I have an old Magellan Pioneer; I got it in '97, I think. I use it for all kinds of things, from hunting, backpacking, mountain biking and kayaking to fishing. One useful thing; I go fishing in my canoe during late fall to mark spots for ice fishing later. it is usually accurate to within a few feet. I don't know if they have become more complicated or not. I am no tech wiz, and I learned how to use mine in a relatively short amount of time. You basically turn it on, program it to your area, altitude, time and date, and let it pick up at least three satellites. I think it takes four for a vertical fix. You can mark spots you want to return to by pressing the "mark" button. You can hit the nav button and change from a lat/long mode to a moving compass mode which shows the compass as well as speed. Later, when you get familiar with it, you can log in waypoints, to create a route, like marking trees with blaze orange ribbon, without the hassle. I recently looked at the new ones and they have additional features like, map downloads. This may make the new ones a little more confusing. Mine works just fine for me. If I need a map, I can use Delorme's Gazeteer.
