Garmin eTrex 30x comments

Mike,  I have a whole box of Garmins going back to the 90’s and one of the original “hand held” Garmin 5. I am old school and do not like to take my phone into the backcountry and deal with battery life and reminders of the life back there,  etc.  This is not a good gps for off trail navigation without paper due to the small screen and joystick.  I do use mine for on trail outings like the JMT and Grand Canyon type trips. Perfect application.  I load the GPX files of the trails and surrounding trails and it can go 35+ hours on a set of Li AA batteries.  Light, simple, works with gloves and in the rain.  I use it to check trail junctions and to confirm location on paper. I also let it run to get gps times and locations tracks to sync with my photos if I bring a camera. If you are just staying on trail on the JMT and really think you need a gps, I would recommend this one.  Anything more is overkill and you might then consider a phone app or a seriously upgraded GPS.

I can, sort of, agree that using an app on one’s phone sucks battery life.

But to make a counter argument: A dedicated GPS unit is 5 to 9 ounces of extra weight.  That’s the weight of an Anker Power Core 10000 to 13000.  With which you can recharge your phone (and headlamp, SteriPen, etc) multiple times.  Phones have larger screens and an easier user interface than GPS units.  And the external battery is only $30.

OTOH, the dedicated GPS units are more robust and weatherproof than a smart phone and give redundancy in navigation.  And if you need/want to record your progress (a FKT attempt?), a GPS unit would have a more predictable battery life.  I have found the tracks created (on either a GPS unit or a phone app) to very handy when off trail in the fog in the Aleutians and also while on the water in a boat when the vis goes to hell.  On a trail?  not so much – I’m using it for a minute at a time (if at all) to check my progress or if I somehow get turned around.

I did half the JMT this summer and used Guthook app. You can use it in airplane mode. Which will keep your battery from draining quickly. I also carried an anker battery for recharge.

If you want to track your walks, as the OP says he does, the Garmin Etrex 30x is a good choice. It ways 130g with 2 Li AA batteries, and I find that will give me more than 50 hours of GPS tracking. 30g for 2 spare batteries will give you another 50+ hours. So, for the 180g of the lightest Anker 10,000mAh power bank, you get about 130 hours of tracking. I doubt you can get that with a smart phone plus power bank. Plus, it means you have the phone plus GPS unit, so some built I redundancy.

For occasional route finding, I find a smart phone more responsive. But for tracking, a smart phone battery just runs down too fast.

A couple of things:
1) Bear in mind that with the eTrex30 you will need to buy the Garmin maps to use it with. They run usually $99.99 per region. After I bought mine in 2014 for $300
I have about $400 invested in various Garmin regional maps.
2) I was able to get about 50 hours of use with Lithium ion batteries. So if out for longer than one week I’d just carry two spare AA’s.
3) Guthooks apps work pretty well on a Smartphone if you keep it in airplane mode and they have an app for the trail you choose.
My phone (cheap Samsung) is easy to take apart and has a replaceable battery so I carry a spare phone battery if out for more than just a few days. Using one battery to recharge another battery is less efficient than just replacing the low battery with a fully charges one.
I got a Garmin InReach Mini for Christmas so I’m going to use that paired with my Samsung and leave the eTrex at home. The maps are free.
Actually I’ll just use the Phone with the Garmin Earthmate app for navigation, using the phones gps, and only start up the mini when I stop for the night to text my wife that I’m still alive.

Larry S

I think the maps for an etrex are a waste of time and money. the screen is too small to really use the maps.  I use the etrex for on trail, like the JMT.  Just load in the free tracks and go.    If i really need a route finding, i have paper and can use the coordinates from the gps.  I seldom see topos or compasses on people’s gear list anymore and I fear over reliance in electronics that fail is becoming the norm. Ultralight is not just about weight, but complexity too.

It may well not be worth getting the Garmin maps for the Etrex, though some form of mapping can be useful even though the screen is small, for the contours for example. There is free mapping available on the internet, based on OSM. Two that I have used are alternitavslibres and garmin.openstreetmap.

re: Garmin maps for eTrex 20 and 30
You can also get free maps from https://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/
They typically aren’t as finely detailed as the ones you buy from Garmin but
they ARE free. You get what you pay for I guess.

Larry S