One of the considerations I've had when thinking about this is not being entirely certain if I'm going to have hiking buddies on these trips. Some of the people I've already told about this have expressed an interest in coming along sometimes, but I doubt I'll have someone with me all the time. And the survivalist in me has learned that going out all by yourself into the woods can have disastrous results (see Aron Ralston), compounded by the fact that nobody knows where you are or expects you back again within time enough to do anything about your disastrous circumstances.
Enter GPS beacons (for example, the SPOT models; thanks to Toby for the link). These are hand held devices about the size of a walkie talkie that communicate with satellites both to figure out where you are, and then to tell people about it. On the fun side, this should be cool for real-time tracking of where I am when I'm hiking; I can come home and look at the map from Google Earth and marvel at how my "herculean achievement" is really miniscule in the grand scheme of things.
On the safety side, if I ever get into trouble, I can hit the "911" button and hopefully somebody can find me and chase the bear away from the tree I'm in.
And you can integrate it all with Google Maps. Nifty :).
So, I may be getting myself one of these in the near future. Wonderful toys!
Is there some kind of ultrasonic pest repellant attachment for the bears, like the deer whistle on cars? Then you will spend less time in trees. You need to conserve your energy, after all!
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