Garmin GPSMAP 62SC

Why this one

I chose this model because I wanted buttons, I had tried out a friend's Oregon 450. Reliability and visibility are very high priorities for me and the 62SC is better on these counts.

I live in Oregon. It rains here. The controls and screen have to work all the time, even in rain.

I also prefer the more compact fits-in-my-hand feel of the smaller receivers.

I chose a Garmin over another DeLorme this time because I like making maps and there are lots of mapping options for the Garmin. I was also tired of the teensy fonts on the PN-40.

The DeLorme mapping software does not work very well for me.

Maps

City Navigator with Lifetime option is not worth it. Use OpenStreetMap instead.

The velomap and openmtbmap site has OSM based maps with contours. The contours look like they are 1:250K so relatively useless. Use the free version of OpenStreetMap.

For hiking consider using the Garmin 1:24K topo, it is pretty good. Go to http://www.GPSFileDepot.com and get the trail data to go with it. The topo trails are outdated.

History

Got this one August 10 2012

Day one

Took a picture of Julie to try out the camera. Since my house now has a metal roof, the GPS can't see satellites so the photo is not geocoded. If you love GPS, don't get a metal roof!

I installed the Garmin City Navigator NT 2013.1 map and portions of the Garmin Topo 24K West map.

I installed the free Northwest Trails map.

I loaded a GPX file containing Corvallis area geocaches. I took it outside so it could get lock and had it list nearby geocaches.

Day two

I rode to work with it so it now has about 1 mile on its trip odometer.