Dosido

I recently put together a tutorial page that explains the process of adding the trail maps to Google Earth.

Hmmm....I thought everyone did that already. Though, I'll admit, after reading the 'official' method of dance, my 3 year old seems to have taken some liberty with some of the moves.

Download mapsend lite instead of using Mapsend Topo 3D - it'll use the maps from Topo 3D, but has the additional options of supporting the Explorist line much better, and allows saving the tracklog as a GPX file. Brian

I upload routes/waypoints from my GPSr to Mapsend Lite and then using Waypoint Routes|Save to File, you can save the waypoints, etc. as a GPX file. Then drag that file onto Google Earth, and you're good to go.

Just a thought on further tweaking one's filters to avoid certain caches. If it's true that caches have declined in quality in the last couple of years, then a simple PQ of the area you are looking to go, but restricted by date - say through eoy 2005 - should better equip your GPSr with waypoints that will be deemed 'higher quality'. Now, myself, I have little use for micros in general - my excuse is that my kids dislike not being able to trade - when in reality, I'm just not a fan of LPCs, and other varieties of Walmart micros. Though, I'll admit, we might go bag a magnetic ammo can or two, even if stuck to the guard rail in a Walmart parking lot! I will admit to spending way too much time reading cache pages & logs to ensure that I get to find caches I like when traveling, but also admit to having the entire state of Mass on my GPSr, and stopping on a whim every now and then. However, if I park, and don't like what I see, I'm more than happy to move on without a smiley...

Did get a call back yesterday afternoon from Magellan. Got an RMA. But the customer service people took at least 30 minutes - while I was on the phone - to complete the transaction. I have no idea what takes so long, nor why I needed to give them credit card/address information yet again, but it's finally done. Now I just need to figure out when I can live without a GPSr for 2 weeks...

As an owner of a couple of Magellans, a GPS Companion for the Handspring, a Sportrak Topo and an Explorist 500, I've had a couple of visits with Maggie customer service. In the past, all things went very smoothly, from emailing/calling and getting my STT serviced due to the 'stress crack' issue a few years back. Even had gotten a free windshield mount, and a few other things tossed in when I needed them from Magellan to replace broken parts due to operator abuse Since then, customer service has been rumored to have - um... - gone down the toilet... Recently, on my Explorist, the rubber covering on the joystick ripped, and I emailed customer service (using the web interface) to see about getting it replaced. I received a reply pretty quickly via email - stating that I needed to call to get an RMA. I called two days ago, and the call was answered quickly (once I got through the voice prompt maze) - and they told me that they couldn't give me an RMA since they were still upgrading the 'system' - apparently this has been the case for 2 weeks or so?!? Anyway, I was told to call them back in 1 day, and they could take care of me...called yesterday (again answered almost immediately), and gave them my case #, and was transferred to a 'supervisor' who would give me an RMA. After giving them my credit card number for the work to be done, and several 5 minute waits while the supervisor 'did something' - I was told that there was an issue with their credit card charges, and they'd call me back with my RMA number shortly. That was yesterday around 4:45. Nothing yet. So, just when I was wondering why all the griping about Magellan customer service - phone and email now work! Too bad their computer systems don't... One step up and two steps back... Was a bit disappointed to find out I couldn't get them to send me the rubber gasket so I could do my own repair. Was also disappointed to find out I couldn't get a refurb unit to replace it - hate to think of being down for over a week with no GPSr!

Check your firmware version. You should likely be at 2.57. While there aren't any official versions for the North America Explorist 400, many users have upgraded to the 2.57 version listed on the European model 400 support site. I've upgraded my 500 this way, and, aside from having to change units back to miles/mph, etc from km/kph, there isn't much to change after uploading the new firmware.

