DCRainmaker.com is giving away a Timex Global Trainer on Thursday October 14, 2010.  To enter simply post a comment on his blog,  and someone will be coming home with this cool GPS enabled fitness watch.

While this watch is primarily designed to use a fitness training aid,  I see real potential in this type of gear while hiking.  First, it is programmable to display different screen, such as altitude, speed, distance etc:  All sorts of GPS and non GPS generated data that would be cool to have at your fingertips while hiking.  Second,  you can come home and download your routes,  and manipulate these routes all sorts of ways using Google Earth and other programs.  You can even track how you were performing during the hike, including pace and heart-rate.   All this combined in a watch that you would already be wearing.   It is true, that a unit like this is not going to allow you to navigate,  but you are also not carrying an extraneous piece of equipment on the trail.

What do you think?   Would a GPS training watch be a benefit to hikers?