SAKs in public places (or other multitools)

[Echotech]

Nice pics Kirk

[Echotech]

Today’s walk with the dog

[Top-Gear-24]

Beautiful pics Kirky  .

I love castles, ruins and historical places in general.  I'm hoping to visit a couple of such sites during my summer vacation.

Thanks for sharing your pics here my friend, I really appreciate it  .

Stay safe mate  .

[Top-Gear-24]

Great pics John  .

Always a pleasure to see you've posted something in my humble topic,  I'm always looking forward to your pics, and you never disappoint my friend.

Thanks for sharing your pics here, and stay safe  buddy  .

[kirk13]

Beautiful pics Kirky  .

I love castles, ruins and historical places in general.  I'm hoping to visit a couple of such sites during my summer vacation.

Thanks for sharing your pics here my friend, I really appreciate it  .

Stay safe mate  .

Likewise. I'm hoping I might get down into the Republic of Ireland later in the summer. Stay safe on your travels too

[Echotech]

Coco likes the climber

[Top-Gear-24]

Great pic John  .

We're still going through a rough time here, still problems with our youngest son his mental health, and last Thursday, my father in law passed away after 5 years of fighting cancer...

Your pics are always a great way to take my mind away from the troubles of every day life, thanks for sharing them my friend  .

[Echotech]

Sorry to hear that Eric hope things get better for you mate, sending you good vibes from down under

[Top-Gear-24]

Sorry to hear that Eric hope things get better for you mate, sending you good vibes from down under

Thanks buddy  .

By the way, anyone heard from Peter (a.k.a. Sneider)?  He hasn't been online for a while, so I send him a PM a few days ago but no word so far...

I'm getting a bit worried, sure hope he and his loved ones are okay.

[Top-Gear-24]

Already posted this in a topic about ABC watches, but thought I should post it in "my own"  topic as well  .

I got myself a new ABC watch a couple of weeks ago, the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical (let's name it G.I.S.T. for future reference).

Got the chance to test it out on a couple of short hikes, getting to learn how to use it.

It's not the easiest watch, it has quite a lot of functions besides the ABC stuff, like heart rate monitor, oxigen saturation meter, and some smart watch functions.  And the manual that comes with the watch is... how should I put it... very minimalistic (that's putting it mildly).

Here are some pics.










Here you can see the solar panel:




First impressions:

Pros:

- Great readability, even in direct sunlight.
- Very comfortable on the wrist, great wristband.
- Light weight, but still very solid feeling.
- Connectable with smartphone via Garmin App.
- Long battery life (no colour/touch screen), and extra battery life thanks to solar charging.
- A lot of changeable settings, like what info is visible on the watch face, and where does it show this info, regular display or reverse (negative) display.
- Altimeter needs calibrating at the start of each activity, and as much as you can during the activity (as with all barometric altimeters), but it's been quite precise as far as I can tell (will get back to this once I've done a hike with real up- and downhill bits in it).
- Price, well, it's not the cheapest, but still less than half the price of a Fenix 6 (which also offers solar charging, but less effective as on the Instinct, due to the Fenix 6 using more power with its colour/touchscreen, and the solar panel being a lot smaller as on the Instinct).
- While you can't store music on the watch itself, you can use the watch to control music stored on your phone, skip to the njext or previous song, pause, control the volume. 5


Cons:

- Not an easy watch for someone who's new to this type of watches
- The manual that comes with it is just rubbish, you can download a better manual on the Garmin site, and some YouTube even has a self-made manual in pdf format, which is even better than the one on the Garmin site.
- No colour- or touchscreen
- Not as many training functions as on the Fenix series.
- Music can not be stored on the watch itself.


Conclussion:

Since I'm not much of an athlete, I don't need all the extra training functions, or VO2 MAX stuff that's on the Fenix, and I don't listen to music while I'm hiking either, so the Instinct is the better choice for me.

It's the perfect outdoor watch, for a short sunday walk, or long hikes, and I suspect even a multi day hut tour in the Alps (I haven't had the chance to use it in the Alps, sadly enough) the Instinct can handle it.  And the extra battery life thanks to the Solar panel is just awesome.

As always, this is just my own,  humble opinion.

[MichaelGT83]

I hope things get better for you Eric.


Managed to do my full morning walk for the first time in ages today.

[Echotech]

Already posted this in a topic about ABC watches, but thought I should post it in "my own"  topic as well  .

I got myself a new ABC watch a couple of weeks ago, the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical (let's name it G.I.S.T. for future reference).

Got the chance to test it out on a couple of short hikes, getting to learn how to use it.

It's not the easiest watch, it has quite a lot of functions besides the ABC stuff, like heart rate monitor, oxigen saturation meter, and some smart watch functions.  And the manual that comes with the watch is... how should I put it... very minimalistic (that's putting it mildly).

Here are some pics.

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)


Here you can see the solar panel:

(Image removed from quote.)


First impressions:

Pros:

- Great readability, even in direct sunlight.
- Very comfortable on the wrist, great wristband.
- Light weight, but still very solid feeling.
- Connectable with smartphone via Garmin App.
- Long battery life (no colour/touch screen), and extra battery life thanks to solar charging.
- A lot of changeable settings, like what info is visible on the watch face, and where does it show this info, regular display or reverse (negative) display.
- Altimeter needs calibrating at the start of each activity, and as much as you can during the activity (as with all barometric altimeters), but it's been quite precise as far as I can tell (will get back to this once I've done a hike with real up- and downhill bits in it).
- Price, well, it's not the cheapest, but still less than half the price of a Fenix 6 (which also offers solar charging, but less effective as on the Instinct, due to the Fenix 6 using more power with its colour/touchscreen, and the solar panel being a lot smaller as on the Instinct).
- While you can't store music on the watch itself, you can use the watch to control music stored on your phone, skip to the njext or previous song, pause, control the volume. 5


Cons:

- Not an easy watch for someone who's new to this type of watches
- The manual that comes with it is just rubbish, you can download a better manual on the Garmin site, and some YouTube even has a self-made manual in pdf format, which is even better than the one on the Garmin site.
- No colour- or touchscreen
- Not as many training functions as on the Fenix series.
- Music can not be stored on the watch itself.


