China Wall Topo

[Chris]

Found this posted elsewhere, thought I'd share.

Not that we need it but what the heck.

[Brody]

Thanks! The more information for the trails, the better, I think. I usually have one or two topos for the area, a traildamage printout, a FS map (like for the overall area), Wells book, a GPS and a compass..I am not a big fan of getting lost...especially when it seems to happen in the dark, when you are tired, when you are hungry or thirsty, when you are hurt, when it is rainy or snowing, when it is windy as hell, or any and all combinations of the above...

[Chris]

That's where we view things differently, I rarely have a map. Usually have a vague idea where I'm going and don't mind getting lost. I do have my Wells books if I decide to figure out where I am though.

But a good GPS is on my list...

[WINKY]

if you have the money get one of these, takes just a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes to calculate location to ~20ft even deep in a canyon. I researched before i bought and it was a very very good buy for the money. And if you power it on just to get your bearing the battery life is way out there, i had this on a 3 day canoe trip up in craig and had it on during the day only for about 8 hours per day and batt life was about half. what makes it nice is the new math processor it has "SIRF" chip for computation, this chip makes location aquisition super fast.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=310

[Pathrat]

Thanks for posting this up Chris :)

I like my Garmin Nuvi 500, with off-road mode. Despite going the wrong way from China Wall, it is great to be able to find the gas station and coffee place when you are a ways away from not much.

[Chris]

Any time I look at these I get overwhelmed by the sheer number and choices. I'll get a Garmin because I have an old discontinued map that has all the "recreational" POI like campsites, parks, boat lauches, etc. Maybe redundant at this point but liked it when i had a working GPS. I'll see what's discontinued/refurbished/cheap.

[Brody]

Think PAWN SHOPS, Chris! The last time I pawn shopped (yesterday as a matter of fact-I needed to replace a 4 1/2 grinder that I got at a pawn shop 5 years ago), I saw about 6 car style GPS units, all popular brands, plus some other popular handhelds and this was at just one shop..

Keep in mind that when you talk to the shop people, ask how long the item has been out of pawn. The longer it has been out of pawn, the less money they will take. Some of the pawn shops have this posted on the item and some of them have it itemized like " April 6th, $75.00,May 6th, $65.00" and so on. Never offer to pay what they have the price listed at, either, They will almost always deal with you a little...

You have quite a few scattered up and down the Hampden east, Havana area, as well as on east Mississippi and east Colfax... Just do a little name brand shopping beforehand so that you have a pretty good idea what you are looking for. Also keep in mind that some of the GPS companies offer free downloadable topos from their websites whereas others require that you pay a fee to download them. I have never used this feature, preferring to just use the UTM units on the GPS and the paper topo maps, but I hear that it is pretty nice.

Someone is sure to post GPS suggestions as to brand and model number, but used would be good as they are pretty hard to screw up...

[Chris]

Yeah, pawn shop visits are on my list. I have a few favorites in my area since I'm pretty close to Colfax there are plenty in my area. :D

[H3_Mafia]

I've got a Garmin Nuvi255w that I really like and is very useful. But like Brody said, the best thing to do is research what fits you and how much you wanna pay. And Pawn Shops are a great idea!