solotripper wrote on Feb 19^th, 2019 at 7:07pm:

If you REALLY want to go " Lewis & Clark", then you make it OUT on your own or you don't make it at all.   Of course being married puts a added wrinkle into that thought process.  ;) ;D ;D I think I'd take a mauling by a bear over one by the better half. :'( ;D ;D

ST,

True wisdom, that last sentiment!

Also, I don't disagree with making it out on your own, IF at all possible.

Here's another consideration re: adopting certain technology up North & one I forgot to mention.  The "trouble" situation could get flipped around and the REAL issue could happen back home.  I've traveled with at least one person who had a close relative who was in precarious health.  He wanted to make himself available right away should anything happen.  It wasn't a "death bed" sort of thing but it could've gone there pretty quickly.  Fortunately, nothing happened back home and the satellite phone wasn't used for that purpose (or any other I can recall).

I happen to have a personal situation that is morphing into that sort of thing.  I hate to put the burden exclusively on my wife, back home, to have to deal with it.  Believe me, the possibility of two-way communication greatly influenced my decision to go with the I-Phone/Inreach Mini pairing.  I want to get home in a hurry if something happens.

Not sure what I would have done in "the old days" (pre-SPOTS, pre-satellite phones, etc.).  Didn't really have that situation going on then so I didn't really think about it.  The ONE time my wife got worried about something happening at home while I was away, she contacted my outfitter.  That happened to be your buddy, Dave, by the way.  Dave offered to help but, as it turned out, his help wasn't needed because I popped up shortly afterward & got home right away.  That was twenty plus years ago.

With health situations back home looming in the background, it's difficult NOT to adopt certain sensible technical applications.  Heck, it's tech that makes it possible for me to go into the park under those circumstances.  On the other hand, I fully understand how that tech might undermine the "wilderness" most of us are looking for, especially when it is abused &/or over-used. 

I'm not saying my choice is the right answer for everybody.  I guess I'm saying it's the right answer for ME during this particular chapter of my life (& in the lives of certain others who share it).

Jimbo   8-)