That's how I felt when I bought my small non-mapping Garmin Geko 301. I bought it to be used with a map and compass as primary. When I get to any given area, I mark specific locations that are easily found on the map, road intersections, whatever. Mark where my car's parked. During the hike mark points along the way -- waypoints are free. When I don't need to actively use the Geko, I turn it off and conserve the batteries -- map and compass time. It works quite well.

That said, I'm seriously looking at the Garmin 60Cx as an upgrade, they've improved immensely. The SiRF technology allowing it to take a fix under a canopy is a major plus. Still taking map and compass though, always the compass.

"committing yourself to only one source of information strikes me as an excellent way of getting yourself Darwined..."

Great point. That is why we always buy some type of paper map wherever we are hanging out for more than a few days...

It is pretty much the same as the h2o but with an emphasis on hunting. It has hunting specific icons and the mapping software has all the hunting units in the US.

The barometer is handy with the weather warnings.

I have tried the grayscale screen and loved it. But the areas I am in have a lot of water that enters the picture so being able to it as blue vs another shade of gray which may be BLM land or etc...

Here's a thought if battery life is a concern - a few days before departure put the GPS outdoors where it can receive a signal and turn it on for half an hour or so. Then replace the batteries with the set you intend to use in the field. The idea behind this is to do the slow "cold start" of the GPS ahead of time, on other batteries, so that any field use has a quicker start time since it's a warm start.

(this doesn't apply to some new units that I'm told never need to do a cold start, just the 30 second maximum warm start)

Why a couple days before? Do that at your car/truck and allow the GPS to get a good position of your vehicle. Then replace the batteries with a fresh set and keep a spare set in your pack.

I usually leave it plugged into the vehicle's power port (cig lighter) until I arrive and carry a couple spare sets of batteries JIC.

GPS "almanac" data is valid for a couple of months. So if a GPS receiver is left on long enough to receive an almanac a few days before a trip then it won't be necessary to wait for it in the field. No big deal, but it a ~ 15 minute delay that can be avoided via pre-trip preparations.

A GPS is that is used from time to time probably already had a valid almanac. I was thinking of the more-casual case of one that hasn't been used since the last vacation.

All GPS receivers collect and store almanac and ephemeris data whenever they're on. You don't have to do anything other than leave the receiver on longer enough.

~15 minutes?!?!?!?

Are you kidding? I don't think it ever took that long. The longest it has taken was maybe 1 minute to boot up and 2-5 minutes to acquire its location. That is with any of the three brands I have used.

I agree, from a cold start -- 5 min max.

Hmmm...when I first fire up the boat GPS in the spring, after winter storage, it does take a few more minutes to give me a position than later in the season when I'm using it weekly.

Almanac downloading?