Your one luxury item.....

[sidvicious]

I agree. And when I'm in the woods, I'm not escaping my phone. Actually, I use my phone to escape being caught off guard - having a quick weather and radar update now and then is worth a million bucks.

i solo A LOT. basically every weekend for at least a night. i watch sports, movies, and do tons of reading on my phone. in addition to pleasure reading, i can nail a lot of work reading that i couldn't do during the week. kids, family, and friends also like to keep tabs of my "adventures".

my phone and extra power is the most important part of my kit other than the sleeping gear. its no longer a "luxury".

sv-

[NWNomad]

I agree. And when I'm in the woods, I'm not escaping my phone. Actually, I use my phone to escape being caught off guard - having a quick weather and radar update now and then is worth a million bucks.

Which weather app do you use? I can't seem to find one that's reliable with weather updates.

[BackpackingDude]

My phone (it's a camera and e-reader), Anker battery pack, camp pillow, 96 fl oz Nalgene Canteen... AND an extra set of clothes to change into every night. My hiking buddies make fun of me for taking a totally separate set of clothes (stowed in my sleeping bag stuff sack) just to sleep in... but hey - i'm no UL, and it's nice to go to bed at least in cleaner clothes .

[hanginyaker]

A pillow under my knees

[OneClick]

Which weather app do you use? I can't seem to find one that's reliable with weather updates.

Sorry if this gets too technical...

I have Weather Channel and Accuweather apps, but don't rely on them on the trail. Sometimes there isn't a good enough signal to pull all the data. Don't use them, because they have to load all of your saved cities, stupid links to videos, background photos, news headlines, and all the junk in the background. If you're just barely getting 3G, and 1x, it can be nearly impossible to load that stuff. Apps will time out or give you an error much sooner than a standard web browser, so here's the best thing to do:

I have about 6 different cities saved in my favorites for the places I frequent from the National Weather Service. Use their pinpoint forecast on a web browser (Safari on iPhone) to select your area, then save that as a bookmark.

For example, I may have:

NWS - Grayling, MI
NWS - Alpena, MI
NWS - Deam (name of wilderness area since no towns are close)
etc.

One-click access to wherever I'm at.


Then, load a radar in your browser. I like to use Accuweather.com since they have a basic and high-resolution radar. Copy the actual link of the animated .gif instead of the entire page! This way you're loading about 200kb of data instead of 5 times that amount with an entire web page. This is where the weak signal comes in. Even on 1x or when you think you're completely out of cell service, you can walk around and squeeze out the 200kb radar image in a pinch.

So my favorites will look something like this:

Radar - N. Michigan
Doppler- N. Michigan

And they'll load like this:



You can see the higher detail on the second radar. This is handy since the standard radar will pick up a lot of precip that's not actually hitting the ground. But it's still nice to have since it will show a much larger area of precip approaching from a further distance (an entire state or two away).

I'm not sure they want people "hotlinking" directly to these images...so I could be shooting myself in the foot here. Hopefully they never do anything to prevent it, because it saved my butt several times. Should I go kayaking or stay in camp? "50% chance of thunderstorms" means jack squat to me...exactly how close is the rain right now? It just allows you to make better use of your time in the woods.

Lots of people would say "I'm out there enjoying it no matter what...weather will do what it will do and I'm prepared" Yes, that's fine. So do I. But if you can gain an edge and prepare even better with one click, why not?

[OgtheKing]

I've really come to enjoy the camp stool, on a rainy trip the combo of the rain kilt and umbrella are at the top of my list.

[sidvicious]

I've really come to enjoy the camp stool, on a rainy trip the combo of the rain kilt and umbrella are at the top of my list.

yep. indeed. this is a must for me. i take it every trip. can't recall the brand but it's the fold-up canvas-mesh type. handy as a thumb.

[OgtheKing]

yep. indeed. this is a must for me. i take it every trip. can't recall the brand but it's the fold-up canvas-mesh type. handy as a thumb.

I agree, it goes up quick and it's really nice to have a place to rest that's not wet or has sharp edges. I carried it on my trip back in the summer to Colorado, everyone on that trip was laughing at me for bringing a stool but by the end of the trip they all wanted to know where I had go it. :-)

[NWNomad]

Lots of people would say "I'm out there enjoying it no matter what...weather will do what it will do and I'm prepared" Yes, that's fine. So do I. But if you can gain an edge and prepare even better with one click, why not?

Great post. I stopped using weather apps because they are so cluttered. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

[sidvicious]

Great post. I stopped using weather apps because they are so cluttered. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

the weather channel app works fine for me. tells me everything i want and need, plus easily accessible radar. it's all on one page.

in addition to temp and forecast

humidity & dew point [my two biggies]
wind and direction

and the maps. it's all there an very easy.