Football has benefitted from goal-line technology, tennis with Hawkeye and cricket with Edge Detection. These are all global effects that technology has had, but you can also see the benefits technology has had from a consumer point of view.
Garmin released fitness watches that track your heart rate and distance travelled when hiking. Solar banks have been created so that you can charge your phone when walking long distances and water filters have improved so that you can drink lake water and so on.
If you’ve got a hike planned in the coming months, then purchasing some useful tech gadgets for your adventure may be useful. Below we have put together an essentia checklist for what to bring on your hike which might benefit you on your next adventure.
1. Fitness Watch
If you ask most hikers what piece of equipment they will never leave home without when going on a hike, they will say their fitness watch. Fitness watches offer so many benefits to you when on your walk.
They help you track the distance you have covered, they can calculate how many calories you have burnt, the speed at which you are walking and so much more. The prices of a fitness watch vary on the brand and how developed the watch is.
2. Solar Banks
A new phone's battery life can be very good and last a whole day (with limited usage), but the more you use your phone, the more the battery deteriorates and it requires charging more often. When you are out on a hike, you can’t just charge it in the mains, but what you can do is charge your phone using a solar bank.
Solar banks can give your phone 4 or 5 full charges before they run out of power themselves, but being solar, you can recharge the bank if the sun is out. Having a phone on you when you are hiking is very important in case you need to call someone in an emergency.
3. Hydration Bladder
Staying hydrated is so important on a hike - It’s very important no matter what you are doing in life! Hydration bladders are ideal as they carry around two to three litres of water, you can place it on your back and they are easy to drink from.
The last thing you want when on a long hike is to start to feel dehydrated as they can cause you to have dizzy spells and get ill.
4. Water Filters
Talking about dehydration, another piece of tech that is very popular and something that didn’t exist many years ago is hiking water filters. Filters like LifeStraw are so good that you can use them to drink out of poor quality water from the ground and it will completely clean it - this means that if you do run out of water on a hike but there is a river nearby, you can drink from it without getting sick.
Plan Your Next Hiking Trip
What pieces of equipment do you like to bring with you when going on a hike? Do you bring any of featured on our list? Or are there any useful hiking equipment that you think we should add to our above guide? Let us know in the comment box below. Or if you are looking for ideas for your next break away view our guide to the best hiking routes worldwide.
