There are literally hundreds of options to go with as well as hundreds of opinions that will be given to what is the best. I carry different knives depending on the location I'm going out in. My normal carry is a heavily modified Rat-7, a SwissArmy Backpacker, and a Norlund Boyscout hatchet I rehandle to a straight handle. In western Canada a hatchet and a heavier blade comes in very handy, but next month I'm going camping in Arizona where a hatchet would be better replaced by the Ontario 12" machette I modified down to 9" and reshaped to fit me.
Total Costs: Rat-7 96.00$ and about 20 hours modifying
Backpacker 43.00$
Norlund hatchet 20.00 with about 5 hours rehandling and 10.00$ materials
Machette 25.00$ and 5 hours modifying

Everything I carry is under a hundred bucks and I could do most jobs with any one of them on their own. Bottom line is ask around and see what friends are carring, borrow it for a few hours and try it out, go to the knife shops and handle them. You can't know what will feel good in your hands from a picture.
Lastly, if a knife isn't exsactly how you like it, don't be afraid to try modifying it to suit you, a prodyction knife is made for the general public but with a few mods it can be made to fit you.