Camping

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. . . Do More Than Tell The Time

“If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.” -Raymond Inmon

Well that’s good then, because I spend 16 hours every day, 6 days every week and 50 weeks of every year being ruled by the time, so just occasionally, when I get the opportunity to enjoy nature with a hike into the wilderness with my back packing buddies I don’t want to be reminded that I’m going to miss the last post if I don’t get to the post office in the next 10 minutes . . . you get my drift? Time, for many hikers, is of no consequence . . . well, just as long as they get their camp-site set up before dark or arrive back at the car park in time to get home before American X Factor has started.

I just thought I’d throw that in . . . it’s good isn’t it, makes me laugh anyway. The first hand is the hour hand, the second hand is the minute hand and the third hand is the second hand . . . brilliant.

Hikers need watches, they might not always want them, they might not always appreciate that they do need them and they might make a point of not checking the time every five minutes, but hikers watches are an important part of their hiking equipment, in fact, some might say they’re crucial . . .

Features Of Hiking Watches

• Altimeter, barometer and compass (the ABC) delivering data to help the hiker gauge performance, the weather and the direction he is (or should be) hiking in
• Barometers and altimeters which can display not only the current elevation of the hiker but record everything for analysis later
• Storm alert features . . . any rapid drops in air pressure over a period of around 3 hours can signal there’s a storm a coming . . . some hiking watches are designed to sound and alarm when this happens . . . what’s that noise, surely it’s not time to get up, we’re up already . . . what could it be. Storm coming . . . .
• Digital compass functions . . . to monitor the direction of travel, you can even lock in the bearings on some hiking watches
• Sunset and Sunrise times – make sure that you don’t miss the glorious dawn and dusk, by adding a little regional data your hiking watch will be able to calculate what time this will be . . . best get your camera ready
• Solar power batteries – so that you don’t have to worry about replacing batteries in your hiking watch. Some of them have solar batteries which don’t need much sunlight to be fully charged . . . and then can last for up to 6 months
• Thermometer function – is available on some hiking watches . . . I thought it was getting chilly, and now I know why, but never mind, some hiking watches can still work in temperatures as low as -10 degrees C, although some hikers definitely can’t
• World time zones – hey, this is amazing, look, it’s breakfast time here but in the other half of the world they’re just going to bed . . . just the sort of thing you’re likely to think about whilst you’re hiking Yosemite.
• Stop watch – right, I’ll race you to the viewpoint, you hike there and shout me when you’re at the top . . . ready, steady . . . .go! Ha ha, sucker, you’ve left me with the chocolate bars, sorry, I didn’t hear you . . . 6 minutes 42 seconds, that seems like quite a long time. I did it in less than 4 minutes.
• Waterproof (or at least water resistant, which is actually rather different but often quite sufficient . . . it’s unusual to hike at depths of more than 30 meters anyway, and if you do your hikers watch will be the last thing on your mind).

There is at least one more very important function which a hiking watch can manage too, although exactly what it is escapes me for a minute, oh I know . . . tell the time!

 Now, with all of those features you’re left with only one more incy wincy tiny problem . . . working out how to do everything with those buttons! I’ll leave you to it . . . .