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Originally Posted by RichO
Shannon,
I want to do what you have done with your Hiking Reports, but I will be doing it for my wildflower route reports. I want to be able to store the waypoints, download them to my pc and then create maps with my waypoints noted.
I also want to be able to capturing altimeter information.
What unit do you recommend?
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Hi, Rich! Good to hear from you (still need to reply to your email, btw)!
The GPS, itself --
Out of all the GPS units we have, I find the
Garmin GPSMap 76s the most useful for my hikes and travel logging. Part of the reason it's my favorite is due to the maps I have installed on it -- Garmin's
MapSource USA Topo maps, providing full terrain mapping capability in addition to the unit's base maps which provide basic roadway and city detail. The unit is compatible with other MapSource map products, but I find the "topo" fit my needs perfectly.
The unit is longer/larger than some, but is not heavy and is weatherproof and floats in water. Garmin markets the GPSMap 76s to boating enthusiasts, as well as hikers and mountain bikers; after dropping it in the mud on a recent hike, I appreciate its sturdiness!
Weather watchers will appreciate the integrated barometic pressure readings provided by the unit, which also makes it able to provide more accurate altimeter readings. The electronic compass works like a dream, including an on-screen indicator when the GPS unit is not being held in a "level" orientation, which affects the accuracy of the electronic compass. These features provide for accurate location, elevation and bearing information. The unit ships with a basemap of North and South America which includes major highways, roadways, rivers, lakes and borders. The unit itself can store 500 waypoints and 50 reversible routes (such as "Campsite to Overlook" and "Overlook to Campsite") and has a total of 24MB of internal memory. The only downside to this unit, in my mind, is its lack of removal memory so I could add in an extra memory card if I desired to store more data (such as additional maps and GPS data). Not all GPS units ship with a "PC cable" so you can sync the GPS unit with a computer, but the GPSMap 76S does. Even our Garmin Rino 100s, less expensive family oriented handheld GPS units, have a "PC cable" connector so while they don't ship with a cable, they can accept one (sadly, not the SAME cable as all our other Garmin units; so much for total interoperability!)
What you'll need in terms of software for your computer --
There are several free apps available ("EasyGPS", for example) to transfer waypoints and track data between your PC and GPS unit. Personally, I use Garmin's MapSource for my hiking reports. If you buy any Garmin MapSource CD (for example, "USA Topo", "City Select", "City Navigator"), you'll be set with the capabilities you need. One thing Garmin's applications lack is a convenient "Export to GIF" capability, so to create
my waypoint and track maps, I just do a screen capture ("print screen") when I'm viewing the MapSource data on my computer; I edit the screen capture in a graphics program to the size and resolution I need.
I'm still experimenting on the best, most efficient way to share specific waypoints with people. My current method is a little time-consuming, requiring me to cut & paste the data from my MapSource application into table cells in my trip report HTML template.