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I'm doing a 120 mile canoe race that starts at 9PM and I expect to finish about 17.5 to 18 hours later. I need a GPS that tracks well on small rivers but most importantly will last about 10 hours with the back-light on, because the race goes through the night, and another 8 without. I've been looking at the Garmin GPSMAP 78SC and the Garmin GPS 76CSX. Any other suggestions or can anyone give tell me how long the actual battery life is for those two I mentioned?

Thanks!

You've chosen a couple of good models in that they're waterproof and will float (at least the 76 will, the specs for the 78 series don't say). The backlight is going to kill the battery life but it can be set to stay on for short intervals after a key press. You could also carry an extra pair of AA's if you'll have a few seconds to change them out.