"What GPS that you know of meets my needs"

[Gambit McCrae]

I would like to get a GPS and this is what I want it do do:

Waterproof
track my average speed
mark where the appalachian trail is
allow me to set points of interest
track how many miles i have gone
show topography
not bulky but easily readable screen
good battery life

Price? we will say under 250

never even touched a gps so sorry if i sound archaic

[fiddlehead]

The problem (as I see it) with a GPS tracking your average speed and how many miles you've gone, is that you'd have to keep it on all the time to do that.
And THAT would eat up your battery.
The Garmin 60CSX or 62CSX would do it all and is waterproof (you'd have to put the AT in it and also topo maps and it is a bit bulky compared to some)
But it is well over $250 also.
Good luck.

[HooKooDooKu]

I like my Garmin eTrex. I've got the one that used to be called the "Summit", that from the looks of things, the eTrex 30 is its modern equivalent. One of it's high points is that it has an altimeter built into it so that it can detect changes in elevation based on changes in air pressure... much more sensitive than estimating altitude by GPS. The full retail price is about $270, though it can easily be found for $250. But as fiddlehead points out, your battery life will suck if you have to keep it on all the time. I think I can only get about two days worth (20 hr +/-) off rechargeable batteries.

[striper]

I have a Garmin Colorado-c which I originally bought for fishing. Just bought the 50 buck chip for the AT. Just use a notepad to record data per day to find your overall averages. It retains some of it when off. It was 400 new. Not sure if they still make them. 400t has topographic map. 400c marine charts. Both can be used with appropriate cards. Fully waterproof. Light. Great on batteries if you keep the backlight at minimum. Hard to break. Has data fields that can be changed to a lot of different things. Compass, elevation, temp, time, speed, heading, distance, etc.

[perrito]

Whichever unit you go with, I highly recommend using the Energizer ultra lithium batteries. They're more expensive but last longer, are lighter and don't lose their charge in the cold like alkaline batteries do.

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[Another Kevin]

I'm a contrarian here. I carry a smartphone anyway, and use a GPS app on it. If I'm careful (limit use of the display, keep the backlight as dim as possible, keep the phone in airplane mode, don't also use the phone as a media player), I can get 2-3 days on a charge. Many of the smartphone GPS apps allow downloading custom maps, and I produce custom maps for where I hike that have trails and points of interest overlaid. Because of sometimes wanting to use the phone to make calls and the risk of finding a dead battery when I need one, I also carry a widget that will let me put in about a third of a charge off a pair of drugstore AA batteries. (I carry AA batteries for my camera, anyway.)

Of course, I'm just a clueless weekender. If I went for longer sections, I might want a NewTrent battery pack or something. Solar chargers are worthless on the A-T.

I seem to recall that Gadget earned his trail name with a similar approach, and he isn't a clueless weekender.

[BigHodag]

Seen the new Earl outdoor tablet? Does all that and more. Http://meetearl.com

[Wise Old Owl]

I'm a contrarian here. I carry a smartphone anyway, and use a GPS app on it. If I'm careful (limit use of the display, keep the backlight as dim as possible, keep the phone in airplane mode, don't also use the phone as a media player), I can get 2-3 days on a charge. Many of the smartphone GPS apps allow downloading custom maps, and I produce custom maps for where I hike that have trails and points of interest overlaid. Because of sometimes wanting to use the phone to make calls and the risk of finding a dead battery when I need one, I also carry a widget that will let me put in about a third of a charge off a pair of drugstore AA batteries. (I carry AA batteries for my camera, anyway.)


Of course, I'm just a clueless weekender. If I went for longer sections, I might want a NewTrent battery pack or something. Solar chargers are worthless on the A-T.

I seem to recall that Gadget earned his trail name with a similar approach, and he isn't a clueless weekender.

+1 Havent reached for the Garmin since switching...


$40 app's cloud saving and recover any hike.. I would only bring the Garmin for long distance hiking and planning.

[Theosus]

I have a delorme pn-60. It does all of that.
Waterproof - some army standard, so many meters of water for half an hour. I know that I used it in real world rainy conditions for 36 hours and it stayed wet the whole time. No problems with it. I don't even worry any more, I stick it in my pocket with the lanyard clipped to a belt loop. Rain away, it doesnt bother me.
track my average speed - most of them will do this. the pn60 will, but I've never really cared about that so I cant say how accurate it is.
mark where the appalachian trail is - yep. the pn-60 comes with Topo North America. 1:24000 topo maps of the whole country are included. Some cheaper GPS units make you pay extra for maps. The AT is on there. Trail maps for GPS units are not always completely accurate, however. You can probably download GPX files of other people's hikes for a more accurate look at where the trail is.
allow me to set points of interest - these are usually called waypoints. any GPS should do this now... the pn60 software lets you do it several ways. in fact, it has so many options it is kind of confusing to begin with.
track how many miles i have gone - again, any gps should do this. I know the PN60 will. It has a "sleep mode" that turns off the screen and just tracks your movements. Using that, I've recorded two-day hikes before, on a single set of batteries, while referring to it on occasion.
show topography - you need topographic maps for this. You either have to buy the maps separately (which can be costly), download freebie maps off the net (do they work with your model?), or have them included in your purchase. Delorme includes topo maps with the pn60 for the US, plus some lower resolution ones for other countries.
not bulky but easily readable screen - most hiking gps units seem to be below 3" in width. The bigger the screen, the more they suck juice. the pn60 screen is about 2", but is nicely sunlight readable. Unlike a cell phone, most GPS units have more readable screens in sunlight. The resolution is often lower than your cell phone screen, but you can actually read it in daylight outside.
good battery life - get good batteries. the pn60 can go a couple of days or more on decent energizer lithium batteries. battery life depends on usage. if you are mainly recording your hike and it is spending a lot of time in "sleep" mode, they will last forever. If you are constantly referring to it and the screen is on full bright, that will kill the battery faster. lithiums aren't cheap, but they are LIGHT to carry.