AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

I was following along with your gazillionth EMHT report from like 2 years ago, scoping out future destinations. Couldn't for the life of me pin down this one shot -- and you gave me such a nice clue... or did you?

Is there any chance, Dan, this vantage point is, perhaps, 5336 ft MSL, rather than "6,500 feet" as you claimed? And that even its parent peak is only 6038 feet?



And you expect me to believe the winds were really "15mph" ???

I would like to speak to a manager.

 

Did you get this desert picture on TEMU?

 

checks if @turbodb has ever posted "all elevations are presented in the NAVD 88 datum, unless otherwise noted"

 

Just call me Sloppy McSloppyface. I don't know how many times I've said that you should be writing my stories. That would solve all these sorts of mistakes and make them more enjoyable to read.

Glad you found it, that's a great spot! We even enjoyed a "night rainbow" there the night before we met you to plant baby trees last year.

Actually, I think you and Mike should team up to write all my stories. This was hillarious.

 

"We have desert pictures at home!"

 

Curious to see what other solutions there would be for communicating from Garmin inreach to Garmin inreach, I just activated mine a couple days ago and have only sent one test message

 

To my knowledge, there are two ways to initiate a message to an InReach without first getting a message from it:

1. Someone can send you a message to your inreach address. This is an address that ends in @inreach.garmin.com, and that you can find by going to https://explore.garmin.com > Sign In > Account > find your "inReach Addr." on that page.
2. If you use the Garmin Messenger app (Android | iOS), and Garmin can match up the phone number of the recipient with the phone number registered/paired to another inReach device, then the message will go through to the inReach device.

I think #1 is the most surefire way, but supposedly #2 works. Happy to test with you if you'd like. Feel free to PM.

 

Had I read this earlier, I could have asked a Garmin rep who managed to make her way to the local bike shop. Super knowledgeable and genuinely interested too

 

I have used both methods successfully.

 

Hrm. Questions for you.

1. Using the @inreach.garmin.com address - does the initiating message have to come from a Garmin device? I tried sending myself an email to my inreach address (from my computer) but I never got it on my device.
2. Turns out that the Garmin Messenger app only works with inReach Mini 2 and not inReach Mini (which is what I have). Mine works with Garmin Earthmate, so I don't think method 2 works for me, unfortunately.

 

I guess I answered too quickly. My bad. So for #1, I went through my sent emails (I don’t delete much) and found some I had sent to the Garmin when my wife was using it on a trip. Then (like #2) I realized I also have the original Mini and use the Earthmate app, so I checked those messages and noticed I had sent my wife a message saying that the emails didn’t seem to be working. She did receive the messages sent from Earthmate. It’s been almost a year since we’ve used it in earnest. I will say that messages sent from the Garmin to my phone definitely worked, as she did use it in an emergency (someone else who was missing on a bikepacking trip) to notify me last year and it did what it needed to do. The “someone else” pushed the SOS button on their Mini and got in touch with S&R.

Anyway, I tried it again this morning and sent email and text message (SMS) from my phone and never received either one at the Garmin. I also sent a test message from the Earthmate app and it went through. This is worrisome, as it’s now unclear if someone can reach me on the Mini if they don’t use the Earthmate app. However, friends recently bought a Garmin Messenger and I received a message on our Mini device from their phone number, so presumably it originated as SMS.

 

@ian408 @dman100 @m3bassman

After some investigation with @unstpible and a conversation with Garmin support, these are the ways to send a message to a Garmin device. Note that these are technically covered here: Sending a Message to an inReach Device but I don't think they are covered as clearly as they could be.

1. You can reply to a message you received FROM the inReach device. This is by far the easiest but might not be an option if the inReach user hasn't sent a message recently.
2. You can initiate a message TO the inReach user by using the InReach users MapShare page (the MapShare page has to be setup by the inReach user in order for this to work).
3. With an inReach Mini 2, you can send a message to the device (assuming it is paired to a phone through the Garmin Messenger app, not just using the default Bluetooth pairing) using the Garmin Messenger app by choosing the recipients phone number and sending them a message.
4. You can send a message from one InReach device to another by using the InReach ID of the receiving device. The InReach ID is of the form <id>@inreach.garmin.com, and can be found by going to https://explore.garmin.com > Login > Account > inReach Addr. Verified that this works with Derek.

For the above:

• I think #1 is obvious, so no instructions for that one.
• I have an inReach Mini, so option #3 doesn't work for me. No instructions.
• #4 has instructions included above, since they are simple.
• For #2, it is not obvious, so here are instructions:

Garmin inReach owner - Setup Mapshare:

1. Go to https://explore.garmin.com
2. Login, then on the top navigation bar, click MapShare
   
   
   
   
3. Turn on the MapShare toggle and optionally edit your feed name
4. Click on MapShare Settings
   1. Enter a Password (unless you have unlimited messaging/want "anyone" to be able to send you a message)
   2. Be sure to check the box to "Allow map viewers to send you messages." (and any other options you want)
      
      

For the Person wanting to INITIATE contact to the Garmin Device:

1. Navigate to the MapShare page - in my case: https://share.garmin.com/adventuretaco
2. Enter the password
3. In the upper left corner, click Message
4. Click Send to initiate the message to the inReach device.

