GPS for Hiking

Garmin GPS basic handheld Units

Garmin eTrex H Handheld GPS Navigator

Customer Reviews:

David Michmerhuizen (Fremont, CA USA)

This is my primary Geocaching GPS. The high sensitivity chip has the same strong processing power, and thus signal sensitivity and position resolution, as any of the more expensive units. It gives me excellent accuracy in areas where my older GPS units just give up, even dense forest cover. The software that drives the unit is the same as the older Yellow model (see below) and has stood the test of time… (more reviews here)

Perfect for outdoor enthusiasts on a budget, eTrex H comes with a high-sensitivity GPS receiver that locks onto satellite signals quickly and maintains accuracy — even in the toughest conditions. And just like the popular eTrex, this little yellow wonder combines an intuitive interface and a rugged exterior into a lightweight handheld that fits in the palm of your hand.

Enjoy Clear Reception
With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, eTrex H locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. The advantage is clear — whether you’re in deep woods or just near tall buildings and trees, you can count on eTrex H to help you find your way when you need it the most.

Built for Adventure
You can operate your eTrex H with just one hand using five buttons, which are located on either side of eTrex H within easy reach of your fingers. Thanks to its bright yellow case, eTrex H is easy to find in your boat or backpack. And, eTrex H is IPX7 waterproof, so it can take an accidental splash or dunk in the water and still continue to perform.

Find It and Go
With eTrex H, your adventure can last and last — up to 17 hours on just 2 AA batteries. While you roam, you can store up to 500 waypoints in memory for easy retrieval. Just enter the point you want to go to, and eTrex H points you to your destination (no street or terrain maps). To get home, use Garmin’s exclusive TrackBack® feature to reverse your track log and help you navigate back to your starting point.

Garmin 72H Waterproof Handheld GPS with High-Sensitivity

Make a splash with the GPS 72H, a lightweight, waterproof handheld that floats. Simple yet robust, the GPS 72H features high-sensitivity GPS and a USB connection along with its large screen, simple operation and rock-solid performance.

Acquire Satellites Quickly
Find your way effortlessly with the GPS 72H’s high-sensitivity GPS receiver. GPS 72H acquires satellite signals quickly and tracks your location in challenging conditions, such as heavy tree cover or deep canyons.

Use on Land or Water
Don’t worry about losing this GPS device in the drink. The GPS 72H floats in water, and it’s IPX7 waterproof to withstand the accidental dunk or splash in the lake. Whether on water or land, the GPS 72H can save up to 500 of your favorite places in memory and point you to your destination (no street or terrain maps).

Store Important Data
The GPS 72H is NMEA 0183 compatible. To transfer data to or from your device, GPS 72H easily connects to your computer via USB. If you’re into boating, hunting or fishing, you can use the 72H’s built-in celestial data, which includes sunrise/sunset times and a hunting and fishing calendar.

GPS 72H: High sensitivity GPS that floats

Foretrex® 401

Customer Reviews:

John-Paul May (Europe)

Fantastic – buy one immediately. IMMEDIATELY!! Much smaller than you may think – fantastic. GPS speed — super fast, fantastic. Display and controls — absolutely fantastic. As simple as they can possibly be, yet does every single thing you want. See your exact miles/yards walked, exact time (both moving, stopped, average, etc etc etc) and everything else from sunset time to height climbed or whatever… (more reviews here)

The Foretrex 401 is a slim wrist-mounted GPS navigator perfect for outdoor activities that require the use of both hands. Foretrex 401 combines a high-sensitivity waterproof GPS receiver, electronic compass and barometric altimeter into a lightweight device ideal for hikers, skiers and campers. To share data easily, you can connect Foretrex to your computer with USB or just send data wirelessly to another device.

Retrace Your Steps
No matter where your adventure takes you, you’ll never worry about getting lost with the Foretrex 401. Foretrex keeps track of your path and displays it as a dotted trail on the screen. Just turn on Foretrex’s TracBack® feature, and you can retrace your path back to where you started. Keep track of your bearing and altitude with Foretrex 401’s electronic compass and barometric altimeter. You can save locations in memory as waypoints, so you can always find your way back to any important place, like your campsite or vehicle. And with up to 17 hours of battery life and replaceable AAA batteries, you’ll never worry about making it back.

Track Your Data
Foretrex 401 lets you create and store routes to all of your favorite places and provides other helpful information, including a trip computer, sunrise/sunset times and hunting and fishing information. For even more data, connect Foretrex 401 to a wireless accessory, such as a heart rate monitor, cadence sensor, or clip it on your bike with the accessory bike mount. To keep track of your trip, connect your Foretrex to your PC or Mac with USB to store your waypoints, routes and tracks on your computer. You can also share waypoints, routes and tracks wirelessly with another Foretrex 401.

Get Connected
You’ve been busy exploring and now you want to store and analyze your activities. With a simple connection to your computer and to the Internet, you can get a detailed analysis of your activities and send tracks to your outdoor device using Garmin Connect™. This one-stop site offers an activity table and allows you to view your activities on a map using Google™ Earth. Explore other routes uploaded from over 12 million customers and share your experiences on Twitter® and Facebook®. Getting started is easy, so get out there, explore, and share.

Foretrex® 301

Customer Reviews:

Larry in Berkeley “Larry” (Berkeley, California)

The new Foretrex 301 is an excellent product (not to be confused with the old Foreunner 301 also presumably OK– even Garmin sometimes gets them mixed up.)  The improved GPS receiver is very fine — you can get reception while driving, wearing it on your wrist. Fuctions are much like those of the obsolete eTrex, plus new things, such as a compass heading readout… (more reviews here)

Cleverly simple, the Foretrex 301 is a slim wrist-mounted GPS navigator perfect for outdoor activities that require the use of both hands. Foretrex 301 combines a high-sensitivity GPS receiver, rugged, waterproof design and USB interface into a lightweight device ideal for hikers, skiers and campers.

