Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Anyone uses GPS for hiking?

Thank you so much for all the info and advice!! It really helps to hear what you have gone through with your units, and how you use them.

Looked up info on UTM online, very cool! Thanks again!

You guys rock!

I'll add another vote for the Garmin Vista HCX. I got it for under 200 from Amazon and it has a ton of features, including being able to auto-route. It works fairly well, but I have noticed on some occasions that my position can get drastically thrown off under heavy tree cover or in canyons (or Yosemite Valley!). As long as your life does not depend on the accuracy of the GPS, they are fantastic tools on the trail. It's also a lot of fun to download and review all the data and see your track on Google Earth

If you are interested in a Garmin, I would suggest you go to their website and use their comparison tool to compare all the features between the models you may want to buy (except price...you can ALWAYS find them cheaper than retail!!) It's very helpful.

I keep hearing this, but haven't experienced these problems. Battery life seems to be 6 to 8 hours, same as I get with my Geko and 12XL. The screen is very crisp IMO, but since the field of view is narrow, you have to tilt it at the correct angle for easy viewing. If I have no problem with my eyes (see my trail name) it can't be that bad!

If you don't care where you are as long as you're in the wilderness, can you really be lost?

I bought my 60CSX in june on Amazon for $291.34 and it is still the same price today. I love it.




You don't need the mapping software. I use a better (and free) version that I got off the internet. It has the topo lines marked (in feet) in even multiples like 10,20,30, etc insteasd of the GARMIN gibberish of converting meters-to-feet on metric multiples. Also some mapping extraneous labelling is removed, to save space, and some other more pertinent stuff added; it is maintained by a local SAR group.

For mapping in the other direction, I use TopoFusion (also free, or nearly so). It uses the MSN terraserver, and there are a few bugs in its data base, near Split Mtn, but I can live with that.



that's what I did also, although my mapset takes just over 1Gig, it covers all of CA and areas in Nevada near the CA/NV border.




good idea. I didn't know the lithium trick. I may need it this weekend!

another vote for the 60CSx . love mine

Yes, it works well. In 2009 JMT, I used map60Csx, with solar battery. The entire JMT maps( WGS72)are obtained freely at

http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/catalogue.php

And the transfer software are also obatained freely at

http://cgpsmapper.com/buy.htm

I carry a GPS on trails as a backup. It came in handy on my Whitney hike. I was on the way down found myself off the rocky trail (surrounded by lots of rocks but no clear path). Pulled out my GPS and quickly realized that I had wandered 60ft off to the right of the trail. Made a quick correction and was back on my way. Without the GPS it would taken a little longer to find the trail by backtracking.

When going through the bush, I find it invaluable that you can know exactly where you are (and how far away the places you want to reach are). Navigating through the bush can be difficult as you can get off track easily and things often all look the same. I am pretty good with a map and compass so I am pretty good at knowing where I am and any given point, but it always nice to exactly where you are.

Its also very useful in places with a lot of trails (if you have topo maps on your GPS), to tell if you are on the trail you want that is on the map, or maybe some new trail that doesn't show up on your map.

I would recommend getting maps for your GPS, it makes navigation that much easier. As much as I love my GPS, it will never replace my map and compass (which I always carry too).

I guess I've been a good little hiker last year so Santa dropped off a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx!! But then, I guess I wasn't really all THAT good, there's no map bundle,

I'm not complaining, in case hubby reads this post, I'll be busy looking for maps and downloading!

Thanks again for all your help!!!

I have the same unit, used one pair of batteries for the High Sierra Trail, ON the entire time we were hiking and off during extended breaks. The lithium batteries last.............

Does anybody have any experience the DeLorme GPS devices? I have heard good things about their topographical mapping software.

I haven't used one, but reviews of the newer unit (40 series) and the soon to be released 60 series are really good. Thing is, I own a Garmin 60csx and it just works, is dead accurate and still compares very well in tests when matched with the latest DeLorme has to offer. And I already bought the 24k CA maps, so the gizmo download service DeLorme offers to put real USGS data on your (not included) large flash memory card doesn't really do much for me.

In fact, over the last 600+ miles of hiking in the Sierra, I have looked at the GPS only twice to do some real navigation. Beyond that I carry it to record a track and provide daily progres sstats as in moving time and distance. Really helps to motivate the kids. I use the GPS a lot more on my motorcycle when crusing around with no real destination in mind.

The gizmo on the just announced 60 series DeLorme is the optional SPOT messenger add-on that allows you to send text messages (one way) - but the price of that thing is just well beyond pain threshold for me ($549) and I have never sent a text message in my life, so this isn't really targeted at me. My kids on the other hand would fight over that thing...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/185882/delorme_spot_take_gps_and_texting_where_phones_cant.html

PS on the Garmin 60csx - I only ruin it on Energizer Lithiums these days, because they'll go MUCH longer than heavier normal AAs, which will go longer than rechargeables. Teh issue with brand new Lithiums is that they don't work in the 60csx when brand new. Run them for a few minutes in another AA device (I use my headlight) and "take the edge off" the new lithium cells and then it will use them as if they were normal alkalines.

I've used mine for 3 1/2 years now, it got wet dozens of times, sometimes for hundreds of miles at 75mph+ and it never missed a beat. I doubt I'll be needing a new GPS anytime soon.