GPS: Garmin Dakota 20

[Bryan]

The new Garmin Dakota 20 looks to be a very nice unit. It is lighter and much smaller than the 60CSx and it claims to have longer battery life. It supports 200 saved tracks, compared to only 20 for other Garmin handheld units! That's a feature I have been wishing for. Some say it's intended to replace the eTrex.

Garmin Dakota 20: Garmin product page | Owner's manual | How-to videos

Dakota reviews: GPSFix review | Equipped review | GPSTracklog review | GPSInformation review

Custom maps: GPSFix | Garmin | Free and Easy | Five Easy Steps | Garmin forum

Garmin software: Unit software | WebUpdater | BaseCamp | Communicator

Map overlay "plug-in" for Google Earth
Wikispaces message board
Imagery sources for Garmin custom maps
Tools for making Garmin custom maps

[chinoook]

My opinion as a long distance Great Wall walker:

- battery consumption too high, need a third more batteries to carry
- bas visibility of the display compared to the non-touchscreen models
- at least unclear how good the usability of touchscreen and on-screen-menues work, I have bad expectations
- unclear how shock-proof the display is

Since I need a GPS for at least finding the walls in desert and hilly landscape and sometimes to find the next water resupply location the ruggedness of my GPS device is crucial. I need a working set and not a trendstyle tool. I will go for the (in my opinion) best choice Garmin again, the Etrex Vista HCx. I just bought one for OutOfNowhere who will start for the desert sections in about three weeks. The Vista HCx is still the best pick for these purposes.


-chinoook

[chinoook]

I am very happy to have learned that the software Touratech QV I use for handling maps (calibrating, printing, ...) now supports the export of Garmin (Oregon, Dakota) bitmaps.
It also has a very good interface to GE so it is the ideal tool for me.
Maybe this (and the recently reduced prices for the Garmins) will force me to replace my Vista Cx by one of those, very probably one with the larger display. I will also be forced to carry a fifth more weight :/.


-chinoook