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Outside magazine, September 1998
Review: Buying Right
Backcountry Bytes
By Glenn Randall
BACKPACKS | BUYING RIGHT | THE OTHER STUFF | BOOKS
 All hail the handheld global positioning system unit, the outdoorsy status symbol that uses a constellation of military satellites to tell you where you are on earth. Of course, this informational tidbit doesn't help you much all by itself. "People
think GPS is the cure-all for getting lost, and it's just not," says Brian Wheeler, founder of the Northwest School of Survival, which instructs some 2,800 people a year in backcountry navigation. GPS units are great tools, Wheeler says, but you still need a map and compass to find your way around. That's because while a GPS unit instantly gives you both the distance and bearing
to a given landmark, it can't tell you what might lie in your path — a sheer cliff? — or which direction you're headed. But with the advent of GPS, compass manufacturers have updated their products to aid this new style of navigation. Topographic maps have changed too — now you can load one into your computer's CD-ROM drive and plan a trip in tandem with your GPS
unit. So in the interest of getting you wired for the wilds, here are our favorite navigational tools.
GPS Units
Magellan's Pioneer ($100; 800-669-4477) is the hands-down winner not only in price, but also in the category of weight. At just six ounces, it's the smallest unit available, making it ideal for gram-shaving obsessives such as mountain bikers. However, these folks may not be so thrilled about the poor reception they could get on tree-shrouded singletrack: Magellan built the
Pioneer with just two satellite-tracking channels rather than the comparatively foolproof 12. And though you can't store multiple routes, it's blessedly simple to use, and certainly for sailors or anyone else navigating unobstructed landscapes, it'll do just fine.
Garmin's GPS III ($369; 800-800-1020) is a 12-channel receiver that stores up to 20 routes and 500 waypoints. It also has a built-in map of North America that allows for zooming in on details or pulling back for a look at the big picture. These are road maps, mind you, without contour lines and hiking trails, so this feature is best utilized to scope out highways, towns, and
lakes on bike tours or car trips. But it does give you a different perspective than a set of stark coordinates.
Lowrance GlobalMap 100 ($449; 800-324-1356) also displays North America, as well as the rest of the world, albeit in less detail. But the real selling point is that you can boost its knowledge by adding map details — down to rural highways, fire roads and small lakes — via an included CD-ROM. (You'll need a multimedia-ready computer running Windows 95.) The
capability also ensures that, as Lowrance makes new maps available, your unit will remain state-of-the-art — at least till it runs out of memory in a few years.
All GPS units can translate your location into UTM coordinates (the most useful grid system employed on USGS topo maps) but the fantastic thing about the Trimble ScoutMaster ($499; 800-959-9567) is that it tells you which one of 53,000 quads you're on and exactly where you are on that map. Consequently, you can forget the rigmarole of elaborate pencil-and-ruler plotting. The
ScoutMaster can also work in any map scale, making it the only receiver compatible with the popular Trails Illustrated topographic maps.
Navigational Necessities
Compasses haven't changed drastically — there's just no getting around magnetic north. But Suunto's GPS Global Plotter ($40; 800-543-9124) features a 100-meter UTM grid engraved on its transparent base plate, making it a cinch to plot the coordinates from your GPS unit on a map.
With Maptech's TopoScout ($29-$99; 800-627-7236), which offers a continually growing library of color USGS topographic maps on CD-ROM (for Windows only), trip-planning is a pleasure. (You can also print out customized maps, but the clarity of the result won't match that of a USGS topo.) Zoom in and out, draw a route with your cursor, and instantly see distances, elevation
profiles, and total elevation gain. Point and click on a knoll you want to summit and the coordinates pop up on screen so you can enter them into your GPS receiver.
A touch more sophisticated, Topo! from Wildflower Productions ($49; 415-558-8700) lets you scroll from one map to the next without bumping into any cartographic borders. This also makes it easier to print out the full area that you want. To date Wildflower has mapped hundreds of recreation areas in 12 states; while there are no plans to cover Kansas or Nebraska anytime soon,
chances are your favorite area is already on the list.
Photograph by Craig Cutler
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