New idea - InReach Rescue Group?

I got a Garmin InReach Mini last week because I almost always go to the mountains alone, and am always the only truck. My wife goes with me fairly frequently, and a good friend goes when he can get freed up. Up until now, I have always made a map and emailed it to my wife if I go alone, showing what roads I'll drive, where I may park, where I'll hike, etc. I decided that was too confining, so I got the InReach. For those who may not know, the InReach is a satellite link up that allows you to use your phone to text from almost anywhere in the world. You buy the unit and pay a monthly fee. There is also optional extraction insurance (only for the owner of the unit, not friends or family) covering up to $50k, I've heard, but yet to look into it.

Tonight I got to thinking. Maybe there are other people like me, who go it alone most of the time and have an InReach for emergencies. Then I thought, if there are, we ought to form a group of folks who have them and are willing to be contacted in the event of a stranding, but not a medical emergency, of course. Getting stuck, having more flats than you have spares, dead battery, stuck behind a dead tree, etc.

I have some other ideas for how to organize the group, but before I waste my time, I wanted to see how many people have the units, and would be interested in setting up something like this. Reply here or PM me if you have an InReach and are interested in the prospect.

 

Cool idea. I’m an inReach user. Have been for just a couple years, mainly use it for backcountry ski touring and backpacking. Checkout the WORN Facebook group. It’s basically what you describe minus the inReach part. Not sure on the execution of your idea, would have to be text/ sms based I guess

 

I've been meaning to get one, great idea. Fwiw I listened to a podcast recently about a guy who got attacked by a bear and needed to use his oh shit button. It took them longer to figure out who to send than for his group to get in touch with the coast guard and have a helicopter there to get him.

 

With a little IFTTT magic you might be able to make this pretty functional. Setup one of the preset messages to send a message to IFTTT, IFTTT relays that to emails/sms of members.

Hard part would be getting out details of the help needed.

 

I just use the text message function to text someone for help like I would if I had cell service. That's the number one benefit of these over a SPOT with only an SOS button. The downside of inreach to inreach messaging is that the receiving unit has to be turned on. I don't know about you but mine is only turned on when I'm out in the woods.

If you want to let TW know you need help you can use the TW Live thread to do that from your inreach.

You can also share your track as you go with a public link. Start a trip thread on TW and put that link in it and now anytime you're out all someone has to do is click that link and see where you're at.

 

Sounds like a good idea, though the northwest is a big region. If nothing else, though - posting tracks and/or messages to crosspost stuff to TW isn't a bad idea. Remember you can send (free) presets to emails as well as other inreach users, phones, etc.

 

I also recently acquired an inreach mostly due to my propensity for going into the middle of nowhere alone and losing track of time which causes my wife to reasonably so get a little anxious. As for an inreach group that would be a bit difficult with such a large area, nevertheless it's not a bad idea at all.

The Oregon Off-Road recovery group is trying to setup a group for vehicle related recoveries and they have the ability to receive a text with GPS to send someone to help recover your vehicle, this of course would not apply to extraction of humans.
https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/what-to-know-about-oregon-off-road-recoverys-free-service/