Has anybody used their Watch to track a multi-day hike or something similar?

[Matt T]

I’m planning to hike the Overland Track in Tasmania next year, which is a 6-day trek through the Tasmanian wilderness - and I thought it might be fun/interesting to track the entire trip from start to finish using my Watch. My thinking is to pack a large (or maybe a few?) portable battery packs, use the Workout app to track an outdoor walk, pause the workout during rest stops and overnight, and charge the Watch during those stops.

Has anybody ever done something like this before? Do you think the workout app could sustain a single workout for multiple days? I know it might sound a bit silly or strange but this is the sort of thing you only do once so I think it would be nice to have a record of it like this.

 

[japanime]

I tried something similar with my iPhone and the Nike+ app a few years ago. I started a workout in Tokyo, then paused the app and put phone into Airplane mode for a flight to San Francisco. Upon arrival 10 hours later, I reopened the Nike app. It worked for about a half-minute seconds, then crashed.

I think the biggest hiccup in my experiment was that the app couldn't figure out the huge jump in GPS coordinates. In your case, though, you'd be resuming the workout in the same place where you paused it hours earlier, so it might not be as much of an issue.

Maybe try a test at home by doing a longish workout one evening, pause it overnight, then see if you can resume it the next day.

 

[waw74]

I'd do a new workout for each day, that way if it does crash, you don't loose the whole thing.

also, as your work out fills, not sure if it stores in memory or onto storage, depending on how much it keeps in memory, it could cause issues the further you get into it.

also you can get portable solar panels with internal batteries and USB, so just clip them on the top of your bag, and once you get to camp that night, they should be full and ready to go.
or just use a panel to charge your battery so you don't have to carry so many.

i have a garmin bike computer, that i clip to my pack when i hike, it logs distance and elevation changes for me. and the battery lasts for quite a while. although i've only done 5-6 hour day hikes. plus you can set it to beep every mile, which is kinda nice.
I just upgraded to a series 3 no LTE (from a 0), so might try that on the next hike, now that the battery life might make it.