Technology Terror

Day 11: Ashcroft to Merritt. 78.7 miles. 6159 feet elevation.  Weather warm and dry.

I was a Boy Scout, and I’m also so old that I lived many years without a cell phone or GPS. So, I do know how to read a map. Unfortunately, nobody puts routes on maps or prints maps anymore. The route I’m following across Canada, the GNBR, is only available as a GPS track.

When I woke up this morning and tried to charge my cell phone, I got a “charging port has moisture” warning. That was, of course, not true, as I had plugged it in without problem the night before. But despite all my efforts to clean it, dry it, and restart, it would not accept a charger cord.

Ashcroft is a town of about 1600 people. It’s so small that I had to buy groceries at the gas station. I asked at the gas station if anybody had cell phones, and they sent me to the home and garden store. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any cell phones today, though she said they sometimes have them. This was quite terrifying because my phone is so old that it only lasts about 3 hours on a charge. That’s hardly enough time to get me across 78 miles of mountainous terrain.

Getting desperate, I decided to write the directions down while the phone was still charged. After about the 6th turn, I gave up, especially since I was writing on the back of a receipt. The attendant at the gas station was friendly enough to give me paper from the register and a pencil. I didn’t even have a pen or paper! We are so technologically bound.

Now, I know that you will likely enjoy the pictures more than my writing. However, after much prayer and cleaning the charge port with my toothbrush, I was able to get my phone to accept a charging cord and plug it into my extra battery. I was hopeful this would give it enough juice to get me through today’s route. However, I was terrified of the cord pulling out and then not being able to recharge it after taking an unknown number of turns incompletely unknown wilderness.

In fact, I rode many miles and many hours today without seeing anybody and generally just knowing that I was somewhere in the mountains between Ashcroft and Merritt. Accordingly, I barely touched my phone, fearing I would be lost forever in the woods with it dead. One picture I’ll share tomorrow is of a bald eagle perched in a tree just above my head, which I was able to watch fly very near me, with a likely 4- to 5-foot wingspan. It was beautiful.

Miraculously, I was able to get to Merrit by 5:00 and found a store open that sold cell phones. I was able to purchase one, and that’s what I’m writing on at present. But I’m still waiting for all my apps to download from the old phone. The old phone is acting up again, but hopefully the download will complete before it dies, and I’m unable to charge it.

The moral of the story is that when we have an EMP strike, we will all just have to stay home:-).