Retrace Your Steps
No matter where your adventure takes you, you’ll never worry about getting lost with the Foretrex 301. Foretrex keeps track of your path and displays it as a dotted trail on the screen. Just turn on Foretrex’s TracBack® feature, and you can retrace your path back to where you started. You can save locations in memory as waypoints (up to 500 of them), so you can always find your way back to any important place, like your campsite or vehicle. And with up to 18 hours of battery life and replaceable AAA batteries, you’ll never worry about making it back.

Track Your Data
Foretrex 301 lets you combine several waypoints to create and store routes to all of your favorite places. It also provides other helpful information to help with navigation, including a trip computer, sunrise/sunset times and hunting and fishing information. To keep track of your trip, connect your Foretrex to your PC or Mac with USB to store your waypoints, routes and tracks on your computer.

Get Connected
You’ve been busy exploring and now you want to store and analyze your activities. With a simple connection to your computer and to the Internet, you can get a detailed analysis of your activities and send tracks to your outdoor device using Garmin Connect™. This one-stop site offers an activity table and allows you to view your activities on a map using Google™ Earth. Explore other routes uploaded from over 12 million customers and share your experiences on Twitter® and Facebook®. Getting started is easy, so get out there, explore, and share.

Garmin Geko 301 Handheld GPS

Customer Reviews:

Daniel B. Johnson (Gig Harbor, WA USA)

The re-conditioned Geko 301 is indistinguishable from a new one. We use it in our land-surveying business in conjunction with National Geographic TOPO! to find section corners and quarter-corners. I’ve also used it with great results when sailing in a small vessel that lacked a compass and speedometer… (more reviews here)

One of the smallest and lightest GPS navigators around, Geko 301 adds a built-in electronic compass and barometric altimeter to the other popular features of the Geko 201.

Climb Higher
Geko 301’s built-in electronic compass tells you what direction you’re heading, even when you’re standing still. Its barometric altimeter pinpoints your precise altitude and even tracks pressure trends over the last 12 hours, so you can keep an eye on changing weather conditions. Like the 201, Geko 301 can save up to 500 waypoints, create and save routes, track your travels with a trip computer and connect to your PC for data storage.

Play Games
Geko’s virtual GPS games make your outdoor excursion even more fun. Enjoy a good workout while you chase lizards in Geko Smak or find the matching symbols in Memory Race. You can also collect flags as you wind your way through Virtua Maze or navigate to points without crossing your trail in Nibbons.

Garmin Geko 201 Handheld GPS

Customer Reviews:

M. Baggaley “MBags” (Salt Lake City, Ut)

I just bought a Geko 201 after using one that my friend let me borrow for a few weeks. My friend’s unit had a protruding power button that admittedly was easy to push by accident. I decided to purchase one anyway for it’s size, price, and convenience. I figured that I would just be careful and remove the batteries when there was a chance that the button would get pressed. When mine arrived I was surprised to find that the 201 has been redesigned. The power button has been recessed and there is now a small ridge around it to protect against the accidents that have been outlined in many other reviews. I would highly recommend this GPS… (more reviews here)

Geko 201 and its counterpart, Geko 301, are among the smallest and lightest WAAS-enabled GPS navigators — inexpensive, with simple, intuitive operation.

Track Back
When you’re winding your way through new territory, you don’t have to worry about how to get back when you’re armed with the Geko 201. Geko keeps track of your path and displays it as a tiny dotted trail on the screen. Just turn on Geko’s TracBack® feature, and you can retrace your path back to the beginning. You can save locations in memory as waypoints (up to 500 of them), so you can always find your way back to any important place, such as your campsite or vehicle. Geko also lets you put several waypoints together to create and store routes to all of your favorite places.

Geko’s trip computer can tell you how far and how fast you’ve traveled. And at the end of the day, you can connect your Geko to your PC and transfer your waypoints and tracks.

Play Games
Geko’s virtual GPS games make your outdoor excursion even more fun. Enjoy a good workout while you chase lizards in Geko Smak or find the matching symbols in Memory Race. You can also collect flags as you wind your way through Virtua Maze or navigate to points without crossing your trail in Nibbons.

Garmin GPS 60

Backwoods, boundary waters, blue highways — the GPS 60 is your trusted guide to the great outdoors. The GPS 60 and its counterpart, the GPSMAP 60, are packed with several of the features found in the 60-series colour navigators, but sport an affordable, high-resolution monochrome display for outdoor enthusiasts on a budget.

Get Rugged Navigation
The robust, waterproof GPS 60 is the perfect, low-cost navigator for wherever your spirit of adventure takes you:

• Large, sunlight-readable, four-level grayscale display with bright LED backlight makes it easy to find your way, day or night
• Up to 28 hours of battery life for more hours of outdoor enjoyment
• WAAS-enabled for even more precise location and navigation
• Both serial and USB connections for fast and versatile connection to your computer

Get Fun-filled Features
GPS 60 has one megabyte (MB) of internal memory for storing points of interest, and it comes factory preloaded with a worldwide city point database. Just find the place you want to go to, and the GPS 60 creates a straight-line route to your destination. The GPS 60 also offers special geocaching features, indoor and outdoor games, an alarm clock, sunrise/sunset and moon phase tables, optimal hunting and fishing times — plus much more.

More Garmin GPS units here