High Sierra Topix

I have no shame in saying that after I paid so much money for the Garmin Oregon 550 I then pirated the 24K West maps off the net for free.

After 6 years of use and my screen being very beat up I bought the Garmin Oregon 600 for this summer. I'm sure it will treat me well.

Battery life can be an issue with some people. I always found that when using Lithium or Sanyo Eneloop Rechargeable batteries if I tracked all day long while I hiked I would get about 3 days out of the batteries. These days though I only turn the thing on now and again while I rest for interest and doing this makes the batteries last between 2 week resupplies without a problem. As a result I never carry spares anymore.

I have been using Gaia GPS on my iPhone 5 for the past year, I think its its pretty stellar. You download maps prior to your trip. They are USGS topos, you can also download USFS raster maps. On my most recent trip to Woodchuck Lake I used Delorme InReach SE, paired via Bluetooth to my phone. The maps on the Delorme app are free and of reasonable quality, probably similar to GPS file Depot (though with less detail) that I had on a Garmin Eurex Vista HCX i used the past couple of years.

In terms of battery life for the Delorme, with tracking set to 30 minute intervals for a full day of hiking (6-8 hours), sending/receiving 3-5 messages per day, the average battery drainage seemed to be 6-8% per day.

Screen shot of Delorme Map app vs Gaia GPS app of same area.

I've been using a Garmin Etrex 20 for the last year and really like it. It doesn't calculate elevation gain, and that's one feature that would be nice but I don't need the other added features that come on the Etrex 30 or more advanced models. I especially did not want a GPS with a touchscreen - I like my buttons. I had a Garmin Vista HCX for about 5 years and it had served me well until the last year I had it when it increasing had problems with accuracy - it started to enjoy telling me I was someplace other than where I really was fairly often. I don't know what changed that caused the problems with the unit. The Etrex 20 is much more accurate with the better satellite tracking system and doesn't have much trouble even under heavy tree cover. I have the Garmin 24K maps on a microSD card plugged into the unit. The Etrex 20 has a pretty long battery life; so I like that too.