Please take this camping survey!!

[Carmen]

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8RC88K3

Hello! We are students conducting a study on how many campers use portable GPS devices. We would really appreciate your help! Thanks!

[Brad]

I have been given 2 GPS devices in the past 3 years and I can honestly say I have never had the need for one... We use paper plates, a map and a CB...

[Eaglebait Ranch]

When either Susan or I are on the trail, we carry a map, a comp**** and a gps - all three are useful on the trail. A gps comes in very handy when fog or clouds take over the view and points of reference can't be found. I have found some quad maps with trails and roads which were not accurate on the map/s. So, we take all three.

On a winter backpack 3 winters ago, I called S.A.R. because Susan had not returned from a 3 day backpack. The short version is the man made points located on the map were not where they were showing on the map. She was ok, but temporarily lost. She planned on spending the night where she was and deal with her "reality" in the morning. S.A.R found her at 2:00am, safe, and sleeping in her tent.

[Bigdog57]

I am 'old school' and always have maps handy, and a compass. But I do have a small cheap Magellan GPS that is more a glorified 'roadmap' for highway use - it's internal map is limited to major highways and well-travelled city streets. No rural roads or trails. But I do use it to lay 'cookie crumbs' I can follow back out if needs-be. I can also store POI locations and later transfer that info to maps.

[nearlywild]

I have a hand held Garmin that I mostly use for geocaching. We love to geocach when we go camping. I also like to mark our campsite as a waypoint and then just throw the gps in our backpack for when we hike. We only hike on well marked trails and usually not very far but you never know. If we ever get lost we can always pull out the gps and pull up the location of our campsite and just follow it back. I love my Garmin Nuvi that I use in my car. It really helped when we moved to our new duty station. Being new to town it really helped us get around. 2 years later I still use it to find places. When we were driving through Canada to get up here we would use it to look up hotels in towns that we knew we were going to stop in. It had lists of all the hotels and their phones numbers. I was able to call them up ahead of time and ask about rates. That saved us a lot of money.

[jpurdy]

I am also old school, like bigdog and nearlywild, my GPS, a Garmin Nuvi, is for over the road and I keep the maps updated so I can have up to date info. When I am camping or on the trail I carry up to date maps and compass. This works for me. If I spent more of my time backpacking I would look at a GPS that used topo maps. I see the benefit of it as it would be a useful tool.

[Eaglebait Ranch]

........ If I spent more of my time backpacking I would look at a GPS that used topo maps. I see the benefit of it as it would be a useful tool.

Yes, when backpacking a GPS w/topo becomes a very useful tool to add to the arsenal needed to figure out where I am. I can see where campers may not venture so far away from base camp to need one.

Funny story involving using my GPS........ On our trek to Washington, I was doing a solo 4 day out and back walk in the Glacier Peaks Wilderness. I was "pinging" the places I stopped to eat and sleep. On day 2, I had left my "lunch trash" at the spot I had lunch, but realized it that evening in camp. So, on the return trek out, I did a "go to" to where I had lunch. Yep, there was my trash, right where I left it! Is that an example of "geocacheing"?

[Bigdog57]

New sport of "Geotrashing", maybe...? :D

[francwa45]

I've camped an unknown amount and backpacked a number of times. Never used or needed a gps. I always carry a comp**** but have actually never needed it either.

[Brad]

Re: Please take this camping survey!!

HA HA HA!!!!! I got ANOTHER GPS for X-MAS!!!!!

I think someone is trying to tell me something like "Get lost" or something. maybe they have a special setting on it so when I get out in the middle of nowhere, it just shuts off

Anyone want one? I will sell cheap! maybe even trade for a doughnut or something. Actually, I did something really cool with it, I got a couple of those old tupperware school lunch trays. They are very sturdy and have one main spot, 2 sides and a spot for fork and knife on the side. I can't wait to go test them out. Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!

[tplife]

Re: Please take this camping survey!!

You guys call yourselves "old school"? Are you kidding? We cut blazes into the trees to mark our trails. It must not hurt the trees much because more keep growing as fast as we cut them down for firewood and picnic tables. :cool: