It used to be that hiking didn't require electricity, at least not much. All you needed was batteries for your camera and flashlight.
These days, of course, everyone seems to carry a cellphone. And maybe a GPS. And maybe a tablet. And those things have to be charged every now and then. (Think about it _ when someone stays overnight at your house, they look for an outlet to charge their phone, right?)
Full disclosure: I carry a cellphone when I hike, but I usually remove the batteries. It saves power, plus it protects the phone from being permanently damaged in case it gets wet. Cellphones are handy in emergencies, but I sometimes feel we rely on them too much. ("Oh, I can take this dicey trail _ I can always call for help if I get hurt or lost." Yeah, right.)
This leads us to today's hiking news item. Solar panels have been placed atop one of the shelters frequented by hikers on the Appalachian Trail near Waynesboro, Va. The shelter isn't actually on the trail itself, and you've already reached town anyway, so it's hardly in a middle-of-nowhere place. Where you'd really like to see something like this is on a remote stretch of the trail, where there's no civilization around.
Still, it's a start. I'm a big fan of solar energy, so anything that helps the cause is good. Check out the full story in this report from NBC29.
And, of course, you can bring you cellphones when you join us next year for one of our hiking vacations. Hope to have you along as we go to Switzerland, Nevada, Vermont and Virginia. Check out all the details here.
See you on the trails.
Joseph
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