David's Weblog

One 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.