a better way to learn map and compass by actually using them to identify your position, and then checking the results on a GPS.

Technology can be empowering...

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There is such an app. It allows one to identify a tree species but takes the entire process of learning out of the equation and IMO, in the long run is not nearly as advantageous as learning the process of using a dichotomous tree. As educators will tell you, the quality is not in the answer, but in the process. Technology can be a boon however, it is often simply a crutch. If i take away the crutch, can you still walk?

Edit: the app is called Leafsnap

GPS track logs are quite useful for supporting FKTs. They identify the route and the time. It all depends on why you are out there

Tim

Being able to identify plants, birds or stars & satellites are all kind of neat. Was recently at Greenleaf & was there back in 1998. This time my wife wasn't there but she really enojed it when I sent her pictures of the log pages from the old book that she & some of students had written on. She called her nephew back in 1998 for his birthday back in 1998 & I remember rolling my eyes at the idea of her needing to call him.

Fast forward to today & the hut once seems even more of a social gathering place than before. It's a haven of civilization even if you have pit toilets.

I'm getting better with seeing other people with tech, afterall, a good smartphone is a GPS, phone, map & pretty good camera, especially if the image is only going to be on a 5 - 9 inch screen & more of a storyteller than a piece of art blowned up to poster sized or bigger. Not sure I want to you anyone talking loudly on a device while out in the woods or high on the Bonds, Katahdin or Haystack but if they were if they were shouting to their friend next to them , the noise level would be the same. It probably shouldn't feel different to me if they are loud either way. (of course a group of four could all be carrying conversations on phones instead of to each other too)

I have a good friend who used to go hiking with me quite a lot, but in recent years he tends to assure me he'll go on trip but usually bails at the last minute. If I have my cellphone on a solo trip, I sometimes call him from my campsite just to razz him... "Hey Doug, just called to tell you that I'm sitting in my sleeping bag in the woods and you're not!"

Kevin Rooney said:

As has been pointed out - there's always have been changes/introductions in clothing/hardware/electronic devices, etc, and there always will be. And there's always a segment of the population who express a variation of "If God wanted to fly I'd been born with wings". (And to that I want to say "If God intended me to wear clothes ...").

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Ha!

Also, I really appreciate you making the distinction between 'technology' and 'electronics'. Everyone falls somewhere between hiking buck naked and using cutting edge electronics/materials/supplies/etc.. I would wager that the technological improvements made have made hiking both safer and more accessible.

If you are out to 'escape' from civilization (which is a personal reason the likely has many motivations), then I think there are enough places where one can go to find solace in the woods free of technology - of any kind. I don't plan on finding solace in a hut or a shelter.

TJsName said:

I don't plan on finding solace in a hut or a shelter.

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I agree with this. I think the huts are beautiful, unique places and am happy they exist. That doesn't change the fact that I get claustrophobic when I get too close to them after spending solo time hiking - they are anything but solitary (in the summer).

I am also glad someone else has pointed out that electronic devices are only one kind of technology. Technology is not new and Apple did not invent it.

Ultimately, technology exists to make people's lives easier (as long as there is also an economic driving force). Some will choose to use it, some not. Elevators, for example, make it substantially easier to get to the top of a tall builiding. Many people skip that technology for the multiple benefits (health, economic, environmental) of not using it.

I think technology on the trail is very similar to pets on the trail. If you can have yours in a way that does not negatively impact the experiences of others or the environment, then go for it.

For the record, I have very rarely ever been bothered by someone else's use of electronics (in particular) on the trail.

In the first sentence of the referenced article, the author clearly refers to digital technology. Just sayin'.

ON MOUNT MONADNOCK, N.H. — At first glance, Rhode Island surgeon Keith Baldwin doesn’t even realize how much digital technology has changed his experience hiking in wilderness areas over the last 15 years.

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Stinkyfeet said:

In the first sentence of the referenced article, the author clearly refers to digital technology. Just sayin'.

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If I calculate my calorie consumption and glycogen reserves, distances, elevations gains, heart rate as a function of feet of elevation gain per minute and a host of other factors on an ultra-lite titanium abacus then I am eschewing digital technology, right?

Say a hard-core Luddite only checks the weather forecast in the newspaper. If that forecast is dependent upon high power, state of the art digital technology is that Luddite's hike digitally supported?

Stinkyfeet said:

In the first sentence of the referenced article, the author clearly refers to digital technology. Just sayin'.

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Good point. As is often the case, our conversation has expanded beyond the scope of the article. I think that's a good thing.

