OtherHand wrote:Here's what I like about it over larger units like the 62 and up series....It's small and damn light. Also built like a tank. Dropped it a great many times with no ill effects. The screen is a little small, but the benefit to that is it has phenomenal battery life. Those units with the nice big screens suck battery power in comparison. And if you see something with a touch screen, run from it.
Yeah, the 62s weighs almost
double what a 30 ways. Pretty much a non-starter right there.
The 30's battery life is 5 hours longer than the 62s's. Doggone it, the 30 is $70 more than the 62s right now.
(I like bargains)
OtherHand wrote:As far as using maps, with Garmin you are sorta screwed. Yes, you can load stuff from GPSDepot but I don't find them as good as Garmin base maps. I say just bite the bullet and buy the Garmin topo maps. It's painful but you only do it once. Some deals are to be found on eBay.
I take it that they must have 1:24k maps? 1:100k maps aren't worth the "paper" (bytes?) they're "printed" on. I'll look into it, but I assume they must have things available by state or region, yes? I mean I don't have to buy the whole freaking USA just to get San Jacinto Peak, yes?
OtherHand wrote:I have found the negative posts about GPS use amusing. I've used map and compass for many years so I know how it's done. But I routinely use my GPS to put me in very precise places and maintaining specific routes it would be essentially impossible to do via maps alone. Many of my, um...adventures would not be feasible using only map and compass.
I've been able to do a lot with map and compass. I like that map and compass heightens my awareness of my surroundings. I mean, I really have to
pay attention when doing things like my Joshua Tree Quail Mtn to Smith Water hike. The navigation wasn't horrible, but neither was it trivial.
On the other hand (no pun intended), it is frustrating not to know exact locations. In the San Gorgonio Wilderness, there were a number of camps in use prior to the imposition of the 1973 restrictions, many of those in off-trail areas. (Why off trail camps were stricken, I have no idea; it's not like they were getting so much use that they were getting trampled) For example, there's an old camp in Lost Creek in the NE portion of the SGW. When I set out to explore it and to see if I could find the old trail (it was marked as a trace trail in the 1970's, a fool's errand no doubt),
I found a number of things including springs and a significant section of the old trail -- still pretty intact. Could I find those things again? Probably, with a bit of searching, but I can't tell you where they are except in a general way. I'd have to take you there and go by visual reference and memory -- techniques prone to lapses. A GPS could really help out here.
I went back recently to find some off trail springs I had filmed in the Angeles National Forest. At the time I found them, they were prominent and obvious. A few dry years have transpired subsequently, and I couldn't find them the last time I went out. I was disappointed. Again, a GPS could really help out here.
Of course for coordinated SAR operations, I don't think there's any reasonable way to do it except with GPS. The Ewasko incident has certainly driven that home.
HJ