Hello,

I'm sure this has been asked many times, and I've done as much research and thread searching without coming up with as conclusive of an answer as I'd hoped. I'm looking for a dedicated GPS, preferably not an edge 200, to keep costs down, that would track where I've been. Speed, altitude, etc.

I've currently got a Magellan 315 that I've used with great success on shorter trips (~3-5miles), but I'm afraid if I go longer it will stop tracking. It has a limit of 1200 tracking points, and I prefer to use the highest drop rate of .01 miles per "point" as apposed to the .1 miles per "point". If my assumptions are correct, it will stop tracking after 12 miles with .01 and I need it for much longer than that.

If anyone has a suggestion for a handheld GPS that provides a much larger tracking point storage amount that would be wonderful. Preferably something in the 15k+ range so I can bike more than 100miles in one trip without having to worry about losing some data or the unit stops tracking on me.

I do have a question too, if a unit has a limit of 10k tracking points per track, but can store up to 20 tracks, could I just track one leg of the journey, say 60 miles, then bike the other 60 miles back on another track and later "merge" the two tracks in a 3rd party software so it acts as if it's one big track?

Sorry for the hodgepodge of information that's pretty much plastered on the screen. I had a lot of things I needed answered and started typing away with whatever ones came to mind first.

Thanks again!
Anthony

e: Would the eTrex H work? It stores 10k points per track and can hold up to 10 tracks. If I can merge tracks, that should work wonderfully!

I can't speak to specifics about the eTrex, but for me it's easy to merge tracks. I have a Garmin Dakota 20, and when it runs out of its 10k points per track it just starts recording to a new track automatically. In Garmin's Basecamp software, you just select all the tracks you want to merge and right-click to merge them--it will ask you to order the tracks in merge order, and then hit done.

Another nice thing about the Dakota for multi-day trips is that it takes a pair of AAs, so you can just carry spares. Garmin reports 20 hours per pair, but for me it was closer to 14, which is still much better than my phone running Strava.

The Dakota 10/20 isn't cheaper than the Edge 200, though, so it doesn't fit your price range.

If you're just looking for tracking, get a geotagging receiver. The one I have for geotagging photos can record a location every 5 seconds for a week and runs about 20 hours on a cellphone battery that you can buy from eBay for $4 if you need spares.