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First remember, If you're going on an adventure that requires a GPS, by all means take a map of the area and a compass. (Plus have an understanding on how to use them) The Garmin E-Trex Summit HC is a viable tool. Though not produced by Garmin anymore it's still supported by the manufacture and there are multitudes of users online whom have taken it upon themselves to provide a knowledge base for maps & tips. So I wouldn't balk at recommending any of the E-Trex Legend, Summit or Vista examples. You can find good clean used and/or new old stock that are easily capable to get you on the trail and back to your starting point. Myself I have the Summit and Vista versions. The Vista can take on external memory plus does altitude. Which btw can get kind of flakey if you don't coordinate things prior to hitting the trail. These GPS work well on lakes too so you can get back to the hot spot fishing location. And for you whom are interested in GeoCaching... by all means the Summit is a perfect choice. Inexpensive and rugged. Still a great value.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I am a map and compass guy, but since I've started hunting solo I thought I better break into the GPS world. This unit is a good balance between features and ease of use, as best I can tell. I was hesitant to go Garmin at first, until I found third party maps at a gps website (hint: what does a train stop at?) that had topos for my area. I compared those topos to Garmin TOPO 2008 (I have serious problem with spending over $100 for each Garmin 24K topo segment) and I will say that TOPO 2008 is 'functional' yet greatly lacking. For the wilderness area I am interested in the highest resolution in TOPO 2008 is 50FT contour lines.... dang. The accuracy of unit running the topo from the third party site is pretty good... the track will even show which side of the street you're walking down... however, one segment seems to give the eTrex intermittent fits when zooming and moving the pointer. Occasionally the unit will lose all map data ('no map' appears at scale bar) and no sort of screen or menu manipulation will bring it back. I have never been able to get the map back after these crashes without cycling power... however the good news is that the map has never failed to reappear after cycling power. Call me old school, but I'll still carry a map (and TWO compasses) but the eTrex will be in my pack at every outing (and my PC will be stashed in the truck, just in case I have to punt to TOPO 20008) So, between the great auction price for the unit, and finding the third party maps... I am in the game for under $80... Oh, AND GET COLOR SCREEN - it is invaluable for sorting out all that data.Read full review
Need some excercise? Just clip it to your belt and go for a walk around the block or a hike through the woods. It will track your speed and distance in real time. Driving on the interstate? Need to find a city? It will show you the exit numbers the connecting highways via map mode. The color screen makes the display easy to read without reading glasses for folks like me over 40. The Garmin software make the controls intuitive to follow. Their website is easy to navigate and use to update your GPS software. I also love being able to download cache sites with a click of the mouse from the Geocahching.com website. The WAAS feature helps to pinpoint your location within 3-meters.
We purchased this unit for one thing only, geocache. It works great! Takes us within 1' of the geocache each time (assuming cache was replaced correctley that is). We only had problems with it once, but this was in extremely dense trees in a deep valley, kind of a poor placement for a geocache, compass would spin wildly, and measurement to cache kept changing while we where standing still. But that was only the once. I have found several other interesting uses for it too. I have a small boat and always wanted to know how fast it actually went, the trip function determined my exact speed across the water, plus I mark the hot fishing spots on the map, and can find them easily next time. My only complaint would be the learning curve trying to use it (took a few days), but this may be because I'm approaching 50 and all technology confuses me now. My first electronic gadget was a black and white pong game, back in 1975. Seriously though, this Garmin did exactley as advertised, plus much more, and these days thats a rare thing. I would recommmend it to anyone. Randy C.Read full review
I haven't really had a chance to use the Summit yet, but have tried it out in my backyard and everything seems to function well. The sensitive antenna is a vast improvement over my old Vista. I have a large project in the works for this coming fall where I look forward to really putting it through it's paces.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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