The main reasons I'm going the "I-Phone paired w/InReach Mini" route are these:
1) I had already "crossed the line" & made the jump to a Garmin 60C a few years back, just prior to a WCPP trip.  Paired with the InReach Mini, the I-Phone gives me a far larger screen to view maps, pre-loaded on my phone.
2) Since I'll have my I-Phone along, I can leave my camera at home with my SPOT Messenger.
3) Wally13 spoiled my wife when he let me send her (& receive back) actual text messages from the park last year... so it's all HIS fault!

In hindsight, I crossed the one line myself, years ago, when I first opted to pick up the GPS (probably for a far north trip).  My wife pushed me across that second line after we exchanged those texts last Fall.  When I got home she looked at me as if to say, "What's the matter with you?  Wally13 keeps HIS family informed & vice versa.  Why can't you?"  Thus, my Christmas present was the InReach Mini!

So, that's my story, anyhow, and I'm sticking to it!

I can appreciate a "retro experience" akin to going back in time to experience things like Lewis & Clark. It certainly has its merits and helps us better appreciate what we do have now.  Lord knows I used to travel without any ultra-light gear and I think my only electronic device was my watch (&, later, a small, portable radio for weather reports)... very heavy & very simple but still not nearly as heavy & simple as Lewis & Clark.  Heck, why should we stop turning the clock back at Lewis & Clark?  Maybe we should shoot for doing it the way the Spanish conquistadors (like DeSoto & his crew) did it while crossing most of North America?  We could put on heavy metal armor and have at it in the north woods.  Why stop there?  Let's go back about 80,000 years and do it the way those boys (& girls) did who came up out of Africa for the first time.  They certainly traveled & communicated in an entirely different manner.  Heck, they might still have been swinging through the trees as far as I know... though trees do get a bit sparse in Egypt & the Middle Eastern deserts.  At least up North we'd have a few more trees to swing on.

Of course there is no "right answer" to the question of what technology is appropriate to bring with us into the woods.  On the other hand, there are certainly some "legal" answers in place.  I appreciate the sentiment behind some of the rules & regulations that have been set (ie. no motors, no drones, no unauthorized airplane flyovers, no cans, no bottles, no building 'wooden furniture', etc. & so on).  These mostly address issues which could either screw up the park OR screw up the experience of those visitors expecting "wilderness."  I think park officials have mostly hit the right balance with respect to these sorts of decisions, so far.  I'm also sure new regs will become necessary downstream as tech advances threaten the status quo.

As long as they're legal, I'm certainly OK with the tech choices of others... as long as they don't intrude into my wilderness experience expectations.  Finally, as far as that symbol of modern technology - the I-Phone goes - well, if anyone ever hears me making a phone call on it in Quetico, they have my permission to bust it up with a rock (and, of course, dutifully haul it with you to be properly disposed of once you leave the park).

Of course, in another 15 or 20 years from now, this discussion may become irrelevant, as chips embedded in our brains will connect us all to the internet via satellite no matter where we are.  Hmmm... this raises yet another question: can there truly be "wilderness" if we are plugged in 24/7 to outside community?  Ugh... guess I've leave that one for my grandchildren to deal with. 

All things considered, the "Lewis & Clark" approach might be such a bad stop, after all....

Jimbo   

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


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   

I hold no judgement on other's use of GPS etc. I carry a Spot which gives me the freedom to travel without a set itinerary. No way for others to reach me but  there is also next to nothing that could occur in the real world in which my input would have any significant effect.  I've always had a knack with maps and rarely (if ever) have used a compass to locate myself. Before GPS systems like InReach etc were within reach of anyone outside of the military I noted a tendency in myself to spend too much time absorbed in my map and not enough time in the landscape and the strange ways in which the landscape and the map interacted in my head. I started relying less and less on my map- on water I previously traveled I tried to not look- on new waters I tried to pick a destination point at the greatest distance reasonable and head there before checking the map. I learned over time that my head is good at this geographical memory, that and a fair amount of time in the park means that the map stays in the pack and I work from my the arrangement in my head- which is different than a map and more a 3-d model that only becomes active as I move into it. It's been at least three  years since I've consulted a map in the course of paddling, maybe more. I trip 4-6 times a year, usually for about a week at a time. My mental model is restricted to the area within Hunter's Island and south. Leads to screw ups from time to time but that's interesting as well. Last season I opted for a final day's paddle from Robinson to Fenske and home. Consulting a map might have led me to a rational decision.

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  I get it Jimbo, you have to do what works for you.
You live close enough now to Q, you could get out and home fairly fast.


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MB,
   You have my sympathy. 
Your wry comment made me think of this country song.

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MossBack wrote on Feb 20^th, 2019 at 5:01pm:


I can get it up here in MI sometimes. Love their sense of humor.