Explorist 500: Yes, autoroutes with DirectRoute software. Yes, both have millions of POIs. Pros: Size, USB connex, geocaching feature, SD card usability, speed of waypoint entry Cons: after about 800 caches, the click stick rubber has ripped, lack of firmware update support The geocaching feature of the Explorist is pretty good, with the caveat that it's not great and isn't a replacement for the palm (though neither is Garmin's) - the hints get truncated if they're too long, and you can only show 200 caches at one time. Now, the Explorist allows you to maintain as many 200 cache files on your SD card as you'd like, as well as having multiple map files - which I'm not sure is the case with the Garmin. Also, it appears to me that I can manually punch in waypoints much faster than garmin users, as the interface is different - only useful in the field when you're racing other users to a multi or puzzle cache. It also is my opinion that the Garmin (at least the 60csx) has better routing options than the Explorist.

I can't speak to the power issue, but as for the 'stationary line'... It sounds like you've got the unit set to display the 'depart-dest line' instead of the 'pos-dest' line. The former should make a straight line from the point where you started travel to the 'goto' point. The latter should make a straight line from your current position to the destination. You can set either to show up, or be eliminated from the map screen by pressing 'menu' and selecting 'map setup' and then clicking right, and checking or unchecking 'depart-dest' or 'pos-dest' from the check list.

Saturniid moth - the male Io from the looks of it...

Woo Hoo!! I got notification last night that the Geocoin Fairy visited our Palmer History Tour cache! Of course I had to wait to visit until this morning, as my 6 year old, Alexa, would have been pretty upset with Dad if I had gone without her to make the discovery! She was all smiles and stories after picking up the beautiful #82 coin - thanks for the generosity and fun, Geocoin Fairy!! Pics coming a bit later!

Hmmm...I guess you never fed your backpacker and had them - return it later. I concur, though - I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old, and both got at least 2 years of time in the backpack. I too had a jogging stroller that worked great - even on tough terrain. We had to carry it up some pretty good hills a couple of times, but still worked out well as a complement to the backpack. We had a trailtech backpack, but I don't think they make 'em any longer. Now that my son is too big for the pack, it's Dad's shoulders that do the carrying. If you happen to have a son/daughter that complains a lot if you make them walk at all (my legs are sooo tired, blah, blah, blah) - the surest fix for that is to find another caching friend with kids the same age, and let them hike together - we do that quite often, and when they walk together with their friends, they forget that they're actually walking - or as is often the case, running to the cache!

I'm not versed in PNG transparency, but it does support GIF transparency:

When visiting a park with a heavy cache density, it's sometimes nice to be able to see where the caches fall in relation to the trails. While I've be able to overlay trail maps on top of a Streets and Trips map of caches, by using Photoshop (nice) or MS Word (clumsy), I found by accident today, that it could easily and simply be done in Google Earth. Here's a plot of a set of caches near Mansfield, CT, along with a trail map I downloaded of the area off the net. Simply start up GE and click on add|image overlay. You can then set the opacity of the trail map (or other overlay) and then rotate and resize to match the GE scale. Here I'm using the GE geocache browser to look at caches, so they might not be in the exact location, but using a GPX file, and editing the icons would do the job perfectly - this was just a quick and dirty shot at it:

I had the pleasure of attending a Massachusetts geomeet today, where I got to see first-hand the Chief20r2 geocoin proofs. They are SWEET - thanks for letting us get a sneak peek! Our 2 year old, Will, is still talking about them!

I think that the allure of the 'whole state' PQ was really driven by wanting to be able to set up a solid 'caches along a route' thing, which used to be a true PITA before you could actually set up caches along a route at gc.com Now, I don't really see the need to map the entire state when traveling. I do, however, maintain a fairly current database of all the caches in my home state, Massachusetts. Even before adding the ability to copy a PQ, it was really only very mildly time consuming to set it up initially - perhaps 20 minutes, and now is up to 7 PQs. I happen to live in the middle of the state, and like to be able to keep a fairly up to date map on Streets and Trips which I do via PQs and GSAK. However, I might only update the PQs once a month, and export them all to my Explorist so I have every cache in MA on my GPSr, so I can hit them while traveling around the state. Because it's trivial to set up for one state, I wouldn't be interested in paying extra for a whole state PQ of MA. Now, if there was no 'caches along a route' feature, then I'd be much more interested. I take a trip from MA to Michigan each year, and getting the route caches used to take days to set up all of the PQs to make sure I didn't miss any caches along the route - now it takes 5 minutes to do the same thing... Frankly, TPTB missed the boat - I would've paid a fee just to use the caches along a route feature

