Dewbie, meaning dumb newbie....
Received a Dakota 20 for Christmas and am still reading and learning ( a LOT from this site)
If I walk out my backdoor, create a waypoint there, then take off on a five mile hike in the woods behind my house and set another waypoint. Will I be able to return to my backdoor without getting lost? Do I HAVE to have a routable map installed on the device to do this?
Thanks.
If you have recorded your track, it can be used to guide you back - see: http://gpstracklog.com/2010/07/navigating-tracks-on-the-new-garmin-handhelds.html
You will not see any useful map on the screen however unless you install one. The Dakota has a basemap that only contains a few very major features, like interstate highways, state boundaries, major rivers, etc.
Look for a free map for your area here:
www.gpsfiledepot.com
I use maps from that source almost exclusively on my Garmin GPSr units.