Power on the Trail / Giveaway!

Description

In this video I talk about different types of "Power Chargers" & what has worked best for me on the Trail. At the End, I Giveaway a Power Charger to 1 lucky Viewer!!!

Check me out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darwin_onthetrail/

Music By: Thunder/Dreamer

Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,Thru-Hike,Arizona Trail,AZT,Bikepacking,Backpacking,Hiking,Chargers,Solar Pannels,Giveaway

Video Transcription

hey guys it's Darwin so if you're like me you like shooting tons of video and photos while you're out on the trail obviously you need a way to charge all of those devices so today I'm going to make a video talking about the different type of chargers that you can use while on the trail and what's works best for me

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so in 2015 when snuggles and I first set out for our through hiking the Appalachian Trail I didn't have any type of charger we carried a iPhone with us just one phone and we carried a small point-and-shoot camera a little Fujifilm camera so for the first 1,500 miles that we were on the trail I didn't use any type of charger actually it was pretty convenient to just go ahead and every time we came into a town to either stay at a hostel take a shower resupply get a mail drop something like that it was super easy to just plug our things in and charge them so if you do things like take your phone and put it on airplane mode you don't really use that much power on trails like the 80 you come into town so often and come by gas stations and stuff that you want to stop you want to take a break you want to get a soda a beer get something to eat take a shower stay the night that it's super convenient for you to charge your things every two to three days and like I said if you're putting your stuff on airplane mode you don't really have to worry about draining your battery so this year when snuggles now returned to the 80 and only did I have my iPhone for taking photos I also carried a GoPro so I could shoot video documenting our hike to show you guys so for that I figured I might need a little more power so I picked up one of these guys this is a power add slim two and it's a five thousand milliamp charger now this little guy would charge my phone once and charge my GoPro once just from one charge now weighs four point three ounces and it takes up barely any room and if you look at it compared to my GoPro not a whole lot of room there so I mainly carried it just to make sure since I was shooting so much video that I had enough power for the last six hundred miles that we were on the trail it was perfect a lot of times I didn't even need to really use it because whenever we got into a town the first thing I would do is go into where I was at find an outlet and plug in both my cam and my phone so that being said I was still really glad that I had it because there were a handful of times where I was shooting video and I would run out of power so at night in the tent I would just plug the camera up and make sure that I had enough charge for the next day when we got off the 80 and I set out to do the Arizona Trail I knew that I was going to be shooting a ton more video also I knew that unlike the 80 that I wouldn't be stopping by places so frequently to be able to recharge my devices so for that I picked up this big honking guy this is the rav power tb0 52 charger now this thing is 2,200 milliamps

and it's beefy you know it's pretty chunky it weighs in at 14 point 7 ounces but the good thing about it is it would charge my phone five times and charge my GoPro battery twice all in one charge on this big battery obviously it takes up a lot more room but touring on the bike I had better places that I could put it to make sure that that weight wasn't sitting on my back now there's other types of chargers out there like the goal zero solar panels super super cool technology obviously harnessing the power of the Sun while you're outside is an awesome idea so my thoughts on that are number one they're amazing for the desert if you're doing the first seven hundred miles of the PCT awesome if you're doing desert hiking like I do here in New Mexico a lot awesome so the problem with those types of Chargers on trails like the 80 is there's just not enough Sun the 80 has a certain nickname and the nickname is the green tunnel they call the 82 green tunnel because most of the trail is completely covered by trees sure there's tons of Ridgeline especially whenever you get into New England but there's still not enough places to get a direct charge both in 2015 and 2016 I seen a lot of people starting out with solar chargers and eventually getting rid of them either sending them home or putting them in a hiker box solely because they didn't have time to sit on a ridge and just let it charge for multiple hours a couple other kind of strange chargers are out there or something like a crank charger one that you just turn by hand I don't know about you but at the end of a long day of hiking 15 to 20 miles up and down mountains I don't want to stop at camp and get an arm workout by cranking another option that I did see a couple that was coming southbound on the trail whenever we were in Maine had one of these stoves called a iolite supercool technology it is a stove that simply just burns sticks now while it's burning sticks and Duff and other types of wood it also creates energy and allows you to charge whatever device you have super cool technology but again big bulky and heavy a big thing to consider while you're doing a thru-hike is you want minimal and lightweight as possible why you're going to be spending 4 to 6 months completely hiking every single day you want to make sure that your setup is the lightest you can get it on your back and it's simple if set up as you can possibly get so if you're planning for a thru-hike or maybe it's just a long weekend hike or a bike tour hopefully this video helps you decide what type of charger you can use and what's going to be more efficient now since the little power add did so good for me on the 80 I figured I'd give one away to you guys so if you want to be entered for a chance to win one of these go ahead and make sure you're subscribed to me here on YouTube go check me out and follow me on Instagram and send me an email with both of your YouTube and Instagram usernames over to Darwin on the trail at yahoo.com and then all enter your name for a chance to win and announce the winner next week at the end of my new video go ahead and like or dislike this video subscribe to my channel if you haven't already good luck in the contest and as always guys thanks for watching [Music]

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