New to forum, gps question

[Nothinkjustwalk]

Hello, I am new to the forum. My wife our rescue cattle dog and I enjoy hiking. We Mainly hike the AT in Virginia and North Carolina day hikes between 5-10 miles then go to a brewery.

2-3 years ago we did a hike that with poor directions and just barely found our way back to the car before dark in the cold. No overnight supplys. (Did we make a left at the Snapple bottle). After that I got a garmin etrex 30x with the 100k us map from rei and I preload the route prior now I also put a waypoint where the car is.

My problem is the gps operates like 1998 tech. Its laggy the screen is tiny. The button are unintuitive. The aa batteries don't last especially when its below 30 they last 15 minutes. The support forums  are full of unanswered problems. The software is beyond buggy. It appear that the mass market has moved on. Looking for an alternative, I don't see anything markedly better. I see some apps for smartphones. Do they work for trackback if you are completely out of cell tower range? Should I accept that since hiking GPS is a Small market I am stuck with outdated tech the manufacture put no r&d or effort into and keep it?

Thanks for the read

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Welcome! From your description there are definitely some more updated options out there. In the smartphone regard, Gaia GPS is a popular app and is what I use - it will definitely work outside of cell tower range and offline provided you save the maps you’ll need at home to the phone prior to the hike. Here is a step by step guide I posted previously on using Gaia to plan out a hike and the basics of using it on the the trail:

https://www.trailgroove.com/blogs/entry/122-the-gaia-gps-app-for-trip-planning-and-use-on-the-trail/

(And if you end up going with Gaia GPS, be sure to check out our Premium Membership for some benefits in that regard... )

I don’t use the app too much for tracking purposes (more to save maps and for location spot checks if needed / to save time) and use a paper map for my main navigation duties, but it definitely has that capability and the capability of adding a waypoint as you describe etc. 

[Outlier]

Welcome!

I also use GaiaGPS on my phone. It comes with some great maps already loaded and it has a lot of features that I like. You can also create your own route on http://www.caltopo.com and export the *.gpx file and import it into GaiaGPS for use later.

Like Aaron said, it's great for spot checks as well. It's a very robust app and it's updated regularly. You can also log into their website and whatever changes you make on there will automatically update on your phone.