gpsTrian

Thanks for your replies everyone. The Bluechart software looks like it's what I want. $102 is a reasonable price for software though the last time we went boating around that same area was 15 years ago. Who knows when I'll use it again. I'll probably get it anyway. Using Google Earth I found some geocaches in the general vicinity of where we're staying. Another reason to tote my GPSR along. It'd be fun to drop off a travel bug somewhere on a island.

I realize now that I posted this in the wrong area since it's just for geocaching. Can this be moved to the right place?

Hi all, I have a trip planned to the out islands in the Bahamas. We'll be renting a boat and would like to mark the coordinates of our small resort's harbor and dock, and possibly other islands or reefs. We found that when you're a long way off, it's hard to distinguish (unfamiliar) landmarks. We're novice boaters as you might have guessed. I was wondering if there was a mapping software for my 60csx that would show the Abacos Islands that could guide us around islands. Would World Base Map do the trick? I'm unfamiliar with software other than the National Park software for my GPS. I don't even know where to begin researching this. Any help and explanations would be appreciated.

ao318, thanks for confirming what I thought was the case with MapSource. The good news is that I just discovered my National Parks 3D Explorer will automatically put all the waypoints in to make a curved route. I just tell it how many waypoints I want. I don't have to add each one manually. And like StarBrand mentioned they do come out as a series of tiny straight lines. The more waypoints I specify, the closer they match the route. Looks like National Parks 3D Explorer is better for my hiking needs than MapSource.

To clarