How do I find the best GPS for mountian riding on horse back to document campsites?

Question

I am an avid mountian horse back rider and am interested in purchasing a handheld GPS. I don't even know where to start. I am looking to use it to mark campsites that aren't necessarily well known to others and also where people have been who have left all their trash and belonging because they were too lazy to pick it up. How does gps work anyways. Can you mark your own spots and name them? Do you have to have a map that already has that location on there. If any help can be provided I would greatly appreciate it.

Answer 1

Go to www.garmin.com for hand held gps !

Answer 2

The handheld GPS units use the Global Positioning Satellite system to determine a position for you. Basically it is a compact satellite receiver and is often accurate to 10 feet or so. You need to have some clear view of the sky for it to work well.

As for getting one just to mark locations, I would recommend the low end Garmin unit. I use a Garmin "Etrex" for marking locations that I use when mapping my outdoor adventures to post to my blog. It gives me position information in Latitude / Longitude format like 34 27 58.03N 117 13 42.16W and that is more than close enough to mark a location on a map. You can save entire routes or just mark "way points" and save those. It is battery operated and the batteries last well over 12 hours of continuous use.

Since I just use mine to mark maps, I don't need a unit with built in USGS map data.