Neil said:

If I calculate my calorie consumption and glycogen reserves, distances, elevations gains, heart rate as a function of feet of elevation gain per minute and a host of other factors on an ultra-lite titanium abacus then I am eschewing digital technology, right?

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I would say that you have a lot of time on your hands.

And it depends on what your definition of "is" is. Heh, heh...

Of course it can be taken to the nth degree.

If your mother's doctor used ultrasound to make sure your were going to grow into a beautiful, healthy baby, does that mean digital technology was used in your preparation for your hikes as an adult?

When I thruhiked, it was two years before Kirchofer in the article and my experience was similar. We used prepaid calling cards at pay phones in town about once every 4-7 days, used libraries or hostels to access internet for emails, and used trail registers to send messages and keep track of other thru-hikers. Change happens, and now texting will provide these answers in a moment's notice, but there is something nostalgic and unique about the trail registers as a communication tool that is a shame to see fall by the wayside.

I used the internet extensively to research the trail in 1999 and kept a journal on Wingfoot's site when it was up and running, but these were written by hand and mailed to my sister who scribed for me.

BTW, the two hikers on Monadnock are proudly sporting their denim technology.

Oh well, HYOH. Digital technology is no different than any other tool for the trail. If it's worth the weight to you, carry it. My cell phone almost always stays in my car. The 10 essentials (at least according to HikeSafe guidelines) are nearly always with me. I have a Dumbphone. Pictures are lousy and I can't send texts from many locations due to lack of service. It's really not that reliable for me, so not worth carrying IMO.

More importantly, has someone developed a trail air conditioner to combat the heat wave?

Raven said:

More importantly, has someone developed a trail air conditioner to combat the heat wave?

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Yes, with an optional insect repeller.

Tim

We used some of these on Prince Edward Island when they had their record breaking temperatures and they actually worked quite well.

Fill with DEET for anti-bug use.

Neil said:

If I calculate my calorie consumption and glycogen reserves, distances, elevations gains, heart rate as a function of feet of elevation gain per minute and a host of other factors on an ultra-lite titanium abacus then I am eschewing digital technology, right?

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Nope, the abacus is generally considered the original digital computer...

Raven said:

Oh well, HYOH. Digital technology is no different than any other tool for the trail. If it's worth the weight to you, carry it. My cell phone almost always stays in my car. The 10 essentials (at least according to HikeSafe guidelines) are nearly always with me. I have a Dumbphone. Pictures are lousy and I can't send texts from many locations due to lack of service. It's really not that reliable for me, so not worth carrying IMO.

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Well put (along with the bit about not unreasonably negatively affecting other people). FWIW, I bring my smart phone ~50% of the time. It's mostly for pictures, but I did discover I had 4G reception at Lakes of the Clouds a couple weeks ago (Verizon). This technology has made it much easier to coordinate even while on the mountain as I was meeting up with some friends that were doing a presi traverse, so for that trip it was a useful tool. Of course, the technology in my boots, poles, clothing, and pack probably played a bigger roll in making the day enjoyable.

Just want to note that flashlights and headlamps use electronic technology. The power switches are digital so one could claim that even simple incandescent lights use digital electronic technology.

The intensity controllers in LED lights are digital--they use pulse-width modulation (a digital technique) to control the intensity. (When run at less than full intensity, they are turned full on and full off rapidly--the fraction of the on time determines the intensity.)

Furthermore, LEDs are quantum mechanical devices... (As are the transistors in your digital cameras and cellphones.)


I don't know if the traditionalists made a fuss when flashlights replaced candle lanterns but I certainly don't recall a fuss when LEDs replaced incandescent bulbs.

BTW, lights also use batteries which can become discharged. (A charge often thrown at GPSes... The fixes are the same: use sparingly and carry extra batteries.)

In other words, "Yawn!". (Much fuss about very little.)


It isn't the technology that counts, it's what it does to the hiking experience. A cellphone is just a communications device--you can save it for emergencies or spend the entire trip yacking on it and a GPS is just a navigation device that is easier to use and more accurate than prior methods.

In contrast, consider an escalator, chair lift, gondola, train, or road to the top of your favorite peak. None are high tech, but riding up is a very different experience from hiking or [technical] climbing up.

Doug

This op-ed in Sunday's New York Times acknowledges that all cultures rely on the science of the time to navigate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/opinion/sunday/losing-our-way-in-the-world.html

But the author also points out the importance of multiple points of reference in determining your location.

I still feel that using a GPS during bushwhacks is cheating.

Raven said:

Edit: the app is called Leafsnap

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Is this iphone-only? I can't seem to find an android app like this.