GPS recommendations?

[marie-angelique]

i was wondering if these new-fangled gps are worth the money.
this one has US topo maps and something called "built-in worldwide basemap with shaded relief"
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=&pID=11022

have any of y'all used it? is it really worth it for stuff like toodling around central asia on a bicycle without a map?

what is geocaching?

can you load topo maps from other countries into it?

[Woodsman]

Anything from Garmin is going to be cool. Go look it up on their (garmins) USA website and compare features to find the one that fits your needs the best.

Geocaching is people hiding personal stashes out in a hiding place, recording the location (Lon/Lat) and posting it online for others to find - they take/leave a memento and write a note and chalk it up as one more found....

[redharen]

Hey, M-A:

This is the exact GPS I used on my Negev hike this past spring. I liked it, for the most part. It's easy to use, and if you use lithium batteries and turn the backlight way down, you can run it for a couple of days without a battery change (for me, it performed much better even than the specs said). The US basemap is awesome -- it gives you detailed topographical data for pretty much the whole US, and it's even better for national parks and forests.

But I thought the worldwide basemap would be better than it was. For Israel, at least, all you get is national borders (and badly-drawn ones). So it was useless for telling me where I was. Then again, that's not what I was using it for, anyway. If you have paper maps, but just want to record waypoints and tracks, the Colorado will do you just fine, but it might be overkill. If you think you'll use it in the States a lot, though, or if you can buy detailed maps for the countries you'll be visiting, it'll be a killer piece of equipment.

[marie-angelique]

hmmm....that's a bummer because i was most interested in this "worldwide base map" i don't suppose they have much info on siberia, turkmenistan or kazakstan :(

is it possible to buy map info for places like that which can be loaded onto the unit?


i would have to spend $90 to buy a cable to attach my old etrex summit to my computer. do any of them come with a cable - or do you have to spend $90 extra no matter what?

[redharen]

From what I understand, the worldwide basemap is based on some pretty detailed information in some places, but not in others. I guess I was probably in an area where government agencies aren't too keen on giving out geographical info because of all the military stuff. I'm guessing the situation will be similar in the places you're looking at. You might be able to find maps for those places -- I think the Garmin site has a list of everything they have available.

If you want to be a total flashpacker, there's software out there that allows you to hook your GPS to a laptop that's running Google Earth, and you can see your real-time location and track info plotted onto the Google Earth picture. It works even if you're not online -- you can just zoom in on the GE data when you're online and cache it, and then open it up when you're on the road and see your physical location. You could correlate that to a paper map, or a Google map loaded onto said laptop, and have something really cool. I'm thinking about testing that out at Big Bend one of these weekends...

But I guess you probably don't want to be looking at a laptop while riding a bike.

[nowonmai]

For Israel, at least, all you get is national borders (and badly-drawn ones).

Blaming that on Garmin is a bit harsh.

[coldharvest]

For Israel, at least, all you get is national borders (and badly-drawn ones).

Blaming that on Garmin is a bit harsh.

...'specialy when it was Britain's fault.

[marie-angelique]

For Israel, at least, all you get is national borders (and badly-drawn ones).

Blaming that on Garmin is a bit harsh.

...'specialy when it was Britain's fault.

hahaha :)

that is pretty cool red, i am actually considering buying one of those tiny laptops for writing stuff. i can type way faster than i can write....

the google earth thingy makes it all very tempting...just for the gee whiz factor. have you done it on a trip?

it would be cool to have some waypoints and route maps to correlate with the writing.

[svizzerams]

If you want a GPS for your motorbike check out the Garmin Zumo 550.

I also have a Garmin GPS 60CS - you can buy a bike mount for it as well....The 60CSx has a SD slot for swapping out maps/data.

[Penta]

Any advice on GPS watches? My son wants one for his birthday - I didn't even know such things existed. He walks and camps and goes up mountains quite a bit, in Europe mostly.

[marie-angelique]

i might use the gps on the motorbike, but i doubt i would get a zumo because it doesn't look like it would be very good for mountaineering. i prolly wouldn't mount it to the bike anyhoo as it would make my bike look too fabulous.

[cochiseintheeast]

My new Thuraya SO 2510.

[Dabbi]

Any advice on GPS watches? My son wants one for his birthday - I didn't even know such things existed. He walks and camps and goes up mountains quite a bit, in Europe mostly.

Give him a compass, teach him how to use it and a map.

[phasmoid]

Consider the new IPhone too as it will come with built in GPS (using Google maps functionality i think). Since the signal comes from cell towers it could be stronger and more reliable than a sat connection, depending on where you are.

Could be a good option for more tame activity. Don't trek across the Sundaband with it.

PS i do not work for Apple. My cell looks like the one they used on American Psycho. Huge. Bricklike.

[redharen]

that is pretty cool red, i am actually considering buying one of those tiny laptops for writing stuff. i can type way faster than i can write....

the google earth thingy makes it all very tempting...just for the gee whiz factor. have you done it on a trip?

it would be cool to have some waypoints and route maps to correlate with the writing.

No, I haven't done it myself, but I researched it. I considered bringing a laptop with a satellite card on my Negev hike so that I could provide up-to-the-minute updates, rather than put everything together after the fact. Now I wish I'd done it that way, because I still haven't put all the GPS data together the way I've wanted to. If you had that program running, though, along with your GPS, you could stop at the end of each day, make a .kml file of your up-to-date route on Google Earth, and put it up on a blog. It would be possible for people to see exactly where you'd been (if you wanted them to know).