Garmin GPSMAP 62s

Yes, I have thoughts.

I been a map and compass person for a good whiles. I'll still be a map and compass person, after getting a GPS from a thrift store for 8 bucks and a power adapter for 11 bucks. I got an eXplorer 400, a rather low end GPS. The package had the Topo maps for the US of which I loaded in the West half of the US. I did have an old 2GB SD card hanging around, which I stuck into the eXporer 400.

Coupled with a map and compass the eXplorer went from my possesion for 2 days to my wife taking it over. I liked the low cost of allowing us to see what we'd like in a GPS unit and the getting to see how a GPS handheled unit can help with hiking.

We had, in error, left one of the Topo maps at home and for about 24 hours all we had was the GPS. The GPS worked great and I got the warm fuzzy internal feeling about its ability to be a reliable source for navigation.

Thus, my thought of if one can get a handheled GPS unit at a good price, get it, with maps.

Oh, there were a few times when map and compass was more accurate in finding our position then the GPS.

There are plenty of sources of free map data that will download onto this GPS. I've used its predecessors (60cs and 60csx) since they came onto the market. I've been very happy with their performance. I still mostly use a paper map and occasionally check coordinates with the GPS. The map data on the GPS is mostly a sanity check. After all, the display area just a few square inches, compared to a four square feet for a full-sized USGS quad. The altimeter is quite useful.