Garmin Etrex Legend - Handheld GPS Receiver

The Garmin eTrex Legend Handheld GPS Receiver is jam-packed with features to make your hiking, camping, geocaching and other outdoor activities a snap.

* 288 x 160 pixel screen

* 8MB of flash memory capable of saving 500 waypoints, 20 routes with 50 waypoints each, and slots for 10 saved tracks

* Accurate within 2-3 meters

* Easy to use click-stick to navigate from feature to feature with one hand

* Durable, waterproof case

* Built-in patch antenna reduces profile while maintaining good reception

* Robust data package provides position in latitude/longitude, bearing and heading with arrow and degrees, distance, elevation, ETA (estimated time of arrival) and ETE (estimated time enroute), current speed, average speed and VMG (velocity made good), time and date, time of sunrise/sunset, trip time and trip distance

* WAAS-enabled global positioning for more accurate results on the move

* Downloadable street maps and information - (additional cost)

* Backlight for greater visibility

* Runs on 2 AA batteries

The Garmin eTrex Legend tracks your position, speed and other factors based on orbiting satellites, (after all, it's a Global Positioning System).

WAAS (or Wide Area Augmentation System) also incorporates flying aircraft and signal towers spread around the U.S. to focus signals and improve the accuracy of the readings. Thanks to WAAS, the Garmin line of handheld GPS receivers can pinpoint a position to as close as 2-3 meters with a standard of <15 meters, and speed within .05 meters/sec at steady speeds.

WAAS allow this incredible accuracy across North America and most of South America. WAAS is not available outside of the western hemisphere.

An exhaustive analysis by GPSInformation.net
User reviews from Cnet.com

We are geocachers and so we went out to find an inexpensive, reliable GPS receiver for our own outdoor activities.

We like the eTrex Legend a lot and take it everywhere we go if we know we're trying to find something, or might get lost (or both).

It is not as reliable in big cities, and the bigger the cities, with more skyscrapers, the harder it is to get a signal, but get the Legend out into the wilderness and it's another beast entirely.

The Legend works like a champ outdoors, taking in fed coordinates and leading us like a bloodhound to hidden caches, keeping track of waypoints for us (usually the car so we don't get lost while wandering around) as well as distance traveled and time it took, sorting out local places of interest for afterward, and generally logging our activities in terms of distance and time.

As a geocaching tool, we can not only program in coordinates for caches, but also name them, and show a map of nearby caches as we approach them, each one with it's own relative distance and direction.

It is just as useful in the car or on a boat (so I hear) as it is in hand on foot. We've used it for makeshift navigation in the car, and it's great for long drives where we want to keep track of distance, time and ETA. Of course, it helps us pinpoint waypoints to get out to walk to caches, and then further home in on the target coordinates.

In my humble opinion, the Garmin eTrex Legend is the ideal tool for any geocacher, hiker, or outdoorsman.
It's pretty slick, runs seemingly forever on 2 AA batteries (its rated for 18 hours of continuous use, but it seems like more) and has never given us a single problem in all of our outdoor time. It even operated accurately in Hawaii, where we thought it would be limited by WAAS access, but Honolulu has a WAAS station, so it worked great.

It claims to be waterproof, and although it's designed for use in boats, too, we're not boaters so haven't put it to the test. We HAVE spilled I don't know what all on it over the years, and have even used it in light rain without a single problem. We've just toweled it off and it's ready to go. It's taken some abuse in backpacks and has tumbled to the ground a few times, but we've yet to crack it or damage the electronics. I'm sure it's not indestructible, and with it's lightness, I cringe every time it takes a dive, but it is rugged and will tolerate some neglect and carelessness. YMMV.

There are upgraded models, and some folks consider it to be obsolete, but we won't be swapping it out anytime soon. It's reliable, handy, accurate and durable, and has more than made back the investment we made in it.

I don't recommend it for runners or cyclists as there are different Garmin products better suited to athletic performance for bikes mounts and watches, and as a talking car GPS, it doesn't make the grade, but for travel data, basic mapping and pinpoint coordinate navigation, it's a must have for geocachers, hikers, and adventurers of all sorts, and is very capable in the car.

Here's a convenient .pdf from Amazon - Garmin eTrex Legend Manual (.PDF)