How to Fix Stuff that Gets Trashed

Plan on trashing your gear in the very near future? Who does?

We all wreck our stuff from time to time. Or else others do it for us.

And then there's the whole scheduled field maintenance thing. One day I'll actually calculate how many weeks out of seven months on the Appalachian Trail were spent "cleaning" and "repairing" my white gas-fueled MSR stove. It always felt like I was rebuilding the thing on a daily basis. I did less care and feeding for my newborn.

Now there's a hand to hold when field repairs get you down. The GearAid app for iPhone and Android.

It gives step-by-step care and repair instructions that don't suck. It even links to YouTube so you can attend GearHead University on the internet. And the app is incredibly intuitive and easy to use, at least on my iPhone, which is a bonus when you find yourself on the road, out of luck and not in the best of moods.

Heed Maxim No. 17: Don't Forget the Duct Tape. And don't leave home without a decent repair kit.

That doesn't mean you need to pack a separate suitcase. My travel kit always includes trusty ole SeamGrip, zipper repair tools, tweezers, mini scissors, eyeglass repair tools and spare parts, plus a ring-finger-size roll of duct tape, and it fits inside a sandwich-size Gladlock. My backcountry setup fits inside the smallest zippered pouch made by GearAid, the repair products division of Bellingham, Washington-based McNett.

I like the branded pouch because it's distinctive enough for kids to locate while you're standing in a gale beside your pitched tent, holding a snapped pole that got its compound fracture inside the fabric sleeve. If you let go of that pole to grab the repair kit, you'll return to a shredded tent.

So practice saying, "Go get the billy goat kit! And bring my phone!" calmly, like you're on top of it with grace under pressure. Repeat ten times. Make sure you charge your smartphone before every trip. Set it to Airplane mode. Bring backup power if you think you might trash your gear a few days hence. And then get out there!

Portable power

For years I’ve experimented with solar rechargers for electronic devices I take on backcountry trips. Like my phone, my camera and my iPod. And sometimes my laptop, if I’ve escaped to write.

Most encased solar chargers aren’t rugged enough for backcountry use. The plastic cases always crack on trips. The utility of solar mats is pretty much limited to base camp use. When you’re moving, they just don’t work. And in spite of manufacturer claims, I find that they’re not waterproof. So leaving them unsupervised out in the open is just asking for trouble. They don’t work reliably inside a tent or in a resealable plastic bag.

So I’ve turned to juice packs for portable power.

The one I’m using now is Powerstation PRO from Mophie, and it works. You charge the juice pack at home and take it with you to recharge your toys on the trail.

At $100, it’s at the top of the food chain on price point. But if you do the math (which I had an Apple Genius help me with), you’ll find models costing a third as much just won’t get the job done. They’re basically designed for urban use when your phone goes unexpectedly dead and you need a power boost quick to make an urgent call or check texts. Travelers, trekkers, sailors, skiers, climbers, riders and beach bums want to run apps, recharge cameras, listen to audiobooks or radio and play music at dinner. One Powerstation is more than I usually need for four or five days off the grid.

This rugged, wallet-size model packs easily and weighs in under 350 grams. It reliably recharges my battery-sucking iPhone 4S four times in the backcountry in three-season temperatures. At 6,000 mAh (that’s milliamp hours), it should be able to give my Macbook one full recharge and still have power for a single phone recharge. (A Macbook battery delivers about 5,300 mAh.)

Managing juice packs, like managing power on your devices, is a nerd sport. Read the manual and follow the directions. The most important thing to remember for high performance is never to leave your device plugged into the juice pack longer than it takes to recharge.

Power-saving travel tip: run your phone in aircraft mode on trips, especially in the backcountry. Carry a SPOT tracker instead for safety—not the SPOT Connect, which saps power from your phone. And use a handheld GPS device for navigation⎯not your smartphone. This approach also gives you the benefit of redundancy. You can readily buy replacement batteries for that critical gear on the road. Worldwide. You’ll need an electrical outlet, a USB adaptor and a couple hours to recharge the juice pack.

3G coverage and apps like Packing Pro and HG2 are adding to the pleasure of adventure travel, so I predict that lightweight, portable power will only keep getting better. Get off the grid and recharge.

Travel Tip: avoid a UK Mac attack

Mac people: Don’t leave for the UK without this key add-on. You won’t be able to recharge your Macbook in many hotels without it.

I learned the hard way on a recent trip to London.

You won’t find the product listed on Apple’s UK site (???), and it’s not sold anywhere in the US as far as I know, so buy it here from Amazon. 

Tailwinds!

British electrical code for restored buildings (like The Stafford, at left, along with the Berkeley, Claridge’s, the Connaught and so on) requires outlets to be placed too close to the skirting boards. Your MagSafe power block will not be able to dock with the electrical outlet. Your World Travel Adaptor Kit will NOT fix the problem.

Ten minutes online today will save you a trip to one of the UK’s 35 Apple stores. Not one of which is anywhere near the Cornish coast or the Scottish Highlands.