Have just recently (four years) started carrying a cell phone at the behest of my new (five years) wife. Never even wanted one in town before.

Like others, I leave it off most of the time. I turn it on for an hour at six pm each day, but it will collect texts even when turned off. However, I find that many of the places I hike have only occasional, marginal coverage, though texts sometimes get through.

Like others I've started learning to use it as a camera, and sooner or later, I'll get a GPS/map app. It's kind of fun. I'm a photographer, but have never (well ok, once) carried cameras on the trail. But since I like to carry the phone to keep my wife comfortable these days, I'm finding the camera function is a delight.

On the original subject, I don't do well trying to relate to people who are completely lost or stranded, because I have never been. It must be a horrible, panicky, hopeless kind of feeling.

I've gotten off trail a number of times, but I knew generally where I was, knew that I could quite comfortably stay there for a couple of days, and if necessary follow a compass course that would have to hit a road within a few miles (but then I'm in the east and I carry good maps). I've done exactly that three times, and another time, I was able to cross country to pick up the trail. Worst one was when I got caught behind some small lakes and had to do some corkscrewing around without being able to be certain of my turn points (deep woods). That was worrisome because if I missed too badly, I could have been heading off into a pretty large roadless area where all the little lakes looked exactly alike (this was in Algonquin Park). But it worked out ok. I had about a mile of leeway and hit it pretty close to the middle. My problem then was not knowing where I was on the road, so didn't know for sure which way to go. Frustrating, but not dangerous.

best, jcp