Originally Posted by
BigBlueToe
On my road tour the gps came in handy a few times for things like finding motels and finding restaurants. I also dropped off a rental car somewhere in Portland, Oregon (Alamo's terminal isn't close to the airport - who'd a thunk?) and had to ride to the Amtrak station, which was several miles away. The gps took me right there. It put me on a busy arterial with no shoulder, but it was easy to move a block away and stay on track. (The little gps doesn't say "Recalculating", it just beeps.
The topo maps didn't have any points of interest, so I couldn't use it for finding motels, restaurants, etc. on the Great Divide tour. Luckily one of my mates had an Iphone. He took care of all of that kind of thing.
Easy enough to load both the road maps (with business POIs) and the topo maps into your Garmin GPS and then switch between them as needed. The iPhone is fine in areas that have cellular coverage but not so good elsewhere - and keeping it charged can be a problem.
I've been using a GPS in lieu of a cycle computer for over 12 years now and have found it very useful. The maps and POIs have been great to have on tours (what restaurants are nearby, what's the location/phone number of a motel when the weather turns bad, etc.), and they've also been helpful in local riding when I've been able to check if a certain road goes through or what I can use as a shortcut home if it starts to get late. It has also been handy to keep track of where I've taken pictures. The photos have the exact time recorded on them and that can be combined with the timed tracklog of the GPS to identify the location. I upload my GPS tracklogs and photos to the EveryTrail.com site that automatically shows where each picture was taken.
The 62s model is very versatile for a variety of outdoor activities, but, as mentioned above, the handlebar mount is prone to cracking from road vibration. Adding a rubber band helps to keep the GPS from jiggling in the mount and eventually causing it to crack. For canoeing it's easy to add a floater to the wristband so it won't sink if dropped overboard.