First GPS / Phone suggestions

[oldgroundhog]

I have no GPS, Ipad, or even a cell phone.  I'm perhaps one of the last hold-outs in the country to still use pay phones when on tour (which are rapidly disappearing.)   I've cycled coast-coast a couple times, Canada, Alaska. 

My question to all is this.  If you were buying a 'first' gadget for use on the road what would it be?   My riding next summer will be back in the Canadian Yukon and Alaska.  From being there several years ago, I can tell you that there is no internet or phone usage out in the wilds of the Robert Campbell, Cassiar, Dempster, or Top of the World Highways.

A nice feature of this gadget would be to have elevation charting ability.  To be able at the end of the day to plot a graph of the day's ride from automatic elevation 'tickers' made each mile.  Then reset for the next day.  When internet access is available I could call home with this gadget.

Is there really 'one gadget' for both phone and gps?   Can a gps be programmed for elevation charting?   
Other suggestions?

Thanks for the input.   

[Ailish]

While some smartphones have decent GPS capability while they have network data access (or pre-downloaded map data), they're really not ready to beat dedicated GPS devices for all day use.  Using the GPS on my smart phone runs the battery down quickly, even with the screen off.  It's fine in the car where I can plug it in to power, but on the bike, the battery completely runs down in a few hours.  As for altitude, I think Casio makes a smart-phone that has an altimeter built in, but that's the only one I've heard of.

Some of the outdoor activity GPSs may be a better bet for location and altitude (I have a Garmin Dakota 20, which will do a primitive altitude plot, I think), but won't let you call home.

[Blackbear]

For serious situations, and you know you will be in serious terrain ( no cell etc) check into a SPOT device.  It is not for directions, but may save you from a serious situation. It makes use of satellites and hence does give you communication capability with the "Outside World" in an emergency.