GPS?

“ok, I looked at the past post on GPS and needless to say there are quite a few.

Guess what I am wanting to know is why did you buy it?

Is it worth the cost?

Pros/Cons of one?

I see people walking down blazed trails with a GPS and wonder why? If bushwhacking then I could understand but not on a well established trail.

What could anyone say to convince me that I really need one.”

“I've been looking a little. I can't really think of a reason why I "need" one, but it would be a fun toy. I'd like to get into geocaching a little.

I would also like the ability to see right where I am on the map, keep waypoints of certain spots to get back to, and I'll use it for driving some.”

“Do you really want to start this thread?

I've been backpacking for 40 years and have never needed a GPS, even in cross-country hikes (with no trail). I have a GPS that was given to me as a gift. I used it a few times. I really gave it a good try, but I just feel more confident with maps and a compass.

If I was really going way out into the middle of nowhere, and if I had a light weight GPS, such as one powered with lithium battery, I might bring it, bury it in the bottom of my pack, and take if out if I was truly, uh, directionally bewildered. But I would never travel without maps and a compass because they are more durable and the batteries don't wear out.”

“Ewker...bought one a while ago Garmin 76s for Geocaching...and for hiking. Since then I have come to use it alot.

In my job I frequently have to get pretty accurate locations. Additionally I have been on back roads in the middle of the night and started wondering which way to go. I like them, it has become a useful tool. When I am hiking it allows me to look at the progress we are making and better plan stops etc.”

“I may be the most pratical person one could ever meet and I own a GPS. I bought one years ago and found it to be too big and clobberassing. I recently upgraded to one of the nice new necklace ones. I do a lot of bushwhacking though.

Guide books will also list trailheads, major trail junctions, etc. in GPS coords. This does come in handy in some less traveled areas where the trails very hard to follow. Or during periods of snowfall when the trail is very hard to follow.

When you find Osama hiding in the woods you can send the GPS coords to the military folks.”

“XL, for your job and geocaching I can understand you having one.

I'm kind of like ductape in that it would be a new toy. Just not sure I would use it since I rarely get off trail”

“I argued against GPS for years. Never had any real trouble navigating on trail or off. I got into GPS when I was working with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy so I could get coordinates for things we were interested in, like windmills and other issues.

On hikes it has no real navigational need. As you say, on a marked trail you know where you are, or close enough to it.

The value I see is getting a fix on things that are either not marked on maps or perhaps a place where you need to send a ranger to help somebody. The coordinates are a lot better than saying he's located at the third rock on the left after the last tree on the right.

It's also useful for measuring exact distances, and you can lay out a path for a bushwack to a place you want to get to.

But I've bushwacked with map and compass quite well, thanks, and the GPS does not make bushwacking any easier. And, as somebody once pointed out on this board, if you drop a map on a rock you still have a map, but if you drop a GPS on a rock you have an expensive piece of junk.”

“Personally I've found them more use in the car than on the trail. If you get one of the 60cs series or similar then you've got onefore both.”

“GPS would have been very usefull this past summer when hiking into Rocky Mt park. We started off in national forest and the maps didn't get detailed untill I hit the park boundery. At one point the trail split off on several directions (we chose the right one by using the map and compass) but a GPS unit would have let us known that we where and kept us from worrying.

Now that I have a GPS I see the usefullness of it but I'll never leave the map and compass behind.”

“I lead hikes quite a bit for the Sierra Club and the WVHC. I also maintain a website. Some of you have visited it: www.midatlantichikes.com. The main purpose of the site is not to try to recreate every map in the region out there but to put together trips. Initially I just went by what my USGS maps said and what the trail guides showed. You would be amazed at how much some of the trails deviate from what USGS originally claimed. Some of this is due to plain old error and sometimes it's due to reroutes. The reroute might be described correctly in a trail guide but not shown on the map. I use my Garmin 76C to:

Lay out my route for the trip and to mark water sources and campsites. I still carry my compass and usually 2 different paper maps if they are available. These new mapping units show topo features, trails, roads ...

My second use is to build accurate maps and trail notes for my site. If you tried to use the scale on a PATC map to approximate the distance of a route you could be off as much as 1 mile in 10. This is mainly do to the fact that these maps don't show all the zigs and zags a trail makes. I collect one data point ever 53 feet (0.1 miles) so I feel I'm getting a much more accurate idea about the distance on my newer maps.

This doesn't happen to me often but this past weekend we were hiking in SNP on established roads. The hike started and ended at the northern entrance of Skyland. The group is faster than me so got out to the Skyland driveway where the AT crosses it at the end of the hike and couldn't find the cars. We were almost in white out conditions with the fog. I pulled out my Garmin and directed everyone to just cross the drive and follow it a few yards. Next thing you know we could see the bumpers. We were 200 feet from the cars.”

“I doubt that I'll ever get one. Would just be something else to carry around.

Seems like the people on the trail who have them spend more time looking at the GPS than they do the scenery and flowers and such.”

“it's already been said but geocaching it really taking off...there was a story on it on one of the major stations (cbs i think) nightly news the other day”

“geocaching doesn't interest me. I don't have enough time for my hobbies(bping,biking,kayaking,gym and yard work) now.”

“I had one till it quit working recently. Thanks to REI I now have new hiking boots (Montrail Torre GTX's) a new little brown book of the Smokies hiking trails (lost the last one, it could be in my house somewhere!) and a pair of down booties on clearance. All this using my dividend and 20% off coupon and it only costs me $8!!! I do miss my gps, but found it to not be that accurate. You have to make sure that you use the correct datum, WGS 27, WGS84, UTM, etc or it could be WAY OFF! It did come in handy in the Cumberland Mountains, esp. Cumberland Gap at TC3 when the iron in the mountains made our compass useless. I tried the geocaching for a while, but I have too many hobbies also and too little time. If you get one see if it has downloadable waypoints as you can keep up with them with a program called EASYGPS. There are also several sites where you can download coordinates. Overall they are neat to have, and could come in handy on ocassion, but mine (Garmin Geko 201)didn't work well in trees or canyons and loved to eat batteries. I do have a pc cable for the Geko 201 and I think it is compatible with the 301 and the Foretrex also. If anyone wants the cable its theirs.”