Portable power – charge your phone on the go

Even out on a hike many people still like to have access to their smart phones. To continue to be able to use the smart phone for an extended hike, they will need some type of portable power. There are several ways to achieve this:

Portable Battery – batteries tend to be heavy, but can be very useful for storing some power from home, or anywhere you may have access to power for later use on the trail. Another downside to a portable battery than just being heavy is that once it’s drained, it’s just a brick in the pack until it can be charged up somewhere. Here’s my short review of the portable battery I use.
Portable Solar Panel – this option is nice as it will actually generate power while on the trail. To make optimum use of if though, you should have a portable battery to store any generated power. Many portable solar panel options may include a battery for storing some of the power they generate. Many can also run straight into the battery on the smart phone, but once the phone is charged excess power will be lost. Unfortunately, no sun, no power. This could be due to cloudy weather or hiking in dense cover.
Hand power generator – Everyone has seen the crank flashlight or emergency radio, they also have them that you can generate some electricity to charge a cell phone. These are usually reserved for emergencies as it would take A LOT of cranking to fully charge a smart phone.

When it comes to portable power a combined solution is probably best. The portable solar panel with built in battery will generate and store power while on the hike. But can the battery be charged from a regular power outlet if one is available? A larger battery that can be charged before the hike then store any that is generated on the way may be the longest term solution to your portable power problem.