GPS question

Recently I was out on a hike here in Michigan in brushy forested country with a very poorly marked trail and lost the trail completely. The only map of the trail is a DNR brochure with the north arrow 45° off position and pointed to the bottom of the sheet. I have hiked the same trail several times before and had always found my way through so I did not bother to take a better map.(I know, dumb move). I have a yellow Garmin Etrex which I have not used very much and I was thinking about going out again and making my own map of the trail. Now the confusing part. The Etrex saves a track which can be 1200 points and in battery save mode it updates every five seconds. That means that the track is overwritten every 1 1/2 hours unless saved and ten tracks can be saved. That means 15 hours total if I remember to save before the track is overwritten. Is there something wrong with my thinking here ? I am thinking that I may be better off just entering a waypoint every 5 minutes or so or when the direction changes. What is the best way to map this trail?

Hi GG,

Best way to map the trail is to use a GPS that doesn't have such restrictive limitations on breadcrumbing. Given that this is not an option, you seem to have hit on the next best solution on your own - manually setting a waypoint at each trail feature or change of direction. You can still use the track feature, but don't rely on it.

Trail features should use different waypoint icons or descriptions (branch, scree, water crossing, spring, etc.). Altitude is a nice thing to know (don't know if the Etrex records this) but remember that GPS altitudes can be off by several hundred feet.

Thanks. since I really never use the Etrex I am not about to buy a better unit. The only time I have used the Etrex is to mark points that I want to get back to like the car etc. As far ar recording elevation. This is Michigan and the elevation difference on this trail is probably less than 100 ft. The lakes are at about 650 ft and the highest point in the state is about 1950 ft. The last ice age pretty much flattened the state.