Outdoor Navigation with GPS: Hiking, Geocaching, Canoeing, Kayaking, Fishing, Outdoor Photography, Backpacking, Mountain Biking

by Stephen W. Hinch

The most complete, easy-to-use GPS book available, this guide offers everything needed to get the most out of a receiver, from basic consumer advice to advanced techniques.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0899974457
• ISBN13: 9780899974453
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Wilderness Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great book

It's a great book geared towards navigating in the outdoors in particular, rather than autonavigation, marine navigation, etc. It goes in depth into how to use bearings, orienting yourself, direction finding, and a substantial amount of info in navigating without a GPS by using a compass, paper topo maps, the sun, the stars, and so forth. It is, by design, not an outdoor survival guide, but it does cover the basics for hiking and points to more detailed sources when necessary. I really enjoyed how well the author taught the concepts of latitude, longitude, bearings, datums, declination, and so forth. Towards the end of the book, the author even includes some fun GPS-based games you can organize, discusses geocaching, and compares different GPS receiver models. This book goes beyond the receiver's manual and actually teaches you how to navigate. One of the big points it makes is to find what direction you need to go, find an intermediate waypoint, PUT YOUR RECEIVER AWAY, and head off in the proper direction. This keeps you from walking over poison ivy, off of cliffs, into trees, and generally aware of your surroundings. Once you get to your intermediate destination, pull the receiver out and find your next step. I'm new to wilderness navigation and this was certainly an "aha" moment. Who wants to be focusing on the GPS device the whole time when you could be taking in the beauty of your surroundings instead!

The Best

Manuals are sorely incomplete and other books I checked out didn't get to the point. This book does while providing all the information anyone could ever want without overwhelming the reader. This book is very well written, enjoyable to read and a great teacher of what any GPS owner really wants to know. Of all the titles out there, this is the one.

practical information you can really use

This book is full of practical tips and technical information and the writing style is very straightforward. Since reading this book, I'm using my GPS correctly, I understand all the features and setup, plus I learned some safety tips for hiking. I'm new to GPS so every word of this book was informative for me, but I think even experienced hikers and GPSers will find facts they didn't know and appreciate the writing style and the author's enthusiasm for the outdoors.

Valuable Resource

I just opened my new copy of Stephen Hinch's book Outdoor Navigation with GPS. It's great, exactly what I was looking for; I just devoured the first 39 pages. Even better, I was able to explain some terminology and how the GPS works to my husband, who uses one all the time for work but didn't know about almanac data, ephemeris data, and PRN codes. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning how to use a GPS. I have belonged to a search and rescue team for 2 years. Before reading this book, never really felt that I had learned what I needed to know.

Excellent Introduction to GPS Navigation

This is the best book I've found for learning how to use GPS in the outdoors. It is well organized, easy to understand, and has lots of useful illustrations. I also like the fact that it is more than just a book on GPS. It also includes detailed chapters on map and compass navigation and primitive navigation techniques for use in emergencies. It is organized into 5 parts, starting with the simplist techniques and building from there. In Part 1, you learn the concepts of waypoints and bearings. Some people may never need to know more than this. Part 2 teaches you about latitude and longitude, as well as a chapter on geocaching. Part 3 covers advanced navigation using topographic maps. Part 4, titled "Recovering from Disaster" shows you what to do if your GPS fails. Part 5 describes fun ways to use your GPS and includes a GPS selection guide. As usual with electronics, this chapter is a little dated now, but the rest of the book is still relevant if even you have a newer GPS. There is also an interesting final chapter called GPS FAQs that answers a number of unusual questions. The only negative, and it's a minor one, is that most of the GPS screen shots show Garmin receivers. But the explanations in the text are general enough that I had no problem applying them to my Magellan eXplorist.