Does any here use their Fenix 5X while hiking?

Former Member over 8 years ago

Just curious how many people use this for hiking or backpacking. What are your typical uses?

I love the navigation feature - except for the fact that a key element, Distance Remaining, doesn't work. The navigation Distance Remaining and the data field you can add for Distance Remaining are never the same. So odd.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

One other thing! I too noticed a discrepancy between 'distance remaining' fields too, when following a route that had been autorouted along a non-straight-line (i.e. following a road or path). I think the one shown under the map is the distance to the next turn and the other one on a different screen is the total distance remaining. Maybe... Documentation on the IQ widgets and apps is very very poor when it comes to details....

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I really suggest you use Basecamp or similar to download a list of 'saved locations' to aid in your navigation.

It is difficult to predict everything before the trip, so I prefer mobile methods.

In the years 2001-2014 I used tourist GPS receivers (most recently Oregon 600).
From 2015, I use the set: android smartphone + Garmin watch (EPIX, currently Fenix 5X)

I control the parameters of the trip on the watch.
The Android smartphone is my mobile "BaseCamp".

On the smartphone:
* LocusMap (in my opinion better than BaseCamp on PC) + BRouter (data for routing - they work offline in the Locus background)
On the smartphone (+ in the watch):
* applications that allow you to transfer waypoints and courses prepared in LocusMap for the watch (via BT): IQMapReceiver, Gimporter.

Links:
http://www.locusmap.eu/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ols.routingapp

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ils.iqreceiver
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...site.gexporter

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I use mine for hiking and use the maps. However I do have to take a back up maps as looking at a paper or smartphone version is quicker to find an alternative route

0 Chiefyspanner over 7 years ago

I use mine for hiking and use the maps regularly. I also use my IPhone 8+ on offline GPS for finer detail. I find that 5x is great for following a route with just having to glance at my wrist and not having to keep taking something out of my pocket constantly. The phone and the watch compliment each other.

0 Sam201176 over 7 years ago

Hiking was the reason why I bought the 5x.
Living in Wales,I love to hike through my local forests and hills.
I use four different (copied) hike profiles with diferent custom map configurations and settings,depending on the area.
I like "frikart" maps for hiking,as they are the most detailed maps I've found for my area.
Talkie toaster maps are great aswell.
Also using a tranparent contour map is a good idea for use with any other map installed.
I find running on a road surface very boring and hurts my knees,but really enjoy hiking,and filling the watch with new points of interest,( saved locations) on the go. :-)

0 M.ZIELINSKI over 7 years ago

I alsow use my Fenix 5X for Hiking Especially i train for a 100km in 24 hours Hike around my Hometown. For this Reason i made several tests, how long the navigation Funktion of the Watch will work with different settings and how to charge while still hiking.

About the battery life - i found that auto turning the map into walking direction nearly halves the battery life - setting it to alwas north oriented dowbled the battery and now i get 16 hours of battery with gps (no ultratrac) and following a track, backlight on for 15 second on 40%.

I wrote an article about this battery testing: https://geocaching-hamburg.de/2018/01/03/halten-die-benoetigten-elektronischen-geraete-lang-genug-durch/

An article about my modded charging cable: https://geocaching-hamburg.de/2018/01/16/fenix-5-5x-5s-ladekabel-unterwegs/

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Recently used my Fenix 5x to do the UK 'Wainwrights' Coast to Coast walk (C2C) over 3 consecutive weeks. (we were taking it easy). With the GPX file containing the main route and lots of waypoints that I garnered from the internet (Google Wainwright GPX. Wildtramper is the one I used, I think), it performed brilliantly to keep me on track.

What it didn't do so well was show me the 'elevation ahead' when I routed a path to somewhere. (That's a known bug that has been promised to fix since version 7.1) Also, it doesn't show multiple GPS tracks at the same time, so I had to remember when alternative routes were possible and switch 'courses' at those points. Would be much nicer if it could show multiple courses on the map at once.
Using GPS only (on all the time), the battery life was ok-ish. It only went (almost) flat once on an 11 hour segment. I don't use Ultra Trak. That is not a solution I care for. Way too imprecise.
With the right maps, (Talkytoaster's OSM British-isles+contours)_again garnered from the interweb and loaded manually to the Fenix, I could see a lot of detail in the UK, right down to the 'public footpaths' they have there that are not much more than a faint trail in the grass across someone's sheep paddock.

All-in-all the Fenix performed well. I only had to resort to my larger GPS device when I needed to get more mapping context. Trying to scroll around on the tiny watch screen in the middle of a rainstorm (or anytime, really) is an exercise in futility. However, it could and did tell me (by vibrating) when I was off course and that saved me a few times.