 

for some reason when I want to send a check in message it chooses me as the recipient without an option to change the recipient. it worked for me yesterday but today its being strange.
those $0.50 messages add up quick too but im glad to be getting this figured out before its a desperate situation.

 

Thanks Dan, I know my InReach ID so I “assumed” that anyone could reach the Garmin device by sending email or SMS to that ID. But I guess it’s never worked but didn’t realize that, since I also always used the Earthmate app as a backup messaging process, and of course that worked. After trying the three methods(text, Earthmate and email) yesterday I got this email bounceback:
There was a temporary problem delivering your message to ****@inreach.garmin.com. Gmail will retry for 47 more hours. You'll be notified if the delivery fails permanently.
No indication that the SMS hadn’t gone through of course. So I’ll set up MapShare. Thanks again. I’m an old geezer but I worked in what’s now called the tech industry for decades, and have been using email since the mid-eighties and the Arpanet/usenet/Internet since before the WWW but I guess I’m not as tech-savvy as I thought.

 

OK Dan I went through the MapShare setup and sent a test message. Even sitting indoors without a clear view of the sky the Mini received the message sent from the MapShare page within just a few minutes. I guess the satellite had line of sight through the window. Anyway, since this requires a sender to know this process, and not just the Garmin ID, i suppose the only advantage over them installing the free Earthmate app and using that for messaging, is that they only need a browser and the URL of share.garmin.com . I guess the latter requires them to have their own Earthmate account. My wife and I have one Mini and one account, and both of us have Earthmate on our phones and we both know the ID and login. So if we’re traveling solo, we each know how to reach the other person on the assumption that the person without the Mini has cell service. We do this regularly. But we also gave our Garmin ID to our kids, assuming they could reach us if we’re together but off-grid … “Hey Mom and Dad, the house burned down.” But now we’ll have to explain the MapShare process and give them the password.

 

I'm an email guy too - when I was working (also in tech), that's how the company worked, and I'd easily sort through 1500 emails/day. I chuckle when folks complain about a few dozen and how it's "overwhelming." I'm very surprised that the email@inreach.garmin.com doesn't just work genericly. It seems so much more straightfoward, and like something that a normal human could understand if they needed to get in touch with a Garmin user in an emergency. Plus, Garmin makes money on every message, so a win for them too. Super broken that it doesn't work IMO.

You're right - you must have had line of sight through the window. I tested it an made sure that my phone was in airplane mode (so no possibility that it was sending wifi/LTE data to the inReach mini) when I sent the message through MapShare on my computer, so I can verify that it definitely does work.

Not totally sure I followed what you were saying due to the ambiguous use of "the latter," but I can confirm you do not have to have an Earthmate account to use the MapShare URL. I did my test using an InPrivate browser instance, so I wasn't logged in when I sent a message to my sat device. You do need to know the MapShare URL password that the Garmin InReach user has setup to prevent "random" messages though.

Yeah, once I learned the MapShare process, I sent an email to the folks who receive my preset messages, outlining the process, since it's not obvious. What a bummer.

Also, FIFY.

 

It has always seemed to me like email should be included in the subscription plan.

 

I think the root cause of all the inconsistencies is the ancient DeLorme Earthmate hardware and software roots of these devices. I had a Earthmate GPS dongle that plugged into my laptop with a DB9 serial cable back in the last century (a laptop that had a built-in modem but no Ethernet). The various Garmin sites (share, explore etc) that are needed, not to mention that there’s really no wireless update capability, indicate the age of this platform.

I realize I was rambling a bit incoherently there: I probably shouldn’t be pointing fingers at Garmin for poor documentation . I was just wondering whether logging into the Garmin site to use MapShare each time someone wants to send a message to me, is really any easier than downloading the Earthmate app and doing it “natively”. But I did conclude that the MapShare method is probably easier, since it can be done from any device and any browser, no account needed as long as they have the info and password to access my personal MapShare page. It’s easy enough to let our kids know how to do it. They are very comfortable with this stuff.

 

Have you explored the t-mobile satellite texting service? It allows you to send and receive texts via Starlink on your phone. I’ve been using it through the beta testing period and find it works pretty well. It also allows location sharing. Please ignore if already discussed in thread.

https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/satellite-phone-service

 

I've heard of it, but not used it. I do have sat texting on my new iPhone 16 (and it's apparently free and uses some Apple service). SMS only.

I still like to have the inReach, as the main reason I used it is for SOS, and it's built around that. I have more faith that my SOS will get out and to someone who can do something about it, given Garmin's experience, and the inReach battery lasts a lot longer than my phone battery if it takes a while to reach me. Long term though, I think they are going to need to adapt or they'll lose to Starlink (or something similar) which is what T-mobile is using. (And not to mention any of the political implications of Starlink which may/not be an issue for some, and which we don't need to get into here.)