Looking for advice on buying hiking GPS

Not really photo gear, but something many photographers carry with them out hiking/backpacking.

After getting a little turned around on this last trip, I decided it was time to purchase a GPS unit.

I'm looking for advice/suggestions on what to look for. I just want something to mark a starting point, plug in coordinates, pretty basic stuff I would imagine.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks
Kevin

I've had a couple of Garmin GPS units, the first an "etrex" which at the time was their basic model. Now it's the "etrex H". Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but a lot can be said for carrying a map and compass. If you know where you started, know which direction you went, and some of the landmarks (roads, rivers, lakes, etc.), you can get yourself back "home". And they don't need batteries.

That being said, I have a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx at the moment. It's been replaced by a newer version already, but it is still a good unit.

As Alan says, there's no substitute for knowing where you are, but a good GPS is a useful tool, as long as you have a back up plan for when the batteries run down. I've owned a series of Garmin units, but really like my Garmin 60cs. I think it is no longer made, and was replaced with the Garmin 62s. Long battery life, water resistant case, relatively light weight, lots of storage and color screen. The 60cs reliably captures signals in dense forest and, for a Garmin unit, is relatively easy to use. I'd recommend it.

My wife and I do a lot of geocaching which is basically a GPS treasure hunt. I have a Garmin GPSMAP60CSx. and my wife uses a DeLorme. Both work well. DeLorme has a new unit which has a SPOT unit as well which allows communications via texting even when out of cell phone range. Use satellites. If you plan to do much back country work, this might be something you should consider.

Peter

Consider a refurbished Garmin unit (see their website or eBay). You'll save lots of $$$ and still have a good, basic GPS unit to get you from Point 'A' to Point 'B' (and back) . Eschew the fancy sort with color maps and cameras for max. savings.

Thanks guys.

So even the basic models will allow to plug in GPS coordinates to find a specific location?

I would never go far without a compass or map, but sometimes if you're looking for a specific location, and you're in an area without distinct landmarks, GPS coordinates come in handy..

Kevin

The 60CSx that I have will allow entering coordinates, but I couldn't do that on the etrex I had. You would have to check the specs on any GPS you might be interested in.

Kevin - I have a ~12 year old Garmin GPS 12map that can do what you need (still works fine).. if that's all you want, you might be able to find something for super cheap used. Also, if you have a smart phone, you might see if there's any apps that can do what you want as well, though a dedicated GPS may get a better signal and the batteries may last a little longer.

For now I use my Samsung Galaxy S (Android) as my GPS device. Floris is right - it can be that the signal might be better with the dedicated devices and battery life of the smartphone will decrease (for that I always carry two extra smartphone batteries with me). I use an app called "Alpinequest" which is pretty good. It has the great advantage that I can use free hiking maps from the internet to show me the way.

Don't forget if you have a smart phone you have a gps I believe. And there are a lot of free aps. The gps works even outside of cell phone range in my experience. As well as the internal compass. I have the iphone 3G.