travel and rhum

Did an 11 mile hike. Came home obliterated and was alright. Then tried going to bed, and that’s when things got really bizarre. While trying to fall asleep, I keep seeing the same grass, rocks and small pebbles in the blacks of my eye, everything was still moving and I felt like I was still hiking. I started having vertigo, heart rate wouldn’t settle, felt breathless and starting having these full body twitches. I panicked and thought I’d developed water intoxication, since I didn’t go for the whole hike across about 7/8 hours, drank about 4L and felt really bizarre at home.

Idk what happened or if this happened to anyone else. I’m better now, still feel extremely thirsty so I’ve been drinking sports drinks which has helped. Could’ve it been an extreme case of the after-effect visual thing?

What happened? Why could’ve this happened? It was really quite terrifying and bizarre. Has anyone else been through similar?

Hello, I started hiking few days ago and I really loved it. I am really unexperienced. I want to start sleeping in the mountain with a tent or something. What are your suggestions how to not die or get eaten by an animal? My other issue is that im getting tired very fast, do I need to take more breaks or I just got to train my cardio?

Hi everyone,

As part of a group uni assessment, our group has been tasked with solving the problem of people getting lost or stranded during extreme outdoor activities. One of these activities we've considered is hiking in environments such as mountains, forest, or snow where access to electricity is extremely limited.

To address this problem, we have decided to design a device similar to a personal locator beacon that is powered using the energy harvested in the environment. For example, harvesting kinetic energy from the movement of the hiker, or harvesting energy from the sun or wind. The purpose of this device is to act as a "last resort" or "fail safe" in a life or death situation by sending out a signal to emergency services to rescue you when you are lost.

We have narrowed down our ideas to three preliminary solutions to this problem but we need your help and expertise in deciding which device you would choose.

1. The first device is something that will be worn just above your ankle so it harvests energy from your leg movements. It is similar to a Garmin, Apple Watch or any fitness tracker but is worn on your leg. The main concern with this design is would you want to wear this device on your leg every time you go hiking as there may be comfortability and convenience issues
2. Second is a hand crank device that is stored in your backpack which generates electricity from the user spinning a crank. Hence it will involve the user purposefully spinning the crank in situations where you are actually lost. This design raises the question of if you are willing to carry an extra item in your backpack every time you go hiking.
3. Third design is a device integrated into a backpack that harvests energy using the same method as the first device in the user walking. Our question here is whether you would replace your current backpack for a backpack that contains one additional feature.

Please let us know which device (1,2, or 3) you would consider using, and any further thoughts on each concept. Any comments, feedback and criticism will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

​