[at-l] Okay, the question I thought I'd never be asking...

[camojack at comcast.net]

Well, you did say you were going to the Boundary Waters area... 
-"Camo" 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Hudson" <mvhudson at gmail.com> 
To: camojack at comcast.net 
Cc: "nightwalker at" <nightwalker.at at gmail.com>, "at-l" <at-l at backcountry.net> 
Sent: Tuesday, May 4, 2010 8:26:55 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: Re: [at-l] Okay, the question I thought I'd never be asking... 

If my tent starts dragging anchor at night... I'm in trouble! ;-) 


On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 8:22 AM, < camojack at comcast.net > wrote: 




I was looking for a replacement/upgrade of the GPS unit I have now, which is a "bottom shelf" Garmin eTrex that doesn't seem to be working all that well anymore. I was out on the trail this past weekend and first it was telling me that I was at 266' above sea level, then at 356' above sea level...when according to all the reference books it was actually well over a thousand feet above sea level. This was at the Deer Lick Shelter(s) and the adjacent water source, about 4.5 miles Northbound into PA. 

I'll probably buy that $150 model; I like the anchor dragging alarm option on it, for those times I may happen to be overnighting on my sailboat... 

-"Camo" 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "nightwalker at" < nightwalker.at @ gmail.com > 
To: camojack at comcast.net , "Mark Hudson" < mvhudson at gmail.com > 
Cc: "at-l" < at-l at backcountry.net > 



Sent: Tuesday, May 4, 2010 4:25:04 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: RE: [at-l] Okay, the question I thought I'd never be asking... 

Good find, Jack. I would definitely recommend that one as an entry-level unit, if you weren't taking super long trips. 

Because of the lack of ability to use a Micro SDHC card, it will only take 24 MB of mapping. The Etrex Vista HCx holds a 4GB card, and my current mapset with highway and trail maps of the east coast uses over 2GB of that. 

The only other negative is battery life. 15 hours versus 25 makes a big difference in how many batteries you'd have to carry on a long trip. On the AT, no big whoop. Two extra batteries (and ounces) between towns. 

This may well be a very good choice for the OP. If his hike is only a few hundred miles, it will fit on there. If he's only going to turn on the unit and mark a point every 30 minutes or so, battery life isn't going to matter much. 

High-quality Garmin trail maps are now free for the downloading. Thanks to Chase Davidson, I quit using the Garmin Topo 2008 trail maps and started using the freebies from http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ . The Garmin Topo 2008 maps are based on USGS 100k data. These are based on 24k (4 times the detail). They're also free. You just have to have a copy of Mapsource to send the mapset across. 

Frank-----Original Message----- 
From: camojack at comcast.net < camojack at comcast.net > 
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 1:19 AM 
To: Mark Hudson < mvhudson at gmail.com > 
Cc: at-l < at-l at backcountry.net > 
Subject: Re: [at-l] Okay, the question I thought I'd never be asking... 

It just so happens that I was looking on the REI site at GPS units yesterday. There was what looked to be a decent model (with good reviews) for $150: 
http://www.rei.com/product/761620 
-"Camo" 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Hudson" < mvhudson at gmail.com > 
To: "at-l" < at-l at backcountry.net > 
Sent: Monday, May 3, 2010 5:11:46 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: [at-l] Okay, the question I thought I'd never be asking... 

Just saw the less than glowing reviews on the one I linked. 

So what's the best one I can get for less than $200? $250? 

Thanks! 

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