RE: [Paddlewise] gps replacement

>From: Allan & Joyce Singleton <alsjfs_at_paradise.net.nz>
>Subject: RE: [Paddlewise] gps replacement
>
>Thanks for all the comment and advice on the gps replacement.
>
>The interest in a replacement with a compass is for mountain biking in
>the situation where you come to a fork in the track. Your map doesn't
>show it, so you check your position with the gps, then check the bearing
>of each fork before deciding which is more likely to be the one you
>want. Eventually you probably find you got it wrong, but hey, at least
>you tried.
>
I would opt for a slightly different approach.  Most Garmin GPS models 
these days provide
for 10 tracklogs that can be saved in memory in addition to the active 
log that is recording
where you go.  The 10 'Saved Tracks' can either be created by saving an 
existing track on
your GPS or you can upload them from your PC using maps of the area 
(OziExplorer is a good
program that supports this for a wide variety of computer and/or scanned 
paper maps). 
Doing the latter allows you to upload all the trails in the area of your 
planned bike ride/hike/etc.
and see them displayed on the  'Map Page' of your GPS.  Then when you 
get to that fork in
the road you just glance at the screen, see on which trail you've been 
travelling and in which
direction it continues.  Usually there's no need for translating a GPS 
position reading to your
paper map or any need for compass bearings. 
If you do make a mistaken turn it'll show up almost immediately as the 
cursor showing your
position starts to deviate from the line on the screen showing the trail 
you planned to follow.
Note that this method works fine even for units like the basic eTrex  
that do not support
downloading maps - all current Garmin/Magellan/Lowrance models do 
support downloading
tracklogs (although Magellans only support one tracklog at a time).  
Unless you want
downloadable maps (I'm not familiar with what's available yet for New 
Zealand), I'd recommend
one of the rather basic models with multiple saved tracks; e.g. the 
yellow eTrex or Geko 201.

But the Silva/Brunton MNS is one model that doesn't show you the 
tracklog on the display
or support uploading tracklogs representing the trails in the area.  I'd 
strongly recommend
avoiding this particular model.  Their claimed long battery life is also 
rather deceptive.  It's
based on the assumption that you'll be taking your GPS out every hour or 
so, turn it on for
a few seconds to get a compass reading, and then turn it off again.  
Doing so will of course
let the batteries last for many days, but the same would be true of any 
other unit as well.
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