Bushnell BackTrack D-Tour Personal GPS Tracking Device

It is important to understand exactly what this device does and does not do. It works well for its designed purpose, but that may or may not be enough depending on what you are looking for.

First, it does NOT display maps or show you where you are the way an automobile GPS would do. It does not have the capacity to route you to a specific destination. What it is designed to do it this: once you have marked a location, like a car or home, it will track how far you have walked, your speed, the ambient temperature, and the elevation. It will help you "find" your starting location by means of an arrow pointing in the direction of the starting point. Think of the child''s game of "you''re getting warmer, warmer..." etc. Depending on how you use the device, that is the extent of its usefulness.

Disclosure: I have used the device only in situations where I have been walking on city sidewalks. Maybe if I were out in the woods, hiking unmarked trails, I might be very grateful for the little arrow telling me I was going in the right direction when I wanted to return to base without getting lost.

After you have completed your walk, what it does do is this: when you return to your computer and fire up the easily installed software and connect the device to your computer with the included USB cable, it will then project your hike onto a Google map. You develop a library of maps showing where you have walked, and the temperature, speed and elevation at any point in the walk. If you are walking for exercise purposes, this provides a handy reference as to whether you are meeting your goals. Think of it as a high tech pedometer with after-the-fact mapping capability.

It functions very well within the limits of what it is designed to do, but your intended use will determine whether it meets your needs or not.

Amazon will note that I got this through Vine but I really do like it. I just saw the price, though, and people will need to decide for themselves if they want to pay that for this.

You can see for yourself with the product description what the features are but just a few observations...

It does not provide a track until you are connected to a computer and also connected to the Internet. All you get on the device itself is an arrowhead that points to your waypoint. You get 5 waypoints you can use as well easy to select and easy to mark. Each waypoint gets its own display but all that provides is the pointer to the waypoint, the distance, and the time (plus a battery and GPS indicator). So finding your way back to the waypoint may be a bit more difficult if you are in rugged terrain. It does constantly tell you where it is, though. With only 5 waypoints, you need to make sure not to overwrite them if they are critical. Shouldn''t be too bad, but you need to keep that in mind.

If there was a disappointment, it''s that you can''t display your path on the device and zoom in or out to see detail or a big picture view. Likewise there is no stored map. It''s just an arrow. It stores complete path information and has a huge memory, but again, you need a computer and an Internet connection to see it. When you do display your track, however, it''s on Google Maps and you get the same controls where you can zoom in, see the terrain, satellite view, etc. From when I was driving, my track overlaid beautifully with the roads on the map down to the side of the road I was on so the absolute accuracy of the unit is pretty good too.

Also, this thing has a built-in magnetic compass that it uses in conjunction with the GPS location so the arrow really does always point to your destination. It''s pretty cool because if you rotate the unit itself, the arrow also rotates so it keeps pointed the correct direction. You also get a display of temperature and altitude, and another of trip distance, average speed, and instantaneous speed.

It has a compass display that works essentially like a real compass. The arrow points north and the display itself has a compass rose with a digital compass readout and lat/long.

Construction looks pretty good. It has a gasket around the battery compartment (3 AAA) and the buttons are rubberized so it should hold up to moisture pretty well. The display has a backlight too for night use.

The only real negative I see is that it won''t display the track on the device itself. I am not sure why. They have the graphics capability because of the rotating arrow and compass rose displays. It may be processing power or something else, but they call it a "Backtrack" when really it''s only "DirectionBack" The next revision might give that capability or maybe a more capable and expensive model already does if one is available.

I took it on a dog walk and marked some waypoints to see how well it did taking me back. There isn''t much to this exercise, but I was surprised that it took me back to each one with 3 foot accuracy. That''s pretty remarkable. It was clear sky with no obstructions, and I don''t know how many satellites it uses, but still, three feet? One other thing the smallest unit of measure is in yards or meters. Not feet (except on altitude). That''s where the three feet accuracy comes from. When it counted down the distance to waypoint to 0 yards, I was right where I had marked them. Distances autorange to miles when appropriate.

If you can live with 5 destinations/waypoints you are golden and will probably find this very handy. For longer cross-country hikes in rugged terrain, you might want something that gives you an actual path display instead of just waypoints. I''ve also got a Garmin eTrex H Handheld GPS Navigator. It is cheaper than this unit and gives you a graphical path display (no map) and a lot more waypoints. Mine doesn''t have a compass, though, and it seems they still don''t. You have to move it in a line for it to figure out your path so it can tell you which way is north. You also have to be moving for it to properly point to your waypoints. The Bushnell is much more capable in that respect and is a lot more natural with the build in magnetic compass.

But this unit also has a bigger display than the Garmin, is thinner, though a little wider. I think it is also lighter but on units this small that may not matter.

So four stars for me only because of the lack of a graphical display of your track and only 5 waypoints. Otherwise this is a really nice unit.

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This device is a bit of an oddity. It has GPS functionality, but no ability to look at maps on the device itself. You can only see maps when you connect it to a PC and pull up the software. This device let''s the user push a button up to five times (only) to map a route or remember locations...but you need to hook it up to a PC to actually see the map and locations or route. I also found that this device has a hard time picking up a GPS positioning satellite, even outdoors. Sometime it worked, many times it didn''t. I think this might be an OK tool for a child to learn about GPS usage...but these days most cell phones do a better job with GPS maps than this device does. The digital compass and temperature tools are nice extras, and could make it a nice device for hiking or camping. Overall, it''s an interesting and fairly inexpensive device, but not really something I can see myself using very often.

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I bought one, used it to get back to my truck after hunting turkey and if I could post a picture, I''d show you how it marked my truck all the way to the driver side door. I also use the very easy to install and understand app, then blew away my friends when I emailed them a picture of my tracks laid over Google Maps of where I hunted and what ground I covered. My brother''s eTrex was a user interface mess and so complicated we left it at home. Seems Bushnell has taken the complication out of GPS and made it easy for even a guy like me. They proved you don''t have to load the GPS down with a lot of useless features and still have a steller experience, its very well thought out, rugged and water-resistant too. I found this site with a lot of great info:

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Let me begin by saying that over the years I''ve owned a dozen or so Garmin GPS units and used them in aviation, hiking, and cycling capacities and found them, with few exceptions, to be excellent. As these products have evolved however, I have also watched them become more complex with subtle, ever increasing capabilities of dubious usefulness. All largely to the good, I thought, until I found myself sorting through menus struggling to find some setting that I knew I once found early on. Add to this my over-40 year old eyesight and a trend towards more compact screen size and I soon was faced with a tiny and fiddly GPS that, while more capable, was also more of a bother to use. This GPS, as mentioned in other reviews, is a lesson in GPS simplicy with nearly single use buttons, a highly readable screen, and focus on one task: finding a location you''ve once visited earlier. The satellite lock on is as fast as any Garmin unit and with a builtin external loop (must be a better name for this) a single carabiner is all the mount that''s really needed. There is also a compass, a thermometer, altimeter, and a track log which many will find useful. There are certainly more capable units for sale but this one manages the principle tasks of a GPS with simplicity and aplomb.

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