It was only yesterday when traveling to unknown destinations via road trip was made less complicated by the use of a GPS device. Unfortunately the primary use was only limited to just that, vehicles.
Let’s go ahead and use our imaginations for a moment to create a potential scenario…
…an off the trail hike takes you into some unknown surroundings, daylight is quickly fading and that sorry excuse for a map, which you can barely read with all the crinkles or tears from all of the folding and not to mention all of that small print, isn’t quite working out as efficiently as you’d like it to.
Fortunately for those who have a love for the outdoors and enjoy taking long hikes through such locations as Yosemite, but without the fear of getting lost and never finding home again, GPS has also been incorporated into handheld devices just for this purpose alone.
Yes, obviously these wonderful tools have been available to the public for quite awhile, but like everything else they tend to become upgraded over time with the latest and greatest features!
Garmin, a company which specializes in GPS devices, has quite an assortment to choose from.
One of the most affordable as well as portable due to their small size and weight are the eTrex devices from Garmin.
The first is eTrex Venture® HC. Its high-sensitivity allows for your position, wherever that may be (deep canyons or woods), to not only be located rapidly, but is also precise.
The basemap contains interstates, lakes, cities, highways and coastlines. 24 MB of memory is also included for downloading waypoints and routes from MapSource®, a software which is included with your purchase.
Reading and viewing map details can also be easily accomplished even under that sometimes too bright sunlight because the 256-color display is designed specifically for this circumstance.
It is waterproof and it includes sun and moon information, area calculation, as well as hunting and fishing calendars. Only 2 AA batteries are required to operate it. The retail price according to Garmin’s website is $169.00, but is on sale at Amazon.com for $114.95.
Another eTrex device is the eTrex Vista® HCx. There are many similarities, but this one tends to stand out due to its barometric altimeter. This tracks changes in pressure to calculate your altitude. Barometric pressure can be plotted over time to assist you with changing weather conditions.
An electronic compass is also included. You also get 25 hours of battery life versus the 14 hours you would receive with the previous device using the same amount of batteries. The retail price for this is $299.99, but Amazon will surely give you a much better deal.
When looking into purchasing one of these gadgets everyone has their own preferences as to what they need. If hiking alone it would probably be best to get one that can communicate with other similar handheld devices. This will allow other hikers to locate you in case of an emergency.
It is definitely getting easier for people to seek out their own personal adventures in unfamiliar places.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Very descriptive column, and as an owner of multiple GPS units in cars, boats and for hiking, I agree.
What I was looking for - and look for in tech columns - is some new twist, some news.
The upgrading notions were good and perhaps more detail about what GPS might be doing in the future would make a nice addition to future columns.
Also, what happens when the GPS grid goes down?
Goodbye airplanes in flight?
Post a Comment