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I believe that there is a place for beacons and similar devices...pilots, mariners, long distance overlanders, group guides to name a few. However, if a person is a day hiker, a hunter, a backwoods fisherman, a bird watcher etc, and they do not possess the very basic traditional equipment and skills to to keep out of trouble or to spend an unexpected night in the woods and extract themselves without relying on others to rescue them in lieu of those skills, they should really stay on the pavement or hire an experienced guide. [/quote]

I like to hike the boulder-strewn canyons in SoCal where there is often no cell service. No, I don't just like it, I REALLY like it. I have found and seen stuff (including ancient petroglyphs) that few other people have seen, perhaps no one in recent history. I could fall off a boulder and break a leg. I could get bitten by a poisonous snake. I could get attacked by a mountain lion or a bear. I could have a heart attack. This isn't just armchair fantasy, it happens. It happens within 10-15 walking/climbing minutes of houses here. Am I gonna stop doing this? Nope. Am I gonna carry a PLB in case I get disabled? You bet. ;-)