Car & GPS

[#1]

Does anyone have any experience using hand held GPS? I do a lot of hiking, camping, and hunting and feel something like this would be a great addition, mostly just for hiking. I spend a lot of time going over maps and trying to trace and save my routes and figure up my miles traveled. I would love to have something that could do it all for me, but I would have some requirements.

*Tough/Reliable and Waterproof

*WAAS enabled GPS (or anything similar so it will be more likely to work in heavily forrested areas and in cloud cover)

*Topography

*MicroSD or SD card slot

*USB connectivity

*Updateable Maps

*Long(er) battery life

Most I have found have built in apps or programs for paperless geocaching. I have zero interest in this and would like to find one that does'nt have it therefor leaving me more memory space for other things. Also there are some that take pictures you can save to a location on your map which is a really neat feature that I am interested in, but it's not a "must have"

I was looking into something maybe like this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Garmin+-+Dakota+20+GPS+-+Red/Gray/9560003.p?id=1218124206126&skuId=95600...

I don't expect there to be much information out there, but if you have know anything about these or have any experience using one, let me know.

Thanks

[#2]

I've owned a few GPS's in my time and for the same price I recommend you also check out Oregon 450 (yes I own it).

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Garmin+-+Oregon+450+GPS/9776276.p?id=1218171550254

My needs are a little different than you..... I travel overseas to locations without roads and needed something with takes AA (I use Eneloop low-discharge NiMh rechargeables).  Road based GPS's are useless for me in small foreign villages.  When I get back to my hotel, I plug the GPS into the FREE basecamp software to see where I've been on the tracklog.

For being off the beaton path, one feature you may wish to consider is Garmin's BirdsEye.  It's like having Google Earth in your hand as you can dynamically see where you are from high above.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N73rxjD80iw

Garmin makes dozens of GPS models that can meet your needs.  I strongly recommend visiting the Garmin website and do a feature comparison to shortlist models that interest you.

[#3]

thanks for the reply xl..

I actually researched the Garmin's a little today. I saw them in my recent Cabella's catolog. There was the Oregon, Montana, and I believe one other but I can't recall the name. I'm really beginning to consider one of these.

The Garmin's BirdsEye feature sounds like a great idea and I'm very interested in it. Although it's for different uses, our needs as far as what we need in a GPS unit are very similar, since I also have no need for a road-based unit.

I apprectiate your input. I'll definitley check out the Oregon 450 you linked to.

Thanks for the help

[#4]

I didn't think much of BirdsEye at first, but it came in really handy in locations where no roads existed or the roads was seldom used.  The aerial references help guide me around.

[#5]

Being a huge gps enthusiast the WAAS feature in Canada doesnt work as well as it does in the USA and can actually confuse your device in rare situations up here. Im a huge geocacher and the best device for that I would say would be the Garmin 62s.