Its Miller Time

I saw a really nice military-style compass in a cache today. It was hard to pass up as I carry a cheap clip-on compass, but it does what I need, so I left it behind for someone that truly needed it. Today I also found a travel pack of kleenex in a cache, and while my girlfriend said "who would leave that?", I smiled as I pocketed it. I like to keep napkins or tissue in the truck, and had just run out.

I recently bought a eTrex Legend for $125 new, and over the past few days I've found 7 caches and so far have not recorded one DNF (did not find). While more expensive units have features that are helpful, don't think that you "can't" hunt with a less expensive model. With that said - I would suggest getting the best that you can afford. Both my desktop and laptop PCs have serial ports, so I have no problem using the connector included with the Legend. The unit leaves much to be desired for navigating by vehicle however, and now that I'm hooked I plan to upgrade shortly. Save yourself some money in the long run by getting a unit you will stick with. I asked about the Geocaching mode on these forums before buying my unit, and only one person responded with details about it. He said that he hardly used it, and I'm still not sure exactly what the mode does. Don't be confused into thinking that this mode is a requirement for geocaching, because it isn't. To answer your other quesiton, 500 waypoints is more than enough, and that's a pretty standard capacity for GPSr units. Most cache's will only need a single waypoint, you could add a few more if it's a multi-cache or if you wanted to waypoint a parking area for example, but still I doubt you would ever need even 100 for a day's worth of action.

I agree that moving it in any direction is nice, even if you're not meeting the overall goals. Let's say a TB is sitting in a cache with the goal to visit Washington. It sits there for several weeks because no one that is hunting in the area is going near Washington. You move it south 20 miles anyway - now it has a new group of potential carriers that might be keeping an eye on caches in that area. Besides, I think the item owner would be happy to see any activity rather than it sitting for months without any movement. Another note - when you view a cache from the website, there is a panel on the right that lists all TBs known to be located there. You can click on the link before visiting a cache to see what the goals are, so you know in advance how long it's been idle and if it has a goal. Sometimes items are not logged in the cache that really holds them, so you can't always know in advance what the goals are. If you feel sure that you can place it in another cache reasonable soon, I'd say don't hesitate to trade for it. If you know the goal is not something that you can help with, and the item has been sitting for months, I'd probably still say move it along.

I'm driving out of state on Wednesday morning and thought it would be a good chance to go after some caches that I wouldn't normally be near. My question is if it's possible in any way to search for caches along a plotted route? I could do it manually by picking a few waypoints on the route and searching, but if there is a way to automate this it would be great. I'd like to hit maybe a half dozen along several hundred miles of travel, and those close to my route, so a manual search might be a bit difficult. Any software out there that could do this, or assist with using other existing tools to do this?

Since I'm new to all of this, let me run this in the other direction... Is there such a thing as too long of a log post? I completed a multi-part puzzle cache this morning that I started last night, and had a lot of great things to say. As an example, during the night I searched for about 30 minutes looking for the final cache. I saw a horizontal hole near where I expected to find it, and so I brushed aside some leaves and shined my flashlight inside. I saw a small pair of eyes looking back at me and reflecting the light. Moving the light away slightly I saw that it was a tiny mouse sitting up and looking at me. I went through my pack to get out my camera but the little guy dissapeared further into the hole before I could get the shot. Anyway, the log I posted was already three paragraphs, and I started to feel like I was going too far. I felt like it might be bad form to add a log that took half a display page. Is there such a thing?

I guess it would depend on the size of the jackpot.. a couple of hundred million should be enough to place something on the moon I don't know how you would log GPS coordinates for the listing, but it would make a prestigous FTF

I don't know.. I think a Barbie leg would be an interesting find It's true that one man's junk is another man's treasure, and because so many types of people might be looking, a variety is nice. Small toys make a nice addition if the finder has a kid with them, but a unique momento would appeal more to an older finder. Personally I would prefer to find a unique item because it's more memorable. I would say this about being cheap however - I went to a dollar store this weekend and spent $12 for a variety of items that I think would be good finds. Personally I like leaving swag that anyone would want to put on a shelf as a reminder of the search.

I decided to go with the Venture HC after looking at the features and pricing. Unfortunately, no one in my area stocks them, and I wanted something to use right away as I'm going on vacation this week and want to find some out of state caches I decided to get the Legend at $124, with plans to either pass this on to my nephew or take it back when I'm ready to mail-order the Venture. Your comments were dead on about the visibility on the Legend, it's not at all suitable for in car use unless you want to risk driving off the road. I downloaded the Topo maps to it and that helped a lot by adding addtional roads, but does nothing for the difficulty in reading it while driving. However I was able to use it to find my first and second caches today It did loose signal under light tree cover, especially considering most of the trees were bare. However I was able to find them by walking in a square pattern around the target area at a range of around 60' and triangulate where it was pointing. I had a great time on my first day out and look forward to many more!

Deleted my post as I was told it might be a spoiler.

I just bought a Legend, and uploaded some LOC files through GSAK program. The waypoints have full and proper names as the waypoint creator used, rather than the "gcxxxx" naming. GSAK is a free download and I found it pretty intuitive to use. www.gsak.net

I did a Google search for "Raphel Finelli" and got quite a few hits. He's been the PR rep for several companies over the last few years it seems. I also found his personal email address and phone # at Magellan I'll PM you the info, no idea if you would actually get him on his direct line, but it should at least get you closer. As for his US Mail address for registered letters, the area code of his phone is the same for their corporate HQ, so I'd try this, addressing to him personally: Santa Clara, California - Corporate Headquarters 471 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95050-4300 USA Working in the corporate world myself (not happily.. but that's another story..) one universal truth I've found about dealing with people that high up is that best results come from being a constant, but reasonable, pain in the rear. Being nasty or aggressive will only make him forget who you are and stop taking your calls, but otherwise you should see results once he discovers that you have a direct line to him. He almost certainly has many other things to do than deal with a single repair (from his perspective, not yours) and it will quickly become obvious that it's just easier for him to send you a new unit than actually deal with the problem that got you there. Hope this helps!

I've actually found it local for $125, that's part of the appeal to me. I can see the advantage of other units, but the cost difference is substantial. 90% of the unit's use would be geocaching, I only travel out of town once or twice a year.

Hey there - first post I'm shopping for a GPSr for geocaching and have been considering the eTrex Legend. It's in the right price range and seems to be durable and portable enough. I'd also like to use it occasionally in the car as a secondary use. Does anyone have any opinions on this unit for a first timer? One thing I'm unsure of is the memory. It's listed at 8mb for waypoints and user data, but comes fully loaded with basemaps. If I understand that correctly, most of the surface maps are available without using the 8mb of internal memory. Would any updates also go to that memory outside of the 8mb? I would guess that the MapSource updates would load into the 8mb - is that pretty much correct? I've also looked at the GPS60 model. It's more expensive, non-mapping, with only 1mb of memory, however it has the quad-helix antenna, and a "geocaching mode". What does that mode mean exactly, as is it of any real value? Thanks!