I bought my garmin etrex for around 99 dollars on line. It does not take maps , or allow some of the really fancy stuff... but it is very simple to operate without the book after about a day or two of playing with it. It runs for many hours on aa batteries . I highly recommend one. My daughter and I go geo-cacheing and we find most folks getting into the sport select a simple basic etrex and love them. It is light weight and easy to carry around your neck on a lanyard. One feature I like is that by simply turning the unit on.... it will create a track for you to follow back to the start if you save the information. Walking in the woods could be a problem as the antenna is internal and small. But in the open or even in my truck it works fine. Here are some of the info it gives you.
sunrise/sunset time
current speed & average & highest
trip time
distance
compass function when moving
altitude above sea level
up to 500 waypoints
ability to create tracks and label them with a name like cabin , car , fishing, start point,
The etrex is different from most gps units in that it is designed with no buttons on the front. It is meant to be carried in one hand and the buttons ( 5 ) are meant to be used with your fingers on the edges. Once you use it a bit you realize that the operation is like a mouse with a scroll and a back button. If you go thru the menus just like a computer screen you will get the idea in a hour or two. It does not have confusing modes to get yourself into trouble.