[pct-l] Which GPS should I buy?

[Melanie Clarke]

Dear Molly,

*Halfmile posted this on 5/20* and I found it very useful.  I ended up with
the 60CSx mostly because it was on sale at REI Anniversary Sale for $199.99
The Dakota 20 is also on sale but it comes with a bundled 100K topo and sold
for $300.  The other varieties were not on sale but they have features (ie.
light weight) that made me wish I could convince myself to "pass up a sale
item" and pay full price.  Amazon.com sells these GPS systems at a discount
price.  Good Luck!  I'm just getting to know my 60CSx right now.  I'm old so
I'm "catching up" with the 21st century!

Melanie
*
For most hikers I recommend either a Garmin Dakota 20 or a Garmin
eTrex Vista HCx. You will probably also want to purchase a 4 GB
microSD card and the Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD. Get the DVD don't
buy the maps preloaded on a card.

The Dakota 20 is a newer model and has the capacity to store large
amounts of track data. The Vista HCx can only store a limited amount
of track data. Both can hold an almost unlimited number of waypoints
if you load them as custom points of interest.

Despite some of the previous posts here, these are very accurate; much
more accurate than any paper or digital map. The PCT is not always
accurately shown on maps, so I recommend loading waypoints and tracks
from my web site.
http://www.pctmap.net/download/

Hikers might want to consider two other GPS models.

The amazingly small Garmin Foretrex 401 weighs only 2.3 ounces (w/
lithium batteries) yet is a surprisingly good GPS that might appeal to
some lightweight hikers. This GPS does not have the capability to show
maps and has limited waypoint and track storage capacity; but it can
hold 500 waypoints and 10 somewhat course tracks so it should be
possible to preload it with maybe 500 miles of PCT data. You can
always use UTM coordinates assuming the maps you carry have UTM grids.
The Foretrex is lacking some of the features of the models above (like
maps) so it's not for everyone, but for a section hiker or someone who
is bouncing a small netbook computer up the trail, the tiny Foretex
401 is a powerful navigation tool in a very tiny package, especially
when used with my maps.

I personally usually carry a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx for my trail mapping
project. This is an excellent gps although it is slightly larger and
for that reason I recommend the Dakota and Vista for most hikers. It’s
great for trail logging however.

-Halfmile

*

On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 4:07 PM, Molly Barth <mafbarth at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi there --
> I've been recently researching all the possible gps devices to buy for my
> 2011 thru-hike.  Quickly, I was in over my head in techno-gargin.
>
> >From what I understand, there some gps devices have pre-loaded maps or
> include map software, while you must purchase map software separately for
> other devices.  If I am to use Halfmile's waypoints, do I need to load maps
> as well? (see I'm totally lost...).   What is the best affordable gps
> device
> for the trip?
>
> Thanks for you help!
>
> -- Molly
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