Research Garmin - I own several and drop in topo maps all the time. I am self taught and found it easy.

Now it is a bit more but I find it hard to beat the Garmin Rino 350 chx. With this unit I have a GPS - color screen, can download all sort of maps - Walkie talkie 5 watts which can talk to any other brand walkie talkie - and instant National weather no matter what part of the USA I am in. Comes with rechargable battery pack. If your bud has a Rino and when talkining to him you can see his location on your handheld map.

The new Garmin Topo 100 K once loaded in your computer - you can download your used map with your tracks and overlay it on Google Earth.

Con,
You do need to buy a micro chip and I bought the Kingston brand 2G chip. That did not come with the unit. But 2G you can put in the whole 100K program.

JW