Attention all hikers, campers, boaters, kayakers, geocachers, and other outdoorsy types: this is a great tool for you to make sure you never get lost again. Whether hiking in the woods, on a mountain trail, kayaking on a river or lake, horseback riding - your Garmin eTrex Venture will help you find your way to wherever you want to go.

Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS is a step up from the Garmin eTrex H Handheld GPS Navigator. It provides a color display and comes with a detailed basemap showing the largest highways and bodies of water, and provides the ability to add optional mapping products.

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Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver Review with Notes for Mac Users

Mac Users:
It’s a bit tricky, but I am able to use the USB cable and the ’send to Garmin’ to automatically load waypoints from geocaching.com. One warning is that they have a Mac firmware web updater and it’s very new and froze on my attempt to use it, which blanked my unit. [...]. I did the update for this unit on a friends PC and it went fine.

There are some Mac caching software, but none of them are working for me with this unit. So keep that in mind if you really want to go beyond the web waypoint downloads. That’s a bummer, since Maccaching and GeoJournal look like they’d be great.

The included software does not work on a Mac, so ignore that CD. From the Garmin site, you can download the plugin for Mac to make Safari aware of the unit so you can do the “send to Garmin’ trick. They also have the Mac version of their WebUpdater (the one that hosed my first unit) on their site. Finally, you don’t need any USB drivers for Tiger or Leopard OSX, so don’t worry about them only being for Windows on the Garmin site.

Usage:
Crazy fast turn on and acquiring satellites. We are thrilled that we can turn it on in the car and it will start to pick up satellites right away. Our Magellin (an cheap 100 unit) would take awhile even outside in cloudcover.

It also seems to save all the time, as the shutdown is very fast, with no ’saving’ note like our Magellin made us wait for.

I guess our only complaint is that we like to use the backlight a lot and that sucks batteries. It’s winter now, and so many days and locations are dim, and without the backlight, the unit can be pretty dim to read. It takes 2 AA’s. It also has a system pref for the type of battery you use (Alkaline, NiMH or LiOn), why? Maybe to only USB charge when they are NiMH’s?? But remember to set that to the correct type.

We really love auto loading the coordinates. And even with the free account on Geocaching.com, we get the cache name, GC# and coordinates. That saves tons of time and mistakes. We find ourselves loading up any cache that interests us, just in case.

Accuracy:
The unit seems right on. Our other unit would usually be more like 20-30 feet accurate in the woods, and this one led us right to the cache and showed 16′ accuracy at that point under normal tree cover. It also refreshes more often than our old unit, so it feels more responsive. No more going 20 feet and then seeing that the arrow just didn’t update to show we were going the wrong way, or overshot.

Build:
It seems solid and took our last rainy hike well. The back has a bit of a gap, but the seal must lock in fine. It uses the ‘D’ lock, so just half a twist to lock and unlock, which is fast and appreciated on a cold cache while changing batteries. We always had to dig to get the Magellin’s ring out and turning to pop the back.

Thumb toggle:
If you’ve used the old Garmin’s with button input, the toggle on the front is really welcomed. We zip through data entry and you push the toggle in to accept an entry. It’s also a shortcut to Mark your current location (holding down the toggle button). Another tip is that holding down the lower left button brings up the ‘Find’ menu quickly.

Speed:
One thing I noted was that when I went just one setting more on ‘detail’ for the maps, it really cut the redraw speed (which is a tad slow to begin with), so that was disappointing. ”

Amazon.com: Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver: Electronics
 

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If you are looking to buy handheld gps navigation system, read more about Portable GPS systems and Buy the right GPS device for your needs

The features needed for hiking different from those needed for other GPS applications, such as car navigation, running, boating, or golfing. Below are some of essential and nice-to-have portable GPS unit used for hiking and camping.

Map screen. Some handheld GPS devices can’t display maps at all; instead they provide your longitude and latitude, with a track of such coordinates to indicate where you’ve been. Other models let you load maps, and some can eve display downloaded satellite images. Screen displaying maps, not just a numerical lon/lat position, will make your life much easier.

Built-in basemap. Not absolutely essential, but highly recommended.

Water Submersible.Sooner or later your device will get wet. Your unit should be water submersible (waterproof standard IPX7) to protect it from getting damaged when it gets in the water. This means that is not just water-resistant, but that it can withstand accidental immersion in water for up to 30 minutes. Plastic bags and boxes are also recommended for added protection.

Large, easy-to-read display. Maps can be harder to read on the smaller screens that most handheld GPS models have, so I recommend that you choose a model with the largest screen size that you can see yourself carry. This is essential especially if you have problems reading fine detail. Color screen is cool, as it defines map features better than a black and white screen; backlight is also useful, although both features burn more battery power. Black and white screens are just fine for hiking and many color screens can be difficult to read in bright sunlight. So-called transreflective color screens may be your best choice: they are easy to read in direct sunlight and don’t use as much power with the screen backlight switched on. A screen protector is nice to prevent accidental scratches.

Compact and lightweight.  Here you will have to compromise between small size (recommended), so you don’t have to carry around a bulky device, and big screen size (also recommended), so you can read it without squinting. 

Power source and battery life. It is preferable to choose a portable handheld GPS unit that can support external power, such as a power cable or a cigarette lighter cable. Lithium batteries are recommended to ensure a longer battery life. It should use standard batteries (AA or AAA) for easy replacement on the trail, as always, rechargeable batteries are recommended.

Touchscreen or Rocker Keypad. Rocker Keypad designed for one-hand operation will make using your GPS device much easier. Some newer GPS units have touchscreens which helps immensely when navigating using the maps.

Channels. Most portable GPS units come with 12 channel parallel receiver system. Channels help receive satellite signals faster and more precisely. This is especially important in heavy tree cover or difficult terrain.

Memory. Lots of storage capacity (at least 20 MB)  is useful to upload detailed topographic maps, street maps, or additional waypoints. Higher end GPS handheld models accept a memory card for additional storage.

External amplified antenna. This is not a necessity, but may come in handy in places, where signals are weak.

Route capability and Waypoints. 20 Route capability is standard, some units have 50. 500+ user entered waypoints are pretty standard. Waypoints are specific geographic locations, described by longitude and latitude, that you have recorded in your GPS unit. When you press the waypoint record button on your GPS at a trailhead, you can always find your way back to your car. Cheap GPS handheld models will store relatively few waypoints; higher end units can store hundreds, and you can name them as you wish.

Tracks. As you go on your hiking trip, your GPS device records and displays a breadcrumb trail of where you’ve been. This process lets you easily backtrack to your starting point; some models also let you download your track to your PC and view your travels on a topographic map. You can print out the map and the track for a permanent record of your journey. As in the case of waypoints, low-end models offer limited track storage, while high-end models store many and allow you to identify them by adding custom names.

If you are thinking about buying portable GPS navigation system, read more on GPS Handheld Navigation blog, Choose the right handheld GPS device for your needs? If you are a golfer, you may be interested to learn how golf GPS systems can help you improve your game.