GPS should be quite accurate for small, short, changes of position. Most of the error terms vary relatively slowly. 1 yard is plenty in my experience. For me orientation has always been a non-issue.

I do think it helps to set the GPS to "north up" rather than "track up". With "track up" the displayed map keeps rotating with your direction of travel, and that makes it harder to relate to paper maps and the real world and to keep it related. With "north up", if the unit shows you moving left to right you know you are heading west in the real world.