Entertainment on the AT: Part 2, Music

Katahdin's Knife Edge. Final ascent of the AT.

I'm a human, and like all other humans, I love music (if you don't then you're not a human and no amount of evidence will convince me otherwise). I pretty much am always listening to music. I guess I like to have a soundtrack playing as I go about living my life. The same is true for when I'm out backpacking, and it won't be any different when I'm on the AT. When I picture myself summiting Katahdin, I imagine listening to something super epic and triumphant. You know, something by Hans Zimmer or Howard Shore.

So in order to make that happen, I need to have the potential to listen to music on the trail. As you're probably aware, I plan on taking my iPhone. But I will have deleted all of my music from my iPhone to make space for pictures. Cause duh, I'll probably take a million billion pictures. So how will I listen to music? Two ways, an iPod Shuffle and Spotify.

Pretty small, right?

Mostly, I'll be listening to my iPod Shuffle. Why a shuffle? Well, they weigh very little, 0.44 ounces to be specific. And they hold 2 gigs worth of mp3s. That doesn't seem like much, and I'll probably agree after a couple of months, but I guess the tactic is to limit my uploads to single songs rather than whole albums. They charge fast (in about two hours), and their battery lasts for about 15 hours of playback (which is pretty huge). Best of all, they cost 50 bucks new (and even less on Amazon). Another popular option is the Sansa Clip, which is pretty similar in all respects (and maybe easier to navigate as the shuffle has no screen to help select songs).

Gettin' my Howard Shore on.

The Spotify App for iPhone is great for thruhikers. At first glance it seems next to worthless seeing as how you need an internet (or 4G) connection to stream music from Spotify, but Spotify actually has a feature which allows you to create and download playlists for offline mode (assuming you have access to wifi). Why is that so awesome? Because of two reasons. One, the downloaded playlists take up a lot less space on your device than having the songs saved on iTunes. And two, I can swap the music on my phone throughout my thruhike. So lets say I've listened to my Jock Jamz Vol. 3 (just kidding, well, maybe not) playlist three thousand times by Harper's Ferry and I'm just plain sick of it. Not a problem, I'll just delete that downloaded playlist and create another on a day I spend in time. Voilà, a seemingly infinite amount of music options and very little weight.

Entertainment on the AT: Part 1, Reading

Big, unwieldy, fragile, and HEAVY (great book though).

I consider myself an avid reader. Indeed, I have problems falling asleep at night if I don't get some reading in. So of course I plan on reading during our thruhike. But how? At first I thought I'd just mail myself books every so often and tear out the pages I've already read as I go (à la Cheryl Strayed in Wild), but that seems like a bad option. One, because I don't want to carry the extra weight (especially since I typically read massive 1000 page epic fantasies), and two, because I don't think I can bring myself to destroy books (it just seems too Fahrenheit 451 to me).

Then I thought, "Okay, well, I'll take my Kindle." Which is a fine plan and many thruhikers are big fans of carrying a Kindle. Not only can Kindles can carry tons of books, they are somewhat lightweight, and they stay charged for a suuuuper long time. But in the end, I decided against the Kindle. Firstly, because I don't want to accidentally break a somewhat expensive electronic device, and secondly, because my Kindle isn't backlit (even though some models are, although they weigh more).

Sample of the Kindle App.

After reading online about the kindle app for iPhones (or any smartphone really), I decided to download it and see if it was to my liking. Turns out that it is. I will already have my iPhone with me, so this diminishes the need to bring the kindle (or book), saving a significant amount of weight. My phone is also backlight, so I don't need to use a headlamp to read. The downside to using my iPhone to read is that it will significantly drain my battery. Not such a problem for me since I also have a Mophie Juice Pack rechargeable iPhone case. It holds about a full charge and a half.

Sample of OverDrive.

There's plenty of other options out there for recharging your electronics on the trail. Mophie makes a Powerstation external battery for recharging electronics, which holds probably somewhere close to three iPhone 4S charges. There are tons of similar devices, but some have more charge than others. The trade is in weight. The more battery life, the heavier the weight. Accomplished thruhiker Wired (from Walking with Wired) often reviews electronics. She typically goes for what she calls "bricks", heavy ass devices that hold quite a bit of charge. One such device she reviewed from her AT thruhike is NewTrent's PowerPak. Some opt for solar chargers, but the AT is mostly in shade, so this isn't the best option for this particular trail.

While researching about reading apps for my phone, I came across another really nifty app, "OverDrive". OverDrive allows you to access your local library's electronic book database and download books or audiobooks to your phone (or Kindle, Nook, etc.) from anywhere with wifi. Wow, talk about awesome. This app allows me to carry and read a near infinite supply of books, for free! And if I want to listen to audiobooks while I hike, I have that option too! I'm seriously stoked about this app. The downside is that OverDrive isn't the best piece of programming ever made. It's a little glitchy, but I can get over that considering what it offers.