GPS and Trailwork

Any price range or limitation? I'm very partial to the Garmin GPSmap60 CSx (or Cx). Extremely good reception under heavy foliage and canyon terrain. Using Garmin Topo or National Parks Topo would be especially advantageous for your purposes.

I second the Garmin CSX variants. My 76CsX works in some buildings, under heavy canopies, and generally stays locked when others lose satellites.
I like the 76CsX better than the 60CsX because I believe it is easier to hold and hit the buttons with single hand operations than the 60.
It is a little pricey, but I feel worth the $'s.

MikeB

>looking for any information on GPS models that would be "trail friendly".

Paul, I’ve owned three different Garmin GPS units over the years. All of three still work and trust me, they get banged around quite a bit.

The basic eTrex is cheap. On sale it’s about $90. It’s not WAAS enabled so accuracy suffers by a few feet. It takes AA batteries (2) and it’s a little heavy (six ounces). It’s bright yellow and hard to lose. Great base model.

The Geko 201 is quite a bit lighter at 3.1 ounces. Nice shirt pocket size. It is WAAS enabled and it’s a bright hard to lose green apple color. It too is a great basic GPS, rock solid tough and very compact. Uses two AAA batteries.

The Geko 301 is my hands down favorite. Same size as the 201, only .3 ounces heavier, and loaded the gills with features. It has an electronic compass and barometric altimeter. Has a screen the 201 doesn’t have that graphs your changes in elevation during your hike. This is my go to GPS. The 301 has so many features I won’t try to list them here. It comes in an easy to lose grey case. There is a review on this site. Take a look at it here.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/garmin_geko_301_201_gps_review.html

Hope this helps.

Obviously I like the Garmin units. They have always performed for me. But YMMV.

Paul, looks like you now have info on the high end and low end units. All Garmin… go figure;)

The various Garmin GPSmap 60 and76 models have an external antenna port; the eTrex and Geko models do not. An external Gilsson antenna (2.8 oz) will allow you to get a solid lock in poor conditions.

On the new "x" models with SIRF technology the external antenna is no longer necessary. I used a Gilsson or Garmin external on all previous models that I've owned, but on the new models it doesn't have any real benefit.

A close freind of mine who uses a professional Trimble backpack GPSr claims that his personal 60CSx is extremely close in accuracy under all conditions to the professional Trimble that he uses on the job.

For what it's worth, I see that the Geko 301 was on Ryan's gear list for the Arctic 1000.

I've always found Garmins to be cheap, easy and reliable. The Legend (also comes in "C" with color and "x" can hold more memory). It's a great GPS with mapping, and in my opinion, it is NOT worth buying a GPS without maps on it. I've used previous models and it can be a real pain to try to match coordinates accurately on a map, unless you map is of a tiny area. I sold my non-mapping basic eTrex for the Legend and then upgraded to the Legend C.