For the next three days, receive a $50 mail-in rebate for purchasing a SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger from Rock/Creek! Full details about this rebate, as well as the form you’ll need to fill out, are available here.

The SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger uses 100% satellite technology to provide a line of communication with your friends or family in the wilderness whenever you want, and to call for emergency assistance if you need help. It works virtually anywhere in the world, including places that cell phones do not, requiring only the push of a button.

Last summer, Rock/Creek employee Lizzie Goodrick and her boyfriend, John, canoed the full traversible length of the Mackenzie River in Canada — approximately 1,080 miles! — from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean over the course of five weeks, and they took their SPOT with them. It was really cool to receive their frequent updates, as well as seeing where in the world our friends were.

Based on their experiences, it’s worth noting that Rock/Creek strongly recommends spending some time to familiarize yourself with the device before leaving on a planned trip. In addition, we suggest leaving it on for at least 30-40 minutes when you’re trying to send a message, as it can take this long for the unit to link with a satellite and finish transmitting.

Being in the backcountry doesn’t have to mean being completely cut off from the world in an emergency situation. Tell your mom, and she just might buy one for you so she can sleep peacefully at night while you’re off in the middle of nowhere!

We’d love to receive updates from SPOT users who are planning their own adventures this summer; leave a comment below, or post on our Facebook page, if you’re up to something exciting and would like to share!