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Thank you both for those very helpful replies. Without any hands on at all with any gps it is really hard to know what is being discussed, or even what the capabilities are of the units.

So to use the My Trails overlay, if I had a garmin unit I could download one of the topo maps from this site, and apply My Trails to it?

A routeable map would be a map which would allow one to select a trail/route that's in the map, and have the gps tell you how far you have left to go and so forth? I think that would be cool but maybe not essential for my needs.

I read enough to know that there are topo and trail maps available for android etc. For casual use I thought it might be nice to be able to use the very nice screens one gets with smartphones, as long as they were not too terribly hard to use.

It is a drag to hear that the garmin 24k topo maps don't have a lot of trail data.

I guess it's really hard to know the various pros and cons would play out for my purposes. I think I have a lot of learning curve either way. Your replies were very helpful.

I'm not sure this is the best site to be asking all of these questions but I have to start somewhere. Please do suggest other sites that might be relevant if you have any ideas.

I don't have a gps yet but may buy either a garmin dakota 20 or a garmin GPSMAP 62. Or...see last topic.

I wanted to try to get an idea whether I can skip buying garmin maps altogether, they just seem overpriced. So I downloaded and installed garmin's basecamp and then mapsource, and then downloaded 53-2653-My_Trails_install.exe from this site and installed.

When I open mapsource what I see is two white rectangles in the main area with some dots. There is nothing like a map. I don't get it. From what I read here, the img files that come with the download are supposed to register with mapsource...why no map? Why a bunch of dots? Obviously I'm missing something. I have looked and the mapsource help file and it seems to assume that maps are 'just there'. I read the included readme with the 'maps' and it assumes that you know more than I do. The mapsource "open" dialog does not suggest that img files are candidates for loading. Besides the img files have numeric names. How would I know what img to open to find trails in Desolation Wilderness?

I hike mostly in the Sierras. Will the maps here provide good trail maps for that area?

The last question is about whether to get a dedicated gps or to try to use a smartphone. I have never seen a smartphone used on a trail, but I am due for a new phone and it might be very cool to get a smartphone and skip the dedicated gps altogether. But I'm still kind of incredulous that a phone can get gps info from satellites. Of course most hikes take one into areas where there is no cell coverage. I know some phone need cell towers to gps (or I heard that anways) but as far as I can gather your average smartphone can work off satellites for coordinates without cell provider access. I just need to hear that it's real from someone. I know a cell phone's battery would not last as long. I heard that some smartphone have a setting that allows them to stop seeking cell networks when out of range, which would help reduce battery draw down. Anyways just interested to hear about this. I generally don't backpack, just day hikes.