Tracking us on the trail

Here is a map that will be updated just about every day with our location while we're hiking!

https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=7a5552165abb6e872

We carry a SPOT with us on the trail. It's a GPS gadget that, most importantly, can contact search and rescue with your current location in the case of an emergency. If we ever had a serious accident, and couldn't walk out under our own power, we could press the button and wait for a rescue. We carry it partly for safety, and partly to make our mothers less nervous when we're out in the wilderness.

Our SPOT - it only weighs about 4oz!

Besides calling for help, you can also use it to periodically "check in" with your location. This allows friends and family to follow along with your progress from home, which is pretty neat. We generally check in when we wake up in the morning, when we get to camp in the evening, and if we reach a particularly notable place (like a mountain peak).

Well, most notable places. Somehow, when we were hiking the John Muir Trail, we forgot to check in at the top of Mt. Whitney, which is the end of the 211 mile trail, and the tallest peak in the continental US. At least we have pictures to prove we made it up.

The Payday distracted us, and we forgot to check in at the top of Mt. Whitney

The SPOT also has a real time tracking mode that will automatically check in every 10 minutes.  We don't use this though - it costs more, and it kills the battery in a few days, as opposed to a few months with just check ins. Batteries are heavy.

On past trips, we had the SPOT set up to email our locations to a google group. Anyone who cared could subscribe to the group, and follow along. The problem with this was that it wasn't particularly usable - the emails included a link to a google map, but they only showed a single point at once, so you couldn't really see our progress over time.

The SPOT website itself will map your trips now, but it only saves the last 7 days, which is slightly too short for our trip. Luckily, I found an alternative - SpotWalla. It will save our entire trip history, and as a bonus, it is easy to embed maps in blog posts, so I'll be able to include them in our updates for reference!  Here's someone else's trip as an example:

So, you can use it to track our progress here: https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=7a5552165abb6e872. You could also use it to plan a trip to NZ, figure out exactly where we'll be when you get there, and surprise us on the trail with bacon cheeseburgers and a portable shower. Totally up to you.