GPS

[Amazon Bill]

I am taking the leap from river canoe camping to hitting the wilderness waterway. For a two night trip out of Flamingo do you really need a GPS? I lived in Naples for a number of years running the 10,000 islands, but....

 

What kind of GPS do you recommend? I like seeing charts and routes so the compass, waypoint and route type are not in my sights.

[Terry]

 

I paddled the Wilderness Waterway and many other areas in the Everglades since the early 1970's -

long before GPS.   None of the "brochure routes" require GPS, you don't even need it for your first

"deep" adventure which will be the classic Still Creek trip.

To this day I only use GPS when necessary, that is, deep off the NOAA charts.

Once you've used up all the standard routes, you'll have to use GPS to travel places like Old Camp

Route between Roberts River Chickee and North River Chickee, North Watson Route between North River

Chickee and Watson River Chickee or using the Maze to get from Lane River Chickee to Roberts River

Chickee.   I've done Charley Creek without GPS but I wouldn't advise it, again, the connection is not shown

on the NOAA Charts.

Some deep routes that would appear to require GPS don't, but I wouldn't want to be there without it:

The Shark River Slough Route from Tamiami Trail to Canepatch follows "Main Street" right down the

middle of the river of grass.  The Taylor Slough Route from the entrance station down to Nine Mile

Pond is fairly easy to follow except for a few tricky spots that require GPS.

If you've been running around the 10,000 islands without GPS, you've got the skill to do a lot of

paddling around the southern end with out it.  Have fun.

[Juan Estevez]

I always carry my GPS and charts, I have done shorts trips from EC to Rabbit or Pavillion when I have not looked at the charts once and mainly used the GPS to keep track of my speed; but I would never start any trip without it.

 

Here a small discussion about GPS:

http://gladesgodeep.ning.com/forum/topics/gps-survey?commentId=2541...

 

Juan

 

[Amazon Bill]

Terry, thanks for the encouragement. That sounds like good advice to stick to the deeper water routes and spend more time enjoying the day instead of second guessing where I am. Using a map and compass will force my techno son to learn map navigation before getting the GPS, which is a must to know when the battery goes dead.