Tester Information:
Name: Jason Boyle
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 6"/ 1.68 m
Weight: 170 lb/ 77 kg
Email address: c4jc "at" hotmail "dot" com
City, State, Country: Snoqualmie, Washington, U. S.
Backpacking Background:
I have been camping and backpacking for about 18 years. My introduction to the outdoors started with the Boy Scouts of America and has continued as an adult. I have hiked mostly in the Southeastern and Northeastern United States. I am generally a lightweight hiker, but will carry extras to keep me comfortable. I have recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest and spend most of my time hiking and backpacking in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, but I can be found exploring the other wild areas of Washington!
HighGear TrailDrop

Product Information:
Manufacturer: HighGear
Model: TrailDrop
Year of Manufacture: 2005
URL:www.highgear.com
Listed weight: none listed
Measured weight: 1.1 oz (31 g)
MSRP: $50 U.S.
Dimensions: 3-1/2” x 1-7/8” x 5/8” (8.9 x 4.8 x 1.6 cm)

Product Description:
The TrailDrop is a small electronic compass, watch, and temperature gauge. It is made to be attached to a backpack or something similar to that. I currently carry mine on a carabiner attached to my backpack straps. I have listed the features from HighGear below:

Compass:
Digital compass
Displays bearing in degrees and cardinal points
Resolution 1° with 16 cardinal points
Adjustable declination
Leveling bubble for increased accuracy
User option for single or continuous reading

Temperature :
Digital thermometer
Resolution 0.1 in F and C
Working range –4F to +131F (-20C to +55C)

Watch:
Time/Day/Date/Month with Dual Time Zone
12 or 24 hour format
Time/Temp display
Dual daily alarm
Hourly chime

Chrono:
Resolution 1/100 second with maximum time range 24hr
Chronograph with lap/split time measurement Timer
Maximum time range 24hr
Countdown timer with stop, repeat, and up function
EL backlight system
Water resistant 10 m (32.81 ft)

Summary:
This is a handy little gadget that has become a mainstay in my gear closet. I like having easy access to the time, surrounding temperature, and electronic compass all at the touch of a button. Other than some of the plastic in the housing rubbing off after being exposed to bug spray, I have had no problems with it.

Field Information:
I have used the TrailDrop since January of 2006 to present. My trips have ranged from backpacking/dayhiking in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Mt. Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest, Olympic National Park, and Yosemite National Park to alpine ski trips at the Summit at Snoqualmie. Elevation ranged from sea level to 10,000+ feet (3048 m), precipitation included rain, snow, and fog, and temperatures ranged from 25 F to 90+ F (-4 C to 32 C)

Review:
I don’t really like to wear a watch, but I like to know what time it is and how fast I am hiking. Yes I am a type “A” person! I also wanted a way to tell the temperature and a compass is an important part of my 10 essentials. Why not find something that can do all three? So I looked at several different models of combination timebepieces and settled on the TrailDrop because of its features and the easy ability to attach it to a carabiner.

The compass function is very easy to use. HighGear was even thoughtful enough to make the compass button orange instead of the grey color used for all of the other buttons. While navigating off trail in Yosemite, I was able to use the compass function to shoot bearings to the lake I was navigating to. As a backup check, I also compared the bearings from the TrailDrop compass with a standard compass and came up with same bearings. It made me feel good to know that the TrailDrop was accurate.

I found the temperature gauge to be my most used function on the TrailDrop. I like knowing what the temperature is while hiking and tracking the changes throughout the day and with the simple push of a button I can. I found it to be accurate and would corroborate with my hiking partners to verify temperature readings.

The time and chrono functions were used the least out of all of the functions. Once I set the time, I did not really mess with it again. I also set the alarm to my normal wake up time and have not messed with it again. The stopwatch function works well and is similar in use to other time pieces with that function. I just have not had any need for a stopwatch while hiking.

The TrailDrop has proven to be very durable. Since it is normally attached to my backpack straps it gets pretty abused. It normally hits the ground when I take my pack off but I have noticed any damage from this. While in Yosemite the mosquitoes were incredibly bad and I broke down and used some bug spray with DEET in it. The DEET got onto the TrailDrop while spraying it on me and caused some of the plastic in the housing to rub off. It appears that under the grey outer layer is an orange layer of plastic. It also caused some of the cardinal point writing on the outer ring to rub off. The DEET issues have not interfered with the working of the TrailDrop and appear to be cosmetic. I assume at some point I will need to change the battery, but have not had to in the 10 months that I have used it.

The TrailDrop has worked fine in various precipitation situations as well. I have used it in heavy snow while alpine skiing, and while hiking in a typical Washington downpour with no loss of function. Extreme temperatures have not seemed to affect it either.

Finally a word of caution, a compass by itself is no guarantee that the user won't get lost. I still carry a standard compass if I am going to do serious off trail hiking where I need to take bearings to landmarks from a topographical map instead of line of sight off trail hiking like I did in Yosemite. I highly recommend attending a class on compass usage if one is available.

In conclusion, the TrailDrop is an easy to use, durable, and accurate watch, compass and temperature gauge and I would not hesitate to buy one again.

Read more reviews of Highgear gear
Read more gear reviews by Jason Boyle

Owner Review by Jason Boyle

All material on this site is the exclusive property of BackpackGearTest.org.
BackpackGearTest software copyright David Anderson