mdrj6783

That is awesome! Exactly what I needed. I can't wait to try it. Thanks everyone!!!! Mike

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what is the best spike for kids on winter hikes. My son loves coming with me on winter hikes and we typically were sticking with flat terrain. But recently he has wanted to do some hills and low mountains. We tried Yak Traks this past weekend on a fairly steep hill, but they were not very useful. He still slid quite a bit. I'm hesitant to put crampons on him as I feel they are too dangerous for an 8 year old. I was considering Kahtoola microspikes, but couldn't find any reviews and I am wondering if they are only marginally better than Yak Traks. Also considering 6 point crampons, but I have never used them myself and have heard that they are really tough to keep on. I went to REI, EMS and the Kittery trading post and none of the sales associates were much help. Any suggestions? Thanks, Mike

Checkout Backpacker magazine's gear review. http://www.backpacker.com/gear/11047

I was hoping to be able to search for tracks that hikers have made for some of the more popular mountains that I could download. So far I haven't been able to find anything. Does such a database exist anywhere. If not tracks, how about waypoints at trail heads? Thanks, Mike

Norm, We love Rhodesian Ridgebacks too! We've had 2. There is no better breed. Mike

I have both units. I have them on right now (1st floor middle room, 3 floor house). The HCx is giving me 22 ft accuracy. The original won't lock at all. In fact the original won't lock as I walk toward the window unless I press it against the glass.. The sensitivity is so much improved that it can not be under estimated. Also, the ability to load so many maps is awesome! No need to reload for every weekend trip. As for the rubber pulling away from the unit. Let me tell you that it is a design nightmare and will likely happen with any small plastic unit with an adheared rubber shell. Especially one that tends to get tossed around and carried in backpacks, pockets, etc. Believe it or not those are quite abusive environments for such a small unit. What makes the adhesive delamination issue even worse is the extreme temperature ranges. To hot and the adhesive softens above its glass transition temperature, too cold and it will become brittle, coupled with the differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion between plastic and rubber and you've seen the results..... I guess what I'm trying to say is that it sounds like you've gotten alot of use out of your unit and it's showing signs of age and maybe not design flaws. Mike P.S. I own an adhesive development company. We design materials for NASA, etc..

It will hold about 2/3 of the continental U.S. The entire 48 states are 3.13 gig but 4 gig if you can

Don't know if it's the best way, but I do it in reverse order. Upload to your GPS, then from there upload to mapsource. just plug the gps into the USB / serial port, turn it on and hit "upload to gps". I needed to install GPS communicator, but I was prompted to do so when I clicked "send to gps" and the software will walk you through it.

I just picked up a Garmin HCx after owning the original Legend for a short while and now I have a couple questions. Can anyone help me out? 1) The original Legend came with a nice carry case so I could attach it to the strap of my backpack where it was easily accessible. The HCx has no carry case and I can't find one on the web. How is everyone carrying their HCx? The lanyard is not practical as it will flop around. 2) If I upload maps to the SD, how does the GPS know which map to use? I may have Topo and street nav loaded at the same time (biking / hiking trip) and I may need both map sets. should I just buy multiple SD cards and load one map to each (wish there were a place for on-board micro SD storage). Along the same line, how does the GPS know to access the SD card for the map vs. using the preloaded basemap? 3) Has anyone mounted their HCx to a bicycle? Where did you get the mount? Do you like it? I see some available, but they say that it's an Etrex mount and I can't tell if it will convert easily. Thanks so much. Mike

Wow, thanks for all the help! You guys really put some time into your responses and I appreciate it. Helped me find my 1st cache. I think I did it right. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...b8-93b24702c36e Mike

O.K., so I've been reading through the posts on this forum and am ready (along with my 8 year old son) to go out and look for our first cache. We have located one in our neighborhood that we plan to go look for. Can someone please walk me through the process. I have added the coordinates to mapsource as a waypoint. I haven't yet figured out if my gps will accept the cache as a dowload from this sight (Garmin Legacy). My plan is to get close from the directions, then navigate to the waypoint with the gps. Is this the best way to go about it? When I find the cache I'm assuming that we sign the log, then take an item and leave an item and return to this sight and log in the find. Is that it or is there more we need to do? What if we find a coin or travel bug? Do we leave them at the next find? My son loves coins, so he's super excited to see what they look like. Thanks, Mike