While out on the 11 day trip on the wilderness waterway, there is pretty much no civilization at all, including no cell signal. My only way of staying in touch will be what’s called a Spot Messenger. It’s a nifty little GPS that sends your coordinates via satellite displayed on Google maps to an email address with a pre-written “I’m okay” message. So Nazan will hear from me once a day when I make camp and know where I’m at. Nazan will post that map link on my facebook page so everyone can follow along with on my trip.
The messenger is a cool toy, but it also has a “911” button as well, so If I’m in trouble I can press the panic button and it sends my coordinates to the proper authorities to let them know I’m in need of rescue. In the Everglades I imagine that would be the Coast Guard or Park Service. So it also gives me a bit more piece of mind on a solo trip crossing the largest wilderness east of the Mississippi.
But the okay messages won’t always necessarily come through. It’s little hand held thing that is sending a message to space and back, so it’s not 100% reliable and has a poor signal if there is much tree cover where I’m at. There are also many other reasons it may not work, like I dropped it in the water, ran out of batteries or simply forgot to send the message that day. So I should stress that if there are no okay messages every day does not mean it’s time to panic. But it should be a fun way to follow along with where I’m at.
Click here for a test transmission I did in our yard in Madison…
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