best garmin for backpacking

wazzles · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 7

I would like to get a good gps for backpacking in Alaska where there are few marked trails but a big open sky. I would like to be able to upload maps to the unit also. Light weight is a necessity. Any thoughts on which unit would fit my needs without breaking the bank?

wazzles · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 7

I have looked at the garmin etrex vista and garmin 76s. The 76s is slightly more expensive.

Dave · Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2004 9:29 pm Post subject:

The only maps you can upload are the Garmin proprietary MapSource maps, and I don't believe they cover this for Alaska. The 76S I find is better, but it is a lot larger and won't fit say in a normal shirt pocket where the Vista will. It does have a much larger screen though which makes it easier to read.

wazzles · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 7

So garmin has no maps that cover alaska? What is a person to do? Is there a comparable Magellan gps that is similar to the vista in price and performance?

Dave · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 9:05 am Post subject:

The only maps available from Garmin are:-
http://www.garmin.com/cartography/

No matter which handheld GPS you go with, you will have problems finding maps for them. What you might have to do is look to see if there are any Pocket PC style maps around for Fugawi, OziExplorer or even a third party application like Vito's GPS products, these may give you a very basic basemap but nothing much more than this.

Western Europe and North America, Australasia are pretty well mapped when it comes to GPS consumer based products, but outside of these areas, you will find it hard to get the same comparable style of maps, or any maps at all.

Tim Buxton · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 1:29 pm Post subject:

Oldie · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:30 pm Post subject:

I have the Garmin MapSource World Map on which I could look for places if you post some names.

Not much road detail on the map, but again I have no idea what should be there. When I zoom in there seem to be a lot of places called Cabin Wink

wazzles · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 7

How bout Anchorage or Denali National Park? I guess not having maps for Alaska is not that big of a deal. I would just need the gps to tell me where I am so that I don't get too far lost from my original starting point.

wazzles · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 7

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topo.jsp#

It says on this page there is a Topo map availible for Alaska. I figure that would suffice.

Tim Buxton · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 9:48 pm Post subject:

Anchorage is covered to street level. Denali National Park and Preserve is also there and appears to have tracks. There is a lake in the middle called Wonder lake with a track up the right hand side.

There's actually quite a bit of detail when you zoom on.
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Tim

Oldie · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 8:43 am Post subject:

Very little detail on the World Map. The topo map that you have found will have the most detail. You can use the MapSource Viewer online to see the detail that you will get.

Have fun. At least you should not get lost Smile

I have an eTrex Legend and the only extra that I would like is the built-in compass as in the Vista.

wazzles · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 7

thx for the help yall

wazzles · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 7

Well, I just ordered the garmin etrex vista. I can't wait till I test it out in the New Mexico backcountry and further down the road to use it out in Alaska!

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