That $180 GPS watch I bought was a complete waste on the Appalachian Trail

I dropped $180 on a fancy GPS watch before my thru-hike of the AT last summer, thinking it would save me from getting lost. Turns out, the battery died after 8 hours every single day, so by 3 PM I was just carrying a useless brick on my wrist. I ended up relying on my phone (which I kept charged with a power bank) and paper maps from a ranger station near Harpers Ferry. The watch couldn't even handle dense tree cover for accurate tracking, which is half the reason I bought it. Anyone else have a pricey gadget that flopped on a long route?

3 comments

3 Comments

milam481mo ago

Feel your pain, same thing happened to me with a cheap altimeter watch that died halfway up Katahdin.

hannah4001mo ago

and I straight up gasped when I read that @milam48 because Katahdin is no joke, that climb is brutal even with working gear. you must have been so ticked off when that thing gave out, like seriously what a time to fail. i had a cheap compass once that got foggy right when i needed it most, and i just stood there feeling totally lost and stupid. people don't realize how much you rely on those little gadgets until they break and you're stuck. glad you made it down okay though, at least you didn't end up needing a rescue over a dead watch.

joel_jones1mo agoMost Upvoted

Katahdin’s not that bad if you stay on trail and don’t rely on a watch. A map and a little common sense would’ve kept you both fine.