: It may sound silly but I don't take a GPS into the BWCA. The landmarks are
: good and the maps are fantastic. I find I don't need the pinpoint accuracy
: I need on an open water crossing, SAR activity backpacking etc. Its a nice
: to have, but for me its about weight. If I do get lost in mid-summer there
: are lots of other folks around who could spin me back to true if I needed
: it. I've never had that happen, but I've been on the other end of it a few
: times. I think a GPS is a matter of comfort in the BWCA. ITs a nice too,
: but ya have to trade its value for weight and space.

: If I were to recommend carrying one piece of electronic gear. I'd say take
: the cell phone on your solo. If ya get into a trouble help is a the top of
: a hill and jsut a send button away.

And I'll chime in with a totally opposite view. (Must be my year for being feisty and contrary )

Cell towers in the BWCA? I can't remember seeing any in the spots I visited. With no towers in line of sight, and spaced less than 10 to 15 miles, those modern cell phones have nothing to link up with.

Modern communications is not quite so common in some of these places. I did pass a pay phone by the parking lot at the put-in point at the end of the Gunflint trail, though. And a member of the group who had a cell phone was able to make contact from that parking lot, too, but it was a rough connection. He left the phone in his van during our trip.

Personally, I'd rather leave the cell phone at home, or in my car. If you really needed to be in communications with people you might go for a more powerful radio transmitter, or one of the sattelite phones might be nice -- if you could afford the cost.

Next time I go I would like to take the GPS I have, though. It is a Magellan 315. While the navigational aspects are what sells GPS units, mine has a few features that give extra value. I like the speedometer feature. By "seat-of-the-pants" I haven't a clue as to how much headway I'm making against a headwind. For all I know I'm paddling forward at 2 mph while the wind is blowing me backwards at 3 mph, for a net loss of 1 mph. With the GPS I know that info in a hurry.

One of the screens on my GPS shows a compass face with icons for the sun and moon on the screen in the positions you could expect them to be in the sky at that time. I'd like to try using this information so I could use the sun and moon as guides.

My GPS gives altitude readings. I'd like to check some of the data for portages that is printed on the maps I used. I could swear the hills were a lot bigger than the map said. The first day of our trip we planned on taking the shortest portages. The next day we rethought things, and decided we just might consider longer portages that were not so steep -- 'cause the hills were bloody murder. I'm much more familiar with rivers than with lakes, and packed like I usually do for river travel, where I might go a long distance between relatively easy portages (say around dams or rapids). When travelling downstream, you tend to get out of the river on the high side of the portage, and go downhill to put your boat back in. Not so with travelling on lakes. You go uphill far too much.

The GPS also gives me some data on supposedly good fishing times which I would like to either confirm, or refute, through experimentation with rod and lure.

The downfall to all this is that the darn thing eats batteries, so I'll have to bring plenty of spares.

Just a few thoughts here.

PGJ