[pct-l] Music on the Trail and Rain Gear

[Paul Mitchell]

Nathan, by the way, the trail can be a bit rough on sensitive electronics
like smartphones - big temperature fluctuations, dust, water, etc.  Also,
town visits can be surprisingly busy, charging, uploading and downloading
stuff just adds to the chore list.  My preference now that I've been out
there a few times is to minimize my chores as much as possible.

I invested in a cheap bulk set of 1gb to 16gb SD cards on eBay, loaded them
up with music and audio books and found a couple tiny MP3 players that
featured SD expansion slots and great battery life on single AAA batteries.
Once I'd listened to the books or tired of the music on one of the cards, I
swapped it for the one in my camera and sent that one home.  It worked great
for me, only maintenance being fresh batteries every few hundred miles, and
sometimes specialized little pieces of gear work better than one that
multi-tasks - ex. better photos from a proper camera, and easier fingertip
music navigation from a little one ounce MP3 player.

Just my two cents, for what it's worth.  :)

- Potential178