am looking for a basic unit that I can mark my truck, my tree stands, hunting locations and fishing spots. Save several bread crumb trails so I cam follow the same path back and forth everey time.
My first response was directly in response to your post. But I cannot disagree with daddywpb. The very basic eXplorist 100 will do everything you are requesting for close to $90.00. The Garmin 60 will do that and more, plus it provides you with a good basemap. Now we get down field experience.
Fishing: I started using my first GPS(Garmin Legend) while out fishing. I had the Topo software loaded in it. It gave me the shape of the shoreline, and other features like underwater roads, points out in the water, and a rock that is near the surface when the lake is at it's highest point. I already had stored these features in my mind but the map on the gps along with waypoints I created up my catch by a wide margin. I created tracks(bread crumb) trails on the gps. These tracks contained waypoints which I created when catching fish or when scanning them with the fishfinder.
Hunting: I mark the location of my Pickup with a waypoint when I start on a hunt. If my gps is not in the track mode when I leave the pickup I start a new track. I do not use tree stands. But I might find a number of observation points which I will mark with a waypoint so I can find my way back. When I find a deer or bear track of interest I will create a waypoint for it. If I am carrying my Garmin 76C I will also create a note. It will be simple. Moving West, big, rather brief. Later I can print this out on a Map using MapSource, USGS, or DeLorme software. I am trying to pattern the game in a certain area. So at the end of a day I have a hard map that shows my tracks, and waypoints. My track for the day might take in three or four miles. I find the hard copy map useful. When I found a hidden spring back in a thicket it became a waypoint. This is important because it was on a rather dry hillside.
Every year I read articles about the increase in hunter deaths and injures from falling out of tree stands. In the West over the years it has been broken ankles in Lava flows, or worse when falling off a rock outcropping. While writing this my thoughts go back twenty years when a fellow told his family he was going into his favorite remote canyon fishing. He normally went into this nasty area two or three times a year fishing. He went there for big brown trout. His family told searchers where he normally parked his vehicle when they reported him missing. Searchers found the vehicle. It was a jump off point into very rough country. Travel was by rock hoping because there are no trails. His body has never been recovered.
In the past I normally left a note with my wife giving the name of the areas I planned on fishing and hunting during a trip. I would also write down the Township, Range, and Section(s). Now days if I have travel a chunk of land with a gps, I leave my wife with a map showing my tracks, and waypoints.
A fall might take you out, but there are other things the can happen. One time I was hidden in low brush watching the opposite hillside, when I turned around and I observed a bear coming at me full speed. :eek: I stood up and was prepared to fire, but it hit the skids and did a rapid about face. It brought back the image of cloth found in bear scat around a winter plane crash not many miles away.
My wife influenced the purchase of my last gps. She understands computers, and the value of lots of memory. She was okay with me buying another gps, but she wanted to make sure that I bought one with lots of memory for my maps. I had just returned from working an out of the area incident. On that incident I had been able to interface my gps with my laptop and take advantage of the mapping software on the laptop. She told me to spend more and take care of my current and futures needs. It would be cheaper in the long run.
I purchased the Garmin 76C. It has a large memory, it is waterproof, it floats, a more detailed base map then my first choice which was the 60C, extended battery life, will except an external antenna, auto routing and other features. The bottomline is my wife told me to do it. I would have been very happy with the 60C. One of my concerns has been dropping a gps into the water from the boat. I fish a hat out of the water every once and a while. The nice thing for a fisherman is the 76C floats. Slightly large because of that feature.
A number of friends in the law enforcement and fire community have gps units which they use on the job, and off the job. Most of them have older mapping units, which have less then 2MB of memory. Now they want more but cost is a factor.
As a kid I always wanted the "hot" Weatherby chambered for the .270 Weatherby Magnum round. It only cost five times more then my .270 Winchester. After all these years I am certain that it would not have made any difference. But it would have been nice.
