The PathAway Tips are an extension to the User Manuals to assist you in executing on many of the Advanced features of PathAway and to enhance your experience with using PathAway.
Quick demo of PathAway showing how to get started and highlights of some key features. This demo takes a tour of creating a new route, navigating the route with track recording, and adding points
Here's a quick video of Scott Northmore, creator of PathAway, discussing his experience with managing battery power while using PathAway in the wilderness.
Recently, we went on our backcountry canoe trip in Killarney Provincial Park, here in Ontario Canada.
So my plan was to navigate the trip with PathAway, and I needed a solution to keep my phone charged for 5 days.
I have in the past tried different methods such as bringing extra batteries and portable chargers. They work temporarily but once all the batteries are spent, then you’re done.So the next step was to look into solar charging options. My first try was with this small solar charger that charges a set of double AAs. Unfortunately, I never was able to get much of a charge out of it.
Then, my brother put me on to this solar charger which is the 7.5 watt solar charger by Coleman. This one worked quite well for us. Here it is. Simply unfold it, and it has 2 large solar panels. This took approximately 3 hours to fully charge my Samsung S4, sometimes longer when there was less sun.
The only issue is, you’ve got to have it sitting there, facing the sun for many hours in the middle of the day. Although, you could get clever and hook it to a backpack if you were hiking in the sun!
So, what I think I will do in the future, is I’ll get a rechargeable battery pack, and charge it with with the coleman solar charger during the day. Then, at the end of the day, I’ll charge my device overnight with the battery pack, so its fresh and ready to go in the morning. Next day, you’re good to go.
Thats all for now. I hope you’ve found this helpful. Feel free to share your own backcountry power solutions.