Yes, we’re in the middle of a pandemic that has pretty much
locked everything down, but that shouldn’t stop you from planning your next
trip into the wilderness. I’m already plotting
a trip to southern Utah, even though I’m not sure when it will be. I’m fairly confident that as usual, it will be a
solo trip. And that brings up an
important point. I’m not as young as I
used to be, and while I’m still in reasonably good shape, I need to be prepared
for potential hazards.
When I’m out alone in the wilderness, I subscribe to the philosophy espoused by the author Edward Abbey: “accidents are forbidden.” But just to be on the safe side, I’ve added a new GPS receiver to my backpack: a Garmin GPSmap 66i with the InReach satellite messaging feature. As long as I have access to the sky, in an emergency I can send an SOS message that will scramble a search-and-rescue team anywhere in the world. And if I just want to text my wife to let her know I’m doing fine, I can do so pretty much as if I were texting on my cell phone. The neat thing about this is because it uses the Iridium satellite network to send the messages, I don’t have to be within the range of a cell phone service provider.
I’ve found my subscription to the inReach service to be affordable and well worth the cost. I use the Freedom Safety Plan, which allows me to only pay the monthly fee for the months I use it and suspend it for other months. The $15 monthly fee allows me to send unlimited SOS messages, up to 10 ordinary texts, and an unlimited number of preprogrammed texts to specific people. I won’t go through a full review of the inReach service here, I’ll only point out that if you spend much time in the wilderness away from cell phone coverage you should consider investing in something like this. There are several manufacturers of similar products and I don’t get commissions from any of them, so feel free to purchase whichever one best meets your needs.
