[pct-l] Pocketmail

[Trekker4 at aol.com]

    I used Pocketmail for my first 475-mile section hike on the PCT in '05, 
and my final 125-mile section hike on the CO Tr in '06; I'll definitely use it 
from Agua Dulce to S Kennedy Meadows this spring; I'll be there about three 
weeks before 15 Jun, so I may go hike part of the CDT, the GET (Blisterfree's 
Grand Enchantment, not the Great Eastern), the AZ Tr, or the Hayduke to try to 
get in about two months total this year.  
    I've never had any problems with it; I use lithium AAs, which last at 
least a month. It's been involuntarily tossed about 10 feet once (I was just 
hiking along typing on the keyboard when I tripped, and it went flying.), dropped 
several times, and gotten a bit wet once. I just subscribe for the three 
months I need it each hiking season.
    I use some of the features to keep expense records, daily mileage 
records, and ratings of different dinners. I also write short stories on mine. I 
compose daily trail condition and water reports for those that want them, for 
whatever trail I'm hiking. In other words I enjoy playing with mine while hiking. 
    I just saw Pickaxe Pete on Still Walking, so now I know who he is. Last 
summer I had the honor of having dinner with Gudy Gaskill, who bulldogged the 
CO Tr into existence in just 10 years, at the home of the trail maintenance 
supervisor where I left my car in Durango CO; apparently Gudy had never seen a 
Pocketmail. In spring 05, I met the founder of the PNT, Ron Strickland, in a 
snowfield in southern CA; he'd possibly never seen a Pocketmail before either, or 
at least never seen one being used. 

Bob "Trekker"
Big Bend Desert Denizen
Naturalized Citizen - Republic of Texas