Why You Should Consider Getting a GPS Watch for Backpacking

Last year, I made a daring move for an ultralight backpacker: I added a piece of gear to my packing list. It wasn’t a decision I made lightly. After two months of research, note taking, and soul searching, I put down a big chunk of money on something I’ve managed without for my first 4,000 miles of backpacking. In fact, it’s the most expensive single item in my whole gear closet.

What is it? A watch.

It wasn’t just any watch, though. It’s a GPS sports watch capable of map, compass, fitness tracking, and solar charging. Although I was timid about the purchase at first, it quickly changed how I prepared for and executed my thru-hikes.

Using a smartwatch is common in the ultra and running communities, but there is precious little information about using them for long-distance backpacking. Read on to find out why it might be worth picking one up, how to use one, and some recommendations.

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Advantages of Using a GPS Watch for Backpacking

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1. Keep Better Track of Distances, Elevation, Pace, and Effort

GPS watches are excellent at keeping track of your trips. They can record distances with high precision, with data collection intervals as tight as one second on most models. They can also calculate elevation gain and loss using an integrated barometer, and/or a 3D terrain model like mapping softwares and phones do. This is a huge benefit as many digital models use 30 meter contour spacing, meaning it can lose a lot of fine, rolling terrain or add errant elevation when walking along pointy peaks and ridges.

Using the (X,Y,Z) of this data, they can also provide detailed information on your pace and stopped time. While this may seem like pointless info to the “stop and smell the roses” crowd, knowing how fast you climb steep terrain, cruise flats, or break for lunch can be very handy in estimating pace for the days ahead or future trips. Combined with heart rate data, it can also tell you when you are pushing too hard and might be better off calling it a night.

2. Count Down the Miles to Camp

With the correct preparation, you can follow along your planned route and get high quality estimates of remaining miles and elevation gain for the day. For the hungry and tired thru-hiker, the question “how far is it to dinner” is often on the mind starting around lunch. Having these stats ready to go on your wrist can eliminate the poorly executed guess-timation that leads to empty snack bags. 

I also love using this feature to estimate my arrival time and figure out if I am going to arrive way too early (and could keep going) or way too late (and need to keep an eye out for an earlier campsite).

3. Instantly Check if You Are on Trail

Besides my nerdy obsession with stats, being able to quickly check if I am on or off trail, or which fork I need to take at an intersection, is the primary reason I invested in a GPS watch in the first place. Constantly pulling out a phone from storage, unlocking, opening your navigation app, and centering the map to tell if you are going the right way has always been a major trail annoyance of mine. It can also be a major safety hazard if you attempt this while still walking (it causes more problems than us thru-hikers would like to admit).

With no lock screens and the device always in view on my wrist, there is no practical delay in checking that you are on track. Most watches offer always-on-displays and centered-on-location maps, meaning you might not even need to click any buttons to check your status.

4. Off-Route Alerts

Have you ever missed a trail intersection or taken the wrong fork in the road for miles, only to realize you need to backtrack to get where you are going? I know I have, and more than once. Most GPS watches have an “off route” alert that will give you a buzz or a beep when you get a certain amount off your loaded course. They will also alert you when you get back on track to prevent you from overshooting your return.

I can’t tell you how many miles and hours this has probably saved me in the last year alone. It’s also helped keep me off unnecessary roadwalk. In sections where the trail parallels or weaves on and off pavement, the alert helps pull me out of the “head down and grind” mental space and catch those faint social trails back to singletrack.

5. Backup Navigation

It’s a hushed truth that the vast majority of thru-hikers are not carrying paper maps and are fully dependent on smartphone navigation to know where they are going.

I carried paper maps for the first few hundred miles of the CDT, but willingly admit I ditched them eventually. I became quickly annoyed with disposing of the extras, resupplying myself with the new set, and keeping them handy enough to actually use. I stopped having them mailed out before I even finished my first state.

This was not a perfect plan: my smartphone was three years old with a bad battery and was prone to overheating. When I lost my power bank in the Wind River Range, I had to navigate for four days on 67% of a diminished capacity battery over literal hundreds of blowdowns. My battery died five miles short of my hitching point, leaving me to guess my last handful of turns to the road.

A GPS watch pre-loaded with tracks serves as a weight-efficient, battery-saving navigation device. I still keep a smartphone app handy for big picture planning, getting high resolution map context, and those precious FarOut comments, but I can operate most of the day just with a watch. Smartphones are pretty tough these days, but watches are generally more durable, more water resistant, and harder to lose since they are strapped to your body. 

Besides just digital maps and courses, most adventure oriented models will have a feature set lovingly referred to as the ABCs: altimeter, barometer, and compass. The altimeter can precisely track your elevation, a handy tool for advanced navigation. The barometer (which usually informs the altimeter) can give a sense of air pressure changes that indicate storms in advance. The compass obviously helps get a sense of direction, and more precisely than the digital compasses in a smartphone.

