Handheld gps recommendations

[hiddenbirches]

Can someone recommend a hand held gps for the adirondack region
I see stuff about Delorme mini?

Thanks

[Bob K]

Plenty of helpful threads on this already to search for & review. Don't buy one that works only in the Adirondacks. Many free maps at GPS depot.

[ndoggac]

Delorme was acquired by Garmin in 2016.

Which unit depends heavily on your use case and budget. Is your primary navigation method going to be compass and topo map, and you just want this as a backup to get a quick position for sanity checks on your primary navigation, or give you a pointer back to your starting point? Maybe something cheap would meet your needs?

If you want something more advanced, the cheapest handhelds built for hiking start at around $90 for the Garmin Etrex 90.

Prices for handhelds go up in price from there for more features like better/larger screens, multi-constellation tracking (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, etc), map imagery data, and other capabilities. The most expensive can reach $600-700.

Your best bet might be an old phone. Modern apps like LocusMaps, OruxMaps, and AlpineQuest on Android, and Maps+ on Apple (among many others) far exceed the capabilities of hiking units with respect to underlying maps, and the ability to load complex data sets. When run in airplane mode, with location turned on, your battery would likely last just as long as hiking units given the same "screen-on" usage time. You could carry an external USB battery to charge up at night. There are trade-offs of course: it might not be as weather repellent, but you could get a case to give you that capability. There are also rugged-ized cases that incorporate an additional battery. You could also buy a new phone just for nav purposes, for about the same price as the hand-helds.

If you want to follow up with more specifics I can try to help further. Best of luck.

[ndoggac]

Don't buy one that works only in the Adirondacks.

Not sure this is even possible to do.