Conclussion:

Since I'm not much of an athlete, I don't need all the extra training functions, or VO2 MAX stuff that's on the Fenix, and I don't listen to music while I'm hiking either, so the Instinct is the better choice for me.

It's the perfect outdoor watch, for a short sunday walk, or long hikes, and I suspect even a multi day hut tour in the Alps (I haven't had the chance to use it in the Alps, sadly enough) the Instinct can handle it.  And the extra battery life thanks to the Solar panel is just awesome.

As always, this is just my own,  humble opinion.

Great write up Eric, good to hear you’re so pleased with it

[Echotech]

Managed to do my full morning walk for the first time in ages today.

Can’t beat a good walk, good for you Michael

[Top-Gear-24]

I hope things get better for you Eric.


Managed to do my full morning walk for the first time in ages today.

(Image removed from quote.)

Thank you for the support my friend  .

And thank you for that sweet Pic, nothing beats a nice morning walk  .

Thanks for sharing it here  .

[Top-Gear-24]

Great write up Eric, good to hear you’re so pleased with it

Cheers mate  .

And yes, I'm really enjoying this new Garmin, I will give updates on it when it has seen a bit more use as well  .

[Echotech]

Dreadful to see the flooding in Belgium and Germany Eric, I hope you’ve not been affected. Really feel for everyone who has been

[Top-Gear-24]

Dreadful to see the flooding in Belgium and Germany Eric, I hope you’ve not been affected. Really feel for everyone who has been

Thanks my friend  .

We've had no problems here, but the images on the news are just awful, and the region that's hit the hardest is my favorite hiking region in Belgium.

As if Covid-19 isn't enough to worry about,  2021 isn't much better than 2020, and we're still only just half-way through...

[Echotech]

Pleased to hear it Eric

[Sneider]

Hi guys. Sorry for my long absence here, some problems and the terrible weather robbed me of time and desire to do something that I could show here.

But today my son and I were finally able to spend a few hours comfortably at our forest camp. A few impressions:

[Echotech]

How cool great pics Sneider

[Top-Gear-24]

Hey Peter,

So happy to have you back here my friend  .

What an awesome hide-out you guys have there  .

Moments like that are just priceless, and those are memories and experiences your son will pass on to his kids one day.

Thanks for sharing it with us mate  .

[Sneider]

@Echotech: Thank you!

@TG: Thank you, feels good to be back here.
Oh yes, we are very happy with our little forest camp and I feel that it is good for my child. It's not a spectacular place, but the forest owner tolerates us, we can get there on foot from home and are simply undisturbed there. For me it is a small luxury and in the first lockdown last year, this retreat really saved me from going mad.

[Top-Gear-24]

@Echotech: Thank you!

@TG: Thank you, feels good to be back here.
Oh yes, we are very happy with our little forest camp and I feel that it is good for my child. It's not a spectacular place, but the forest forum owner tolerates us, we can get there on foot from home and are simply undisturbed there. For me it is a small luxury and in the first lockdown last year, this retreat really saved me from going mad.

Exactly how I feel about this topic  .

This peaceful place where I meet up with my group of friends from all over the world, which this humble topic is, has saved me multiple times...

Thank you my friends .

[Sneider]

Well said. Really. 
I have nothing to add.

 

[Sneider]

Sometimes a slightly different place. Our public district swimming pool, a few hundred meters from our house.

[Top-Gear-24]

Is there anything more public than a public swimming pool? 

 

Well done my friend, and as far as I know that's a first in this topic (could be wrong,  but I didn't have the energy to go over the entire topic again  ).

Thanks for sharing your pics here mate, I could use a bit of a distraction, and what better place to look for it as in this topic.

Stay safe buddy  .

[Top-Gear-24]

Okay...

How can I say this without sounding too melodramatic...

Here goes... I might be away from this place for some time,  we're going through some rough times here (a number of things going wrong), and while already being down on the ground (sort of speaking), I just got kicked in the face (again, not literally) by one of the few people I trusted with my life...

I feel betrayed, stabbed in the back... And the fact  that it was by one of my most trusted and loved people in the world makes it hurt insanely bad...

So posting pics, or even posting a reaction to someone posting a pic here, might not happen for some time, until I find the strength to crawl back up again.

I'll probably drop by from time to time to read up a bit, and maybe see what pics you guys posted.  But I'll probably won't be active myself for a while.

Please, feel free to keep posting something here from time to time (this has never been the most active topic on the forum anyway, but it has been going slow, but steady).

Stay safe my friends, I hope to be back here when I have found the courage to pick up the pieces of myself.

(for smurf sake, that still sounded melodramatic)
 

[Echotech]

You stay safe too Eric and take all the time you need, we’ll be here if you need us. Look after yourself mate

[Sneider]

Eric, that sounds like a serious problem, not melodramatic. Take all the time you need, I wish you a lot of courage and power.

[Echotech]

Still in lockdown here in Sydney so haven’t left my suburb for 7 weeks now
Anyway something cheerful in my garden, hope you’re doing alright Eric
mate