Escalante / New Toys
David | January 28, 2009One of the benefits of working at an old manufacturing plant is that it shuts down over Christmas break for a week each year. During this holiday break I began planning a trip to Escalante, Bryce Canyon NP and Zion NP in the spring. Though we plan to spend a day at Zion and Bryce the main focus will be on Escalante. During research I began to realize that most of this trip would include driving on dirt roads to locations that are not marked like they are in a National Park. Many of these places do not have a trail and require hiking over slickrock to find them. Having done some of that in past trips I soon decided that a GPS for hiking would be required, rather than just nice to have.
Garmin Vista HCX
I began researching a GPS and soon decided that the Garmin Vista HCX had the most features that are important to me as a software engineer, hiker and photographer. Some of the key features for me were:
- 25 hours of battery life on 2 AA’s
- High sensitivity receiver
- accepts USB cable
- accepts SDHC card
- Topographical maps at 1:25,000 scale available for several important areas I visit
Other features that seemed interesting, but weren’t critical
- electronic compass (independent of satellites) so it gives direction when you are stopped (also includes GPS compass)
- altimeter (nice to have, but I don’t climb many mountains)
I am probably not going to be the kind of person who gets geeky with my GPS. I probably won’t use all the advanced features for hiking, but I will take the time to write down the coordinates of where I start out and where I want to end up. Fortunately, I found one at Target.com for $180 with tax and shipping.
One other important item I picked up over the holidays is a 4 pack of Sanyo Eneloop AA batteries with charger. I’ve been using Energizer Lithium AA batteries for a few years and they are fantastic, but I also like the idea of low discharge NiMH batteries. Check back in a few months and I will let you know how well they perform.