We got notification last night that the Easter Geocoin Bunny had visited Alexa's First Cache, and Alexa was up early this morning begging to go visit her cache! We recently had a pretty good snow, but when we arrived at ground zero - there were NO footprints - only bunny tracks - no joke! Alexa made quick work of removing the cache and running back to the trail to meet her younger brother. I can only hope that everyone gets to experience finding the Easter Geocoin Bunny's treats with a youngster - really fun to be part of that! This is what she found in the cache: Back home: and the coin: As they say on the Cadbury commercial: "Thank you Easter Bunny, bock, bock!"

I have an Explorist 500 - and in no way shape or form is the geocache manager good enough that you can go paperless or palm pilotless. I can and do use it to do regular caches when I'm traveling around the state - and you can read some of the hint, sometimes. However, it gives you very little info on the cache itself, and is no help for a mystery/puzzle cache, nor any cache that you need more than a waypoint to find. While I have no experience with the Garmin geocache software, painting the Explorist as a paperless geocaching unit is very misleading.

We've moved two: Duh Big Boy and Paul's Ball (the singing one - we met Big Red Bitch (being serenaded) but didn't get to move her...

We just had our meet this past weekend. We spray painted 4 ammo cans various colors, then set up a cache design station for the kids to decorate the ammo cans using paint markers (available at Staples - brand is uni-paint). The kids had a blast painting them, and then we gave them away as door prizes at the end of the event. Last year we had a craft table set up to entertain the kids. Brian

At our geomeet on Saturday, we had a cache design station set up for the kids - gave away the ammo cans after all the decorating was done. Here are the results: The kids had a blast decorating the cans, and they surely won't be like anything else you'll find in the woods! Bigrock95, who won one of the caches, posted that a new cache will be up soon called "For the kids: I Love This Kash" - which is exactly what one young cacher painted on his box!

Out of curiosity, what do you use the 'found by me' info on the Palm for? I've only uploaded info on unfound caches to the Palm - so I'm wondering if I'm missing another use for the software!

Goofy threats aside, why is it so hard to believe that one might be 'catching up' on logs? I could think of several possibilities - perhaps this person has been caching for some time, and finally decided to get a gc.com account, but either didn't remember or didn't care what dates in the past he had actually found the caches, and thus logged them all on the same day. Perhaps the cacher was part of a 'team' under one name, but then split up, and is claiming finds on his/her own account. I've had new cachers along with us while finding caches, and they've gone back and logged the finds once they were hooked and set up their account...

I will recommend again that hard copy cachers check out a program called Fine Print. The program essentially 'grabs' a print job before it hits the printer, and allows you to combine & reorganize print jobs, print 1,2,4 or 8 pages to a single page, and allows you to delete single pages (like the URL links that get carried to the top of an otherwise blank page). Also available is the ability to eliminate all graphics from the page, while retaining the text. Fine Print does cost money - $50 - but if you don't mind the small 'printed by fineprint' at the bottom of each page, you could use keep using the trial version. Of course another solution is to use GSAK and use the 'condensed HTML' printing which is very useful to print out tons of cache pages on just a few sheets of paper... There are other options for hard copy users out there - it's definitely easier to find a method that works for you, rather than hoping or expecting gc.com to take the time to code something up - and the solution wouldn't work for everyone anyway - exactly as welch just talked about.