UPDATE: We didn't end up going to Point Mugu because I hurt my hip at the gym. Instead, we settled on trying out our Garmin on Seascape Trail on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. More about this trail to come. As for the Garmin, it doesn't have the most user-friendly interface and I would strongly advise spending some serious time with it before you go on any real trips. It does give you a lot of options for planning out your trip though. You can manually add waypoints, and then turn them into a custom route. You can also download .gpx files from the internet, and load them into tracks. We tried both on our little hike and it worked out great. Since the waypoints can make it tough to gauge the actual trail distance, I think I prefer to use the track feature. We were also able to record our own hike on the GPS, and my survival expert hiking buddy (also boyfriend) is working on extracting a .gpx file to post here.
On the whole, it seems to acquire a signal quickly and it never drops out. We had it out and were playing with it for several hours (on maximum brightness) and the battery was still full by the time we left. So far, I am satisfied with our purchase, but I will be spending some more time with it to learn how to navigate through some of the otherwise confusing functions and interface.
Point Mugu is on the agenda for next week and we will have to see how it handles a longer, more remote hike through the Santa Monica mountains.
On the whole, it seems to acquire a signal quickly and it never drops out. We had it out and were playing with it for several hours (on maximum brightness) and the battery was still full by the time we left. So far, I am satisfied with our purchase, but I will be spending some more time with it to learn how to navigate through some of the otherwise confusing functions and interface.
Point Mugu is on the agenda for next week and we will have to see how it handles a longer, more remote hike through the Santa Monica mountains.
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