To me, this combo is a perfectly adequate navigation toolset for an experienced and responsible hiker. I can’t see myself printing maps again for all but the most extreme of trips.

6. Any Weather, No Problem

Most GPS watches are extremely waterproof, advertised and rated for swimming and even deep water diving. In the thru-hiker context of the occasional drizzle or quick submersions filling water bottles, there’s not much to worry about weather wise.

Some now have touchscreen capabilities but are primarily controlled through buttons around the casing. During a downpour where the sensitive touch screens on a phone start bugging out, a watch won’t skip a beat with its button based navigation.

I faced many days of persistent rain across my summer thru-hikes and was pleasantly surprised by how much easier it was to navigate in the rain with my watch strapped over my rain jacket. Me and my phone stayed consistently dry since I did not have to deglove or reach under my rain pants, just to expose my more delicate device to the open sky.

7. Save Your Phone’s Battery Life 

Modern GPS watches are shockingly efficient, capable of lasting weeks on end in standard smartwatch mode or multiple days during high precision GPS and activity tracking before a recharge. For a device that weighs about 2 ounces and fits easily into the palm of your hand, their efficiency is hard to beat.

For example, my current smartphone can track about 40 hours of GPS at 5-second intervals with a 17 Watt-hour (Wh) battery. On the other hand, my current smartwatch can track 72 hours of GPS at 1 second intervals with a ~3.2 Wh battery. That makes it about 5 times more efficient while recording 5 times as much data.

A watch can help reduce inefficient phone use in other ways. Playing music directly off the device is at least twice as efficient. Using it as a morning alarm allows you to turn off the phone entirely overnight. It can also prevent you from using the screen during the day to check the time, get a weather update, or read the map.

Using a watch doesn’t entirely replace the need for a smartphone, but it does extend my phone’s life by several days in the field. This can be the make or break point between needing a large or small power bank, or even carrying multiple.

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Annoyances of Using a GPS Watch for Backpacking

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1. Limited Battery Life

Even if a watch is significantly more efficient, the actual battery size is much, much smaller than a phone. With a midrange model, I often have to charge my phone and watch at similar 3- to 4-day intervals. I also needed to check the weather and top off the battery before any rain could soak the device, since it is ill advised to plug in a wet charging port.

Having to charge mid-section means you need to factor in the watch while calculating the size of your battery bank. As devices get more efficient and device makers continue to compete on battery life, hopefully this issue is mitigated. 

2. Layering Woes

People with jewelry will know that changing layers can cause tangles. This is true with smart watches as well; their relative bulk makes plenty of surface to get caught up in. This is one thing I still get annoyed by, almost a year after getting my first watch. Some running specific models focus on being lighter and slimmer which can help mitigate this, but comes at the expense of battery life.

3. Another Gadget To Keep Track Of

“Keep it Simple Stupid” is often best practice in backpacking. A smartwatch is not strictly necessary, and is just another electronic doodad to keep an eye on when you should be enjoying nature. If you need to have a phone anyways, why bother with an extra device that pretty much does all the same stuff?

Being small and inconspicuous, a watch can be easy to leave behind at hostels, shower stops, or inside a tent pocket in the morning.

4. Specialty Charger Plugs

In a world that increasingly prioritizes a universal USB-C charging port, wearable devices are still plagued by proprietary connectors. Garmin uses a 4-pin connector (that is effectively a funky shaped USB 2.0), Coros uses a data-less 3-pin cable, and Suunto has a baffling nine unique chargers listed on their site for different models.

The size, mechanical reliability, and waterproofness of the USB-C standard means this isn’t going to be incorporated on small electronics anytime soon. You will need a dedicated and difficult-to-replace cable or dongle to keep things topped up.

5. Expensive

Top end, long battery life digital watches are becoming increasingly expensive. The premium Garmin Fenix 8 will now set you back a whopping $1,200. That’s the same as an iPhone 16 Pro Max. That’s also as much as some people’s entire gear list costs, or how much you might spend in a few months on trail on a budget.

At the same time, there are more and more budget options on the market from brands like Coros and Amazfit that can cut the cost down to just a few hundred bucks. The cheaper models often omit useful features like maps though.

6. Devices Age Quickly

Like many electronic devices, smartwatches have a limited life span. Batteries get worn down, software gets discontinued, you trip and smash into a rock. In all likelihood, a watch is going to be a recurring cost, not a “buy once cry once” situation.

7. Speed

One of the reasons GPS watches are so efficient is that their processors and sensors are small and intentionally limit power consumption. Limited electrical power also means limited processing power. Compared to other electronics in your life it is likely to feel sluggish or laggy. I find this particularly noticeable when using modes that are heavy on data and memory, such as panning a map or graphing large data sets.

