Vacationing in the Digital Age

I'm back from two weeks in the mountains and it was a great experience. One of the weeks was spent in Mammoth - a place I went every year growing up. The picture you see here was taken at Crystal Lake which is a beautiful alpine lake I visited a number of times in the past. I discovered on the hike however that one of two things had happened since the last time I was in Mammoth:

1. The trail became about 40% steeper
2. I became old

Given how volatile the geology is in Mammoth, I'd like to think it's the former, but I suspect the latter is more likely. It's also the first time in a long time that I have hiked into the backcountry and I must say that technology has certainly improved. Having a GPS receiver was wonderful - it was great knowing I could wander off the trail a bit and not worry about finding my way back (a veritable digital trail of bread crumbs). I was surprised to discover I had cell service (shows you just how "back" in the backcountry I was), which came in handy because I had the lake all to myself and spent too much time reveling in the beauty of the place. I was able to call my wife and let her know that I was running late and not to worry.

This wonderful technology has a downside of course, which I discovered as I was packing. My checklist went something like this:

Laptop? Check.
Video games for family installed on laptop? Check.
Broadband wireless card? Check.
Power cord for Laptop? Check.
Cell phone? Check.
Cell phone charger cord? Check.
iPod? Check.
New songs downloaded for the trip? Check.
USB cable for iPod to re-charge from laptop? Check.
Cable to connect iPod to car stereo? Check.
GPS Receiver? Check.
Extra Batteries for GPSr? Check.
Route programmed into GPSr? Check.
Alternate route programmed into GPSr? Check.
Take a virtual tour of route using Google Earth? Check.
Program interesting side trips found using Google Earth into GPSr? Check.

You get the idea - looks like a trip into the land of the perennially Anal Retentive Geeks (imagine what my wife has to deal with). I did manage to avoid checking my work email the entire time however, so I'll consider myself relatively normal (and my family enjoyed the video games).