Foy
Resident Geologist
Gentlemen and ladies,
Some here at WTW are aware that we lost our oldest son to sudden heart failure 18 months ago. With our daughter-in-law and their two children, now 11 and 8, living just 200 yards from our home, we stepped into new duties and obligations on the home front and that has curtailed our extended travel almost entirely. We do expect to "get back on the horse" in September 2024 with a one week fly-and-drive to our beloved southwestern corner of Montana in observance of our 46th anniversary and with a much more extensive trip in the old Superduty towing our GeoPro travel trailer to central Montana in July 2025. Our grandson is still young enough at age 11 that he enjoys going on "Pop Adventures", most of which are daytrips involving hiking, looking at rocks, paddling, or trips on my 18' center-console fishing boat. So, with the increasing recovery of grizzly populations in southwestern Montana, advancing age (I'm 69 as of today, wife 68, and both my wife and I enjoy good health), and an anticipated increase in one-on-one adventures with my grandson, I think it's a good time to get some sort of emergency beacon and make sure that all involved know how to use it.
I've read many posts here on WTW and seen a metric ton of YouTube video reviews, etc, but like Ski's recent post concerning mapping software, I find a lot of comfort and confidence in the WTW community's opinions. With that as the background, and with the technology changing almost monthly, I wonder what general or specific recommendations you folks may have regarding features to consider mandatory as well as features to consider useless or burdensome and thereby to avoid. Any guidance much appreciated.
On the GPS front, most here are aware of my mantra: There is no complete substitute for maps, a compass, and the skillset to use them. Comes from being a long ago trained field geologist and I can't and won't forget how to navigate. And rest assured, my grandson is already receiving instruction in old school land navigation skills (Where did you get all these cool maps, Pop?). But in addition to looking in to the emergency beacon, I think it's high time to take a bold leap at least into the early 2000s and acquire a handheld GPS, my first ever excepting for the one which Steve Jobs put into my iPhone. I'd really like to have a GPS with a topographic map base and a decent sized screen. Also of interest would be fishing oriented units having bathymetric data for lakes, reservoirs, and coastal estuarine waters. To my presently feeble knowledge, practically any boat mounted GPS can access specific lake or coastal waters bathymetry data but I don't know to what extent a handheld unit can download such. So, any general recommendations or directions to search within coming from the WTW community would be much appreciated.
With much appreciation in advance, I look forward to any opinions and suggestions.
Foy
Some here at WTW are aware that we lost our oldest son to sudden heart failure 18 months ago. With our daughter-in-law and their two children, now 11 and 8, living just 200 yards from our home, we stepped into new duties and obligations on the home front and that has curtailed our extended travel almost entirely. We do expect to "get back on the horse" in September 2024 with a one week fly-and-drive to our beloved southwestern corner of Montana in observance of our 46th anniversary and with a much more extensive trip in the old Superduty towing our GeoPro travel trailer to central Montana in July 2025. Our grandson is still young enough at age 11 that he enjoys going on "Pop Adventures", most of which are daytrips involving hiking, looking at rocks, paddling, or trips on my 18' center-console fishing boat. So, with the increasing recovery of grizzly populations in southwestern Montana, advancing age (I'm 69 as of today, wife 68, and both my wife and I enjoy good health), and an anticipated increase in one-on-one adventures with my grandson, I think it's a good time to get some sort of emergency beacon and make sure that all involved know how to use it.
I've read many posts here on WTW and seen a metric ton of YouTube video reviews, etc, but like Ski's recent post concerning mapping software, I find a lot of comfort and confidence in the WTW community's opinions. With that as the background, and with the technology changing almost monthly, I wonder what general or specific recommendations you folks may have regarding features to consider mandatory as well as features to consider useless or burdensome and thereby to avoid. Any guidance much appreciated.
On the GPS front, most here are aware of my mantra: There is no complete substitute for maps, a compass, and the skillset to use them. Comes from being a long ago trained field geologist and I can't and won't forget how to navigate. And rest assured, my grandson is already receiving instruction in old school land navigation skills (Where did you get all these cool maps, Pop?). But in addition to looking in to the emergency beacon, I think it's high time to take a bold leap at least into the early 2000s and acquire a handheld GPS, my first ever excepting for the one which Steve Jobs put into my iPhone. I'd really like to have a GPS with a topographic map base and a decent sized screen. Also of interest would be fishing oriented units having bathymetric data for lakes, reservoirs, and coastal estuarine waters. To my presently feeble knowledge, practically any boat mounted GPS can access specific lake or coastal waters bathymetry data but I don't know to what extent a handheld unit can download such. So, any general recommendations or directions to search within coming from the WTW community would be much appreciated.
With much appreciation in advance, I look forward to any opinions and suggestions.
Foy
! I still carry an old Garmen in the truck to check my map location (It is loaded with maps of most of the locations I like to travel to. In addition, since I am now an old senior citizen who travels alone with his dog these days, I have joined the modern world and have a Spot X with that magic SOS button (and now my new one lets me text too)!
