New toy!

Sarah,

I have a 101 off of the very first production run.

Excellent intuitive user interface given the few buttons involved. Menus aren't nested too deeply to make use difficult. Display, though small, is large enough to make it quite readable, IMHO.

Wrist mount sure is handy.

Don't know about batt. life on the 201 that's why i picked the 101 so 2xAAA spares could be carried and used if necessary.

Don't know if they improved the antenna and RF chip in it. Mine is worthless under tree cover in New England – sometimes even when the leaves are off of the trees (the many hills and rock faces???). Best case scenario for me is that it works at most 25% of the time, making the excellent Trakback feature worthless.

Best use for me, is when i pop out into the open. Turn it on (it gets sat. fix pretty quick, ranging from 45s to 2.5m, generally – i can drink or munch GORP while waiting) and get my location and note it on a map. Also, extends batt. life by only turning it on periodically.

Hi Sarah,

While I don't have that particular model I have a Garmin that I love. If it has the capabilities of taking the MapSource Topo Software I would recommend that. We installed Topo Canada on ours.

Not sure if Geocaching would be something you are into but it would be a fun way to get used to using your new toy. There is a site called Geocaching.com that has some good info. If you aren't into going geo-caching then go for a drive. Plot the route on your computer and transfer it to the GPS and get a feel for how it works.

Waiting for the charger is the hardest part.

I'm sure you will like the Foretrex 201. My Garmin Geko 301 is a nice addition to a map and compass.

Tip: before you spend money on National Geographic Topo! check out two free products: USAPhotoMaps and G7ToWin.

http://jdmcox.com
http://www.gpsinformation.org/ronh/

What I really like about USAPhotoMaps is the ability to view satellite images of the terrain.

I'm not able to load waypoints directly in to my Geko using USAPhotoMaps, so I use G7ToWin to upload/download waypoints.

Satellite Image

Plus, I’m cheap and would rather spend the $100 they want for Topo! on other gear.

Sarah et al.,

So happy for you on your new gift Garmin.

My partner just got a different model Garmin and is running around seeing how fast she is going through the house, and the longitude/latitude and other stuff about each room, etc., etc. She got a bigger clunkier one for Xmas (she always like bigger and clunkier stuff — in this case waterproof and floats — because she is afraid of my propensity to do things like drop gear overboard from a kayak), yours is the size I have been looking at for myself. Make sure and report back on it, don't get lost now at Xmas in those Northwest storm fronts. bd

Well then — expand your hiking horizon, plug in some Southern Cal coordinates and come on down! :)

Heh! You wish! You just want to make sure I take my Texsport back with me ;-)
The new toy is now member 4 of our GPS family.
For me, my big plan is to use it for cross country trips in alpine. For doing waypoints, etc.
Love the light weight though.

I have 2 201's that I use for jobs at work that need less accuracy than my big Trimble provides. I'm currently looking for another unit to use backpacking, but it won't be the 201- the rechargable battery just won't cut it, unless you turn it on once every two hours or so for a fix, then turn it off. I'd rather carry a couple extra sets of lithium AAA's and keep it on while moving. Other than that, it's a great unit.

I use ExpertGPS and TopoFusion for my personal mapping. Little less cumbersome than ESRI, and cheaper by a couple thousand dollars. Only downside is they need to be online to download map tiles, although it does cache them, and ExpertGPS is pretty easy to add your own maps to.

The 201's computer interface can be tricky, check your coordinate system if you have problems. Default for the 201 is WGS84, I think. The unit really is waterproof, works well and is very accurate for a consumer unit. The battery issue is the only killer for me, but a newer unit should last well over 8 hours on a charge. Any more specifics, give a holler. I just specced some units for my wife's gifted class, she found a good deal on the Geko 201. Same electronics, ugly color, replaceable batteries. Not much bigger, either.

I usually hike with the 201 either on my shoulder strap (hard to see), or on my wrist, turned so I can see the screen and the antenna is oriented properly while I'm holding my poles.

I got a hand me down geko 301. It pretty much rules for what I use it for. Just bring a couple sets of extra batteries for trips and use rechargables from home base.

Haven't used it with the computer yet as I didn't get a cable with it but for free I'm not complaining. It's so cool!

Well, after having around a month to play with it, I can say I love it!
It took me awhile to figure out how to use everything, how to set way points, etc, but once I figured out all the tech-o stuff it has been a breeze to use. The battery is interesting-while I would have preferred say using "AAA" batteries, the rechargeable internal battery works very well in below freezing weather. I had it on this week in cold of 10-19*, and the battery did not suffer.
It does exactly what I want: how far I have gone, altitude, sunset, sunrise, direction, and shows my path. I could care less about fancier features!
So for me, it has worked great!