Another point regarding why a discussion of the Garmin Foretrex GPS is relevant to the tourist or casual camper who walks off and gets lost... The Garmin Foretrex is worn like a watch and in one mode depending n how you set it up, it is just a watch. If you go to "SETUP" and select "SYSTEM", it takes you to a page showing "GPS MODE"; put the mode in "OFF" and you turn off the GPS receiver so the unit is just a watch and the battery lasts longer.

So you are going on a hike and using the GPS as a GPS, you mark your parked car as a waypoint, or while camping you get to camp and you mark the camp as a waypoint -- then you page through the functions and turn off the GPS, page over and down the page, and all you see is the TIME being displayed. There are options to change the fields displayed and that's how mine is set; time shows in 24 hour mode. In any case, it's just a watch until I need it to be a GPS again.

Nope, my 101 is a Foretrex 101 -plain vanilla GPS. I believe it preceded the Geko series.....

But nice and light and keeps splendid time. I especially like it when bike riding and touring...

Actually is he was going around the world, a GPS/GLONASS version would be more helpful as GLONASS's orbit makes it especially suited for usage in high latitudes (north or south), where getting a GPS signal can be problematic. Using a receiver with solar rechargeable batteries would be ideal for the days when civilization is distant.

Not sure why you think getting a GPS signal is problematic at high latitudes? If I'm not mistaken, the GPS satellite orbits are inclined at about 55 degrees, which should give good coverage worldwide, including at the poles. People routinely use GPS everywhere in Alaska, with good success.

From GPS.gov : "The satellites in the GPS constellation are arranged into six equally-spaced orbital planes surrounding the Earth. Each plane contains four "slots" occupied by baseline satellites. This 24-slot arrangement ensures users can view at least four satellites from virtually any point on the planet."

You may be confusing GPS satellites with one of the communication satellite systems. Globalstar, in particular, has its satellites arranged in a more equatorial configuration. Getting voice or data links through Globalstar satellites has sometimes been a problem at high latitudes. This has been an issue for SPOT devices. While SPOT uses GPS satellites to get a location, SPOT transmits that location via the Globalstar satellite data link. Without a data link, SPOT can't transmit the GPS location, so sometimes SPOT doesn't work well at high latitudes.

Iridium sat phones has generally been better for high latitude areas. However, both Globalstar and Iridium are totally different systems from GPS.