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Garmin eTrex Vista By Roy Reehil
This is an easy recommendation for me because I use my Garmin GPS a lot, for bushwhacking, hunting and most importantly, when I'm afield as a search and rescue volunteer and wilderness first responder. To test it out after I opened the package, I turned it on and opened the "Quick Start Guide," a five-fold color flyer separate from the Owners Manual. I followed the directions to calibrate the compass by spinning the unit around slowly and then went outside. I let it locate satellites, which took about a minute (while I stretched), and then when it said "Ready to Navigate, Accuracy: 27 feet," I paged over to the main menu and "marked" my first "waypoint -- my house -- which took another couple seconds, then I was off on my morning run, to cover about 4 miles. In order to have it track your route completely, you do have to let it "see the sky," which makes it awkward for running, but is no problem while hiking. On the "Trip Computer" page there were readings for my current speed, my max. speed, average speed, and my moving average speed -- which correlates to "moving time" and "time stopped." It also had my total distance traveled. At my first turn I stopped and marked another waypoint, so that I could see how the GPS worked on the return trip, both for "tracking back" the track I covered, and for seeing how it handled directing me to a specific waypoint. At my two mile mark I stopped, saved the "track" I had just done and then set the GPS to "Trackback," meaning to show me the way home based on what I just did. After doing that the GPS switched to the compass page and gave me a heading to follow as well as a distance to the next waypoint on the trip back. Cool. It was quick to do and it made me feel confident about using the GPS to trackback a bushwhack after only using it for twenty minutes. After another mile, I stopped to turn off the trackback function and decided to point it to a specific waypoint -- "home." The compass then redirected me to that waypoint with a readout that said I was 1327 yards away, which is about 3/4 of a mile. That was right as the crow flies, but not along the road that I would travel. But, I knew the distance and direction were right and again it gave me confidence that I could have followed it home if I wanted to bushwhack through backyards and a woodlot lot in my running clothes. At that point I moved to the map page. There it brought up roads and rivers on the built in maps. This was interesting because it brings up a dot for the the waypoint you want to get to, a line from where you are to the waypoint and a little pointer that points the direction you're currently going in reference to the waypoint. When you turn away from the proper route it shows you that you're going the wrong way and makes it easy to correct. This was the moment I started to fall in love with my GPS. What this meant was that, if I could get my custom routes and waypoints into the GPS before a trip, that I would be able to follow those routes almost exactly.
For some people (and you know who you are), bushwhacking is an end unto itself. But I'm usually going somewhere, and the faster I get there the sooner I can fish, eat, or set up camp, etc. The onscreen topos and waypoints make all the difference! With the Mapsource program and the included serial cable that connects your PC to the GPS, you can easily plot the best route and major waypoints along the way. You can check the distance on the entire route or just sections. While you're at it, you can add in any other points of interest or other entire routes. That way you can change plans during your trip and as long as you have batteries, you can find your way efficiently. Drawbacks. There aren't many, but here they are. 1) It's a left hand unit. You get used to it. 2) Don't expect the mapsource topos to look like USGS maps onscreen or when you print them out. The program is about $75 and covers the whole country. If you want USGS quality I recommend Maptech Terrain Navigator Pro (all New York state is $269.99 last time I checked). They're available for the entire country and they're outstanding. While I'm on drawbacks, let me warn you not to skimp on this purchase. Garmin has several units that are priced below the Vista but many don't have enough memory to load the topo maps onto the GPS screen and I know several people who are kicking themselves for not spending that little extra cash. The map-on-screen capability is what makes this GPS so VERY useful. The Garmin eTrex Vista GPS basic includes a Compass that looks like a compass, an Altimeter, 24 MB of memory and a PC Cable for under $170 - (note: see my "Best Prices" list at the bottom of this page.) I'm extremely happy with my eTrex Vista GPS which makes this an easy recommendation. Where to buy and "Best Prices" Prices change fast but here are the best deals I could find
on these units. Wal-Mart had the best price last time I checked.
Wal-Mart also has the MapSource CD Rom maps that allow you
to put topos right on screen... a beautiful thing for you bushwhackers: Amazon lists some of the same items through third party
vendors. The prices vary so some times it's good to check. The Mapsource CDs were a good
deal last time I checked but the GPS was more than at Wal-Mart. Here's what I found: Remember, don't buy the eTrex Legend !!!! You won't be able to download the maps and even if you don't buy maps at first, you may (probably will) want to buy them later (trust me on that!) Happy Bushwhacking!
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Copyright 2006 The Forager Press, LLC |
That afternoon I ordered the Garmin
Mapsource Topo Maps of the United States. That program allows you to load the topo maps
onto the GPS screen and then to zoom in and out. If you haven't bushwhacked with only a
topo map and a compass before that won't mean much to you. If you have, and especially if
you've been "sort of lost" like me before, I can tell you that the addition of a
GPS with a marked route loaded onto topo maps onscreen is the difference between just
bushwhacking and BUSHWHACKING NIRVANA. 
I saw they also have the eTrex Vista color
unit which I'm told works just as well as the B&W model but is a little easier to
read. Here's the link at Wal-Mart for that: