The nerd in me knows my Etrex is better. My biggest problem with relying on it is actually one of confidence, not in the device, and this may sound really stupid - but in myself! I learned from a young age how to deal with air photos, compass and topo, and although I think I'm a lot less "traditional" than you Jim, I just find myself really old and set in my ways in this regard. When I look at it rationally, I think it is kinda stupid, and I should just practice enough with my GPS unit so that I am confident myself in my use of it it to deal with it. Everything you are saying there is dead on, especially knowing the declination (having been on a number of trips to find newbs who believed their "compass was broken".) and GPS, properly used, just does not have this problem, as long as you have a battery for it and nobody has shot the sattelites out of the sky. On the other hand I'm pretty sure my map
and compass skills are ingrained in me pretty deep, and fumbling through the menus on
the etrex makes me see red even when not cold hurt and distoriented - and I know there's
a solution for that (practice!)

Perhaps part of it with me too is I do so much dratted technology day to day that I hate being beholden to a computer when out in the sticks where I go to get away from it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> So for me, I don't use it, and yes, that's irrational and stupid.

Is there a moral to this post? well, maybe not - other than whatever you use be sure you
can do it cold, wet, disoriented and in your sleep.

I suppose while I'm practicing that for self improvement I could get over my irrational fear of spiders too.. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />