Bokerfork
Active Member
I love to explore but need some peace of mind.
I ride solo most of the time and often leave home with only a vague notion of where I'm going and/or the conditions I expect to run into. The other day I "researched" a road from Enterprise, Utah to Motoqua, Utah via Slaughter Creek. Looked very doable on Google Earth. Started out from Enterprise Reservoir heading for the aforementioned Slaughter Creek. Reached that easily enough and in fact passed the occasional ATV along the way. Feeling this was a well traveled road and not worrying about much of anything, I pressed on. Mind you, I had told the wife roughly where I was going and she knew from past experience approximately when I would return. With a full tank of gas and plenty of water I pressed on. My usual policy is to never go down anything I can't come back through.
All's well until I find myself going down a reasonably steep incline with unreasonably rough terrain. The incline suddenly increases as well as the crappiness of the terrain. No big deal going down but.... can I get back up this if I have to?
Cut to the chase, 2 hours later I arrive in Motoqua not much worse for the wear but having gone through several more incidences of "can I reverse course if I have to.
Most of this time was spent with zero cell coverage.
So, my question is this, Garmin In Reach with the ability to link to my smart phone for map coverage? Or, what other safety device would you recommend for the solo adventurerer/dumbass? I like the idea of Garmin being able to link to my larger screen phone for detail but not sure if anyone has first hand experience. I should add that I currently use a Garmin Marine GPS with local maps but find the screen too small for good detail.
Any help, preferrably with first hand experience would help. I'm not interested in just a GPS device as much as one with the SOS feature.
I ride solo most of the time and often leave home with only a vague notion of where I'm going and/or the conditions I expect to run into. The other day I "researched" a road from Enterprise, Utah to Motoqua, Utah via Slaughter Creek. Looked very doable on Google Earth. Started out from Enterprise Reservoir heading for the aforementioned Slaughter Creek. Reached that easily enough and in fact passed the occasional ATV along the way. Feeling this was a well traveled road and not worrying about much of anything, I pressed on. Mind you, I had told the wife roughly where I was going and she knew from past experience approximately when I would return. With a full tank of gas and plenty of water I pressed on. My usual policy is to never go down anything I can't come back through.
All's well until I find myself going down a reasonably steep incline with unreasonably rough terrain. The incline suddenly increases as well as the crappiness of the terrain. No big deal going down but.... can I get back up this if I have to?
Cut to the chase, 2 hours later I arrive in Motoqua not much worse for the wear but having gone through several more incidences of "can I reverse course if I have to.
Most of this time was spent with zero cell coverage.
So, my question is this, Garmin In Reach with the ability to link to my smart phone for map coverage? Or, what other safety device would you recommend for the solo adventurerer/dumbass? I like the idea of Garmin being able to link to my larger screen phone for detail but not sure if anyone has first hand experience. I should add that I currently use a Garmin Marine GPS with local maps but find the screen too small for good detail.
Any help, preferrably with first hand experience would help. I'm not interested in just a GPS device as much as one with the SOS feature.