It's not mesh. It's just a typical data radio. If the person you want to communicate with isn't in range then you can't bounce the signal through other people.

It sounds like the MURS (150 MHz) band that goTenna and Beartooth use doesn't allow store and forward, or a connection to the Internet.

Which is unfortunate since one use case would be having a relay in car at trailhead to pass messages from internet.

Looks that way: https://beartooth.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216791588-Ho...

"Once you've paired Beartooth with your smartphone you can communicate with any other Beartooth users within range (about 2 miles). You can use Beartooth's app to talk, text, use maps, and share your location"

It sounds like to me just 1-to-1 contact with random people with the same device, and not necessarily using someone else as a relay to form a mesh network.