Just an aside on the firmware suggestion, currently I'm a bit against upgrading. I had planned a long route (156miles) recently (literally 2 weeks ago) and through the process of uploading the route through Garmin Connect's desktop application it had upgraded the firmware to the latest and greatest version. Then, for whatever reason, when I tried accessing the route the device immediately froze, after the first freeze, every time I powered it on it froze after about a minute and became entirely unresponsive unless I held the power button down for at least 20 seconds. To remedy this, I first plugged it into my computer, and, within the minute of it not being frozen, I rummaged through it's system files and deleted all of my historical activities and all courses, thinking perhaps the new course kept trying to load into memory, freezing it.
This did not fix the issue. So, I deleted the "new" (as of about 2 weeks ago) firmware and manually installed one from a few months prior that I grabbed from the internet. This fixed the issue, I was also able to successfully load the course and ride as I pleased. This is why I'm kinda against a firmware upgrade for a bit...
I've discussed this with a few people IRL who've done the ride, apparently there are many people participating and the signage is quite good (however there were a couple of cases of people getting lost...) so now I'm considering simply packing some electrical tape, a small external battery, and a cord. My thought process is I can turn off bluetooth and backlight, use the device only to record, follow the other riders and signs, and only charge if necessary or if I do find myself getting lost (in which case I can load the route and nav to it).
Any thoughts on this wise people of BF?