On Friday, I purchased a hiking-focused GPS handheld, Garmin’s top-of-the line Colorado 400t, and evaluated it on Saturday during our hike at Pinnacles National Mount. Verdict: I’m returning it. I was disappointed in the Colorado’s inability to replace paper maps, as the device only had a limited number of trails shown on its topographical maps, with poor labeling of the trails that are on the device. Also, the battery life was total crap (died after 4 hours on brand-new batteries), although I downloaded a firmware update when I got home that supposedly addresses that issue, among others. The screen was a letdown–it was very difficult to show a map to my fellow hikers, as the viewable angle in sunlight is limited.
On Sunday, I connected it to my computer to see if there was some useful software that would let me download trail routes to the GPS device and log my trips. Both the Garmin software and software from a third party affiliated with Backpacker magazine are Windows only (which I got around by using my VMWare Fusion program that lets me run Windows XP on my Macs) and are pretty crappy.
The Colorado does offer some utility. It shows you exactly where you are, which you can use in conjunction with paper maps to figure out a route. It tracks how far you’ve hiked and the elevation you’ve gone, good for those that like to track stats on a hike (although if you’re going on an established hike, you can just check your guidebook for that). You can place waypoint markers at points along your route, such as where you saw a California condor (yep, saw one on Saturday, very cool to see and a very, very ugly bird–no hair on its head). And you can use it for geocaching, a GPS-linked treasure hunt for adults. But I don’t geocache. And the other features aren’t compelling enough to make me buy a $300 device. Given that the Colorado costs $600, goodbye.
Thanks for the honest evaluation. Saved me two trips to the store…one to buy…one to return…