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Is All This Really Necessary? 

To put it simply, no.

The vast majority of hikers are not using wearable electronics, and those who are don’t really need them. I don’t mean to push the narrative that more stuff will make or break your backpacking trips. If you just want to get out and hike, then just get out and hike.

I’ve enjoyed my watch as a bit of efficiency and convenience on trail, and to satisfy the data nerd in me when I’m home from my trips. At the same time, if I forgot my watch, life would go on and I would still have a great trip.

How To Choose

If you are looking to buy a watch, here are a few specs to keep an eye on.

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1. Battery Life With GPS On

Some watches can last almost indefinitely in “smartwatch” mode, but GPS tracking is battery intensive. Make sure you are looking at how long the watch can track for with your anticipated settings.

2. Solar Charging

A limited number of models, especially from Garmin, have a translucent solar panel over the display or along the edges to extend the usable life beyond what a battery can do alone. Be warned: they generally can’t recharge your watch, just slow the rate of battery consumption.

3. Map Features

A big gatekeeping feature between entry level and premium watches is the ability to see a map on the device. “Breadcrumb” or coordinate storing only models are not going to be as helpful in identifying the correct fork in the trail.

4. Overall Size and Weight

Larger models have significantly improved battery life, but are often impractically big for skinny hikers. Check your local outdoors or running store for demo models to get a feel for what fits your body.

5. GPS Tech

“GPS” is actually a specific type of satellite based location technology, with the generic category of tech being referred to as GNSS (global navigation satellite systems). There are other, similar types of satellite networks such as GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou that some watches can also locate with. On high end models it is now standard to track with two or more at once for improved accuracy.

6. Sensor Quality

The primary use case for most of the population is general fitness and exercise tracking. These users are more interested in heart rate data and stress testing rather than getting perfect GPS tracks of their latest trips. The wrist based sensors on devices have improved dramatically in just a few years, creating a large spread in quality across brands and devices.

7. Display Type

There are currently two major screen technologies in watches: MIPS and AMOLED/LED.

MIPS (memory in pixel) displays are quite a bit like early Gameboys or e-readers. They are lower pixel density, not self-illuminating, limited in number of colors available, but significantly more power efficient. The display is “always on” and only consumes a larger amount of power when the screen updates or the supplemental backlight is turned on.

AMOLED displays use the same bright, colorful pixels as smartphones. They consume a lot more power and always refresh at higher rates. To save power, the standard is to turn off the display entirely when not in use.

The preference between the two is personal, but I prefer the efficiency and simplicity of the MIPS, and actually find them easier to read in full sun than AMOLED.

8. App Ecosystem

All the major brands provide a smartphone app to connect and display the data collected by the watch. These are also how you might interface with other mapping platforms, social media, and control music from the device.

I don’t make it a priority to pick my device based just on this, but it is worth checking what might be compatible before buying.

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Some Recommended GPS Watch Models for Backpacking

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Garmin Enduro 3: $900 MSRP

I am currently using the Enduro 3 for a future review, but to keep it short, it has everything I want in a backpacking watch: insane battery life (72 hours of default/ all GNSS systems tracking), solar power mitigation, MIPS display, and maps. The only downside is that it only comes in a very large 51mm case size.

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro SS: $900 MSRP

The 7th gen Fenix line is a bit dated now, but still rock solid and increasingly available on discount. It has a lot of the same features as the Enduro 3 (MIPS, Solar, maps) with the nice addition of multiple sizes (42mm, 47mm, and 51mm). The big drawback is reduced battery life, at 26-63 hours depending on what size you wear.

If you want the options for AMOLED or more modern features like a microphone, look instead at the current generation, the Fenix 8.

Coros Vertix 2S: $700 MSRP

Coros is best known for, and still leads the field in, long GPS tracking battery life. The Vertix 2S has a staggering 118 hours of GPS-only tracking endurance, while still featuring maps and a high quality MIPS display. Similar to the Enduro 3 it is only available in a large 50mm size. To be fair to the Enduro 3, the Vertix 2S’s all-GNSS-system battery life is a similar 73 hours.

Coros Apex 2 Pro: $450

The Apex 2 Pro is smaller and lighter than the chunky Vertix 2S. Unfortunately, its battery life is about half. This is probably one of the better options in the “mid range” budget category.

Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar: $700

The Vertical is Suunto’s stab at an adventure focused, battery monster device. It doesn’t quite stack up to Garmin or Coros at 65 hours (of all systems, multiband data) but it’s damn close. It can also stretch quite a bit with solar charging in the right conditions.

Suunto Race S: $350

This is a more budget-friendly option that keeps a workable 30-40 hours of tracking. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the premium models, but at the price, it will certainly get the job done. Unlike the other models on this list, the display is AMOLED, not MIPS.

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Featured image: Graphic design by Chris Helm