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Cyclopath
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PostMon Oct 16, 2017 11:05 am 
Let’s start with some context. I do most of my hiking on trails, and I assume most people in here do, too. Trails are generally easy to follow, there’s an obvious tread. I have a pretty good idea where I’m going before I leave and you probably do, too. So I don’t use GPS for navigation while hiking, and that’s probably common. I use GPS for other reasons: to know how far I hiked, to see a map of where I went when I get home, to keep a record in case I want to hike that trail again sometime and want to guess how long it will take. My hunch is that this is the most common way GPS is used for hiking. I’m curious how many people got rid of the clunky hand-held GPS receivers and have switched to watches. (I made the switch about three years ago and have only good things to say.)

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Malachai Constant
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PostMon Oct 16, 2017 6:53 pm 
We have a couple old GPS watches we use for training hikes and biking just to know speed and route. They are pretty much useless for navigation. The Gaia phone app works much better for navigation but are heavy In comparison. I pretty much only use the GPSR for foreign trips.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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texasbb
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PostMon Oct 16, 2017 8:50 pm 
I don't have a GPS (other than my phone), but like Cyclopath, if I had one it would be for the data/tracks. But I don't want a GPS watch until there's one with a battery that will last at least a week without my having to baby it, and with enough storage to just leave it running all the time.

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Cyclopath
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PostTue Oct 17, 2017 10:18 am 
Battery is actually one of the reasons I switched to a GPS watch. They run on less power. The watch weighs less than a hand-held GPS, and the battery power to record a half-week hike weighs a lot less. Newer watches can run GPS for 24 hours on their internal battery, and can be charged about 10 times from a lipstick battery pack. Impressive. I use mine for navigation on the bike. It has maps built into the watch. Sometimes I’ll drive my bike to a new area, then ask my watch to generate a loop for me to ride. I’ll tell it how far I want to go, it’ll show me a few options, I’ll pick one, then it gives me turn-by-turn guidance back to my car. A few times this summer I planned routes out in advance, but it was too smoky where I wanted to ride, and the round trip feature gave me something interesting to do instead. The most I’ll do for a trail hike is add some waypoints for where I plan to camp and where I can expect to fill my water bottles. Mostly I just have it show me the time, or how much distance and elevation I’ve covered, and my pace.

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Slide Alder Slayer
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PostTue Oct 17, 2017 10:49 am 
I own the Garmin 5X and purchased the western US 24k map that I down loaded to the watch . Personally It works great for navigation. I operate track up, North arrow, and a direction arrow. The watch has an excellent reception.

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MultiUser
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PostTue Oct 17, 2017 2:34 pm 
I use a garmin 910XT on my wrist, and navigate with gaia gps on my iphone. Mileage and altitude checks are easy that way. The garmin wasn't purchased for hiking though, and I wouldn't purchase a garmin watch exclusively for this purpose. The iWatch is interesting to me as it seems to have most of the garmin functionality, plus more.

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Cyclopath
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PostWed Oct 18, 2017 8:04 am 
Slide Alder Slayer wrote:
I own the Garmin 5X and purchased the western US 24k map that I down loaded to the watch . Personally It works great for navigation. I operate track up, North arrow, and a direction arrow. The watch has an excellent reception.
This is what I use and it's been fantastic.

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tigermn
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PostWed Oct 18, 2017 9:52 am 
I have a Garmin Fenix 3 that I've had for about a year. I only use it to record tracks of where I've been, as well as step counter etc. It does a pretty good job of track recording. I've not tried to use it for actual waypoints/navigation or route planning (it has no maps). On a hike I will typically use my Garmin GPSMAP 64 real GPS for that.

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Riverside Laker
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PostWed Oct 18, 2017 11:09 am 
How well do they work in forest? Good antenna?

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Cyclopath
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PostWed Oct 18, 2017 12:04 pm 
tigermn wrote:
I have a Garmin Fenix 3 that I've had for about a year. ... I've not tried to use it for actual waypoints/navigation or route planning (it has no maps).
It has a bread crumb trail, though. If you add waypoints (for trail junctions, where you plan to camp, where the trail crosses a creek that you'll be able to fill your bottles from, peaks around you for context, etc) it's surprisingly useful. I didn't use it for bona fide navigation while hiking, but for getting an overall sense of where I am along the trail, it's good. I've used it on bike rides in unfamiliar places to get back to my car, too. You can feed it a GPX file full of waypoints (put them in the \GARMIN\NEWFILES folder) and they'll just magically show up.
F3 "Map" page
F3 "Map" page

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mastee
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PostFri Nov 10, 2017 1:27 pm 
Watches are great for average day hike but they have a big drawback, that tiny battery powers your GPS antenna along with everything else. I am new to PNW but they were not the best in East Coast foliage, perhaps one with BT that can sync with an external BT logger with its own battery... I have used backcountry navigator pro on my android phone in east coast with an otterbox, works great. As I got more adventurous and started venturing off trails (with a compass, map, ranger beads of course).... having my GPS backup only in watches and phones made me nervous, both can easily get smashed when you are not on established trails going through the thick bush, climbing boulders...ask me how I know (a 22 mile trip bush wacking around Mt. Mitchell:=) Now I have a Garmin 62St with Garmin 24K topos, my phone stays inside protected with backup maps. BTW I am a technology geek, I have played with theses other models... Bushnell trackback, Motorola Moto, Garmin 305, Oregon 405, 64st Still, I will get a phoenix watch to play with:)

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Slide Alder Slayer
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PostFri Nov 10, 2017 8:01 pm 
My 5X has faster and more accurate reception then my 64s. As far as being rugged the 5X wins hands down with a saphire face, 100 meter water resistance, steel body body, excellent battery life, and far more functions.

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mastee
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PostFri Nov 10, 2017 9:13 pm 
5x is a very nice watch indeed with excellent specs, if you do not mind me asking couple of questions: Have you used it with 24k topo and how did they look to get a feel of the surrounding terrain? Any articles that compared the reception with gpsmap series or solely based on personal experience so far? The batteries I am sure are still not user replaceable, right? At the moment this one is not in the budget but if I hear positives and perhaps at a better price point I will try it in the future.

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Jaberwock
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PostSat Nov 11, 2017 5:23 pm 
I've been trying to decide if I should go with GPS watch or a bluetooth thing for my phone like the bad elf. I know the bad elf is popular with pilots, seems like it could be a cool logging device for hiking too. I wonder how the battery compares to the watches though… all I really needed is something to take tracks so I can look at them when I get home. I don't care about seeing the tracks real time in the field.

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texasbb
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PostSat Nov 11, 2017 7:48 pm 
That Bad Elf would be interesting if it had more battery. Looks like you get about a day, less if you're bluetoothing, which I wouldn't be. Still, dayhikers only.

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