Garmin GPSMAP 64 Series

The GPSMAP 64 series is a much-anticipated update of the 62 series to include reception of the Russian GLONASS satellites. As already proven by the Garmin Oregon 600 series of touch screen trail GPS units, adding GLONASS to the US GPS satellites slightly increases the accuracy and significantly increases the reliability of the navigation fix. With more satellites to use, the Oregon 600 maintains its satellite lock under partially obscured skies, such as in canyons and heavy forest cover. Having more satellites available also makes it less likely that the accuracy of the fix will suffer from poor satellite geometry, which can happen if all the usable satellites are in a line.

Much-anticipated? Well, not all of us like touch screens for field use. Although the Oregon 600 series is vastly improved over its predecessor 400 and 500- series, I still prefer buttons while wearing gloves and in cold weather.

All of the 64-series units support additional Garmin maps, as well as custom maps. The base 64 model comes with a basemap, and 250,000 preloaded geocaches from geocaching.com. The 64s adds an electronic compass and altimeter, and the 64st adds TOPO U.S. 100K maps.

I recommend the 64s, since there are plenty of free, high-quality maps available from gpsfiledepot.com as well as other sources.

Garmin 010-01199-00 GPSMAP 64 Worldwide with High-Sensitivity GPS and GLONASS Receiver