I have trouble waking up early in the morning when I’m on the trail. What watch or alarm clock do you use to wake yourself up on the trail? I’m wanting something ultralight.

Darwin
daroos@indiana.edu

Nearly all digital wristwatches have an alarm function. I wear either a Casio or Timex.

For me, if I am sleeping on the ground, I wake up early because I barely slept all night. If I am sleeping in a hammock, I enjoy sleeping in. When I go camping, I am on vacation. I try to sleep as long as a feel like it.

My hearing is not that good so I need a robust alarm. A wrist watch does not get the job done because I sleep with a stocking hat under a hood and my watch is under the quilt.

Some ideas:

Drink more fluids so that you have to get up every couple of hours

Hike with ground dwellers so they wake you up in the morning.

Go to bed earlier.

I have a travel alarm that makes a lot of noise, but this is the heaviest solution.

"I have trouble waking up early..."

And this is a problem why?

I usually go to bed when it's dark, and get up when it's light. Fortunately, that works around here - but I could see it not working so well if there were mountains or tall trees that delayed sunrise for you. Probably the lightest choice would be some sort of alarm built into a watch or other electronic item you already carry. (Do GPS or PLBs have such a function?) I've also seen some carabiner-type thingies that have watches, alarms, compasses, etc. all built in; you might browse at these next time you're in an outdoor shop. I'd want to find out how easy they were to set, and how loud they ring, before buying one.

If you're a sound sleeper, you might try pinning it to your pillow, or putting it in a shoe (my shoes usually end up under my head, as part of my pillow) or otherwise placing it near your ear.

Like Food, I am somewhat hard of hearing (my wife says very hard of hearing but she mumbles a lot).

What I have done is to sew a loop on the inside of my tent and on my tarp near my better (left) ear. I hang my Timex Expedition from this. Hung in the open, I can hear the alarm; when on my wrist, buried in my bag, I can't.

Also, it doesn't hurt that I'm an old guy with BPH. This means getting up every few hours to "make water". Since I like to get an early start, the combination of the "alarm near my ear" trick and the "get up to pee" trick generally has me on the trail on time.

Wow! I've never heard of anyone needing an alarm clock on the trail. As others have noted, I go to bed early because it's dark...and I am usually up about dawn. I am sure my wife would love to trade me in for a longer sleeping model...but she knows she can't get much at the dealer for me!

The reason I asked this question is because my watch's alarm isn't loud enough to wake me up, so I thought that someone might have an ultralight alarm that is loud that they could tell me about:)

Just a thought.. Stitch a loop somewhere on your bag, or your head covering that would bring your watch closer to your ear. I think I have heard of bags that had a small pocket for watches for this very purpose.

But if you are sleeping in, you probably need the rest. Your bod knows best.....

I am a bit on the older side, and can no longer hear most high pitched wrist watch alarms. My wife is always asking me what is beeping when I use the timer on my Timex watch. I can't hear it unless it is near my ear. BUT

When I backpack, I use a Suunto Core wrist watch/altimeter/etc.
I put it in my shoe near my head. It is LOUD and not too high pitched- so it will wake me up from a very sound sleep. This is the ONLY watch I have found that will be sure to wake me up.

I had a Suunto watch which came before the Core- could not hear that one. Core works well for me.

There are times when I want to get out on the trail really early, perhaps at the crack of dawn--hot days when I want to stop and crawl into the shade by noon, exposed places with regular afternoon thunderstorms, sometimes the last day of a trip when I don't want to be driving home in the dark.

In a search for a louder alarm, I tried a number of different watches and ended up with a men's Casio. No women's watch, and particularly Timex, will do the job. However, no alarm watch will wake you up if it's on your wrist and your wrist is down inside the sleeping bag. I've tried setting the watch out on the tent floor, but if it's a cold night and the sleeping bag hood is snuggled close around my head, that's not much good either. 2 1/2 inches of down absorbs a lot of sound.

I tried putting my watch into my cooking pot--makes it a little louder, but not much. I think the plastic wrist band muffles it. It's not like the large Big Ben alarm I used to put into my metal wastebasket when I was in college, which would get me up even when I had gotten only 1 hour sleep after an all-night study session.

In other words, I'm still looking for a solution!

google found this http://www.minicastle.com/ . not sure if it just fits in your ear or if it clips onto your lobe.

Are you still calling it a "study session"?

SharpTech SPC303 LCD Travel Alarm Clock with Folding Metal Case

I have 2 of these and love them. I don't have a weight, but they aren't heavy. Bought at Wal-Mart. I can weigh one later.

MNS

Yes, it really was studying, not partying. Sorry to disappoint!

Sometimes (most of the time, really) it's great to get up when you feel like it. But there are times where it can be important to get up by a certain time. OM mentioned a few. My experience where I have needed one has been in the Grand Canyon. There are situations on the day you hike out where you really need to be on the trail by a given time depending on when shadow on the upper part of the trail ends. Hiking in the sun there has a dramatic effect on your climbing ability. So much so, in fact, that if it is warm enough, you may need to hide in the shade until shadow comes back to the trail.

I have used a little travel alarm about 1"X 2.5" and less than an ounce (never weighed it) that has been loud enough for me to hear. I'm not able to reliably hear my particular wrist watch alarm, either.

I ran a few tests today.

The wrist watch alarm is significantly louder when placed inside my cooking pot with the watch face down on the bottom of the pot and the wrist band fastened so it doesn't touch the bottom or sides of the pot. I was wearing a balaclava rolled up so there were several layers over my ears. Whether or not this idea will work when I'm inside my down sleeping bag, I don't know. I probably won't go out backpacking again until March, so it will be a while before I can let you know (I don't particularly want to sleep in a 20* sleeping bag indoors).