Garmin Colorado 400t GPS

I received a pretty cool gadget for my birthday last weekend: a Garmin Colorado 400t GPS! I'm really looking forward to taking it backpacking. I browsed around the topographical map for some of our usual haunts in the Sierra Nevada mountains and was happy to see trails, lakes, mountains, mines, and other items of interest indicated on the map. The coverage appears to be pretty good in our area.

There have been occasions in the past when I've been "concerned" that I might not be able to find my way back to our car. Sometimes everything starts to look the same, and I begin to wonder which direction we came from. I'll feel a little more freedom to explore now :)

The physical unit has a nice rubber grip and a good heft in your hand... maybe a little too hefty. It feels like you're holding a half-pound potato compared to a cell phone. The user interface is pretty good, and I like the navigation wheel. I would like to see better software support for the Mac. I haven't tried uploading tracks and waypoints to it yet, but I'm looking forward to exploring an open-source alternative to Garmin's software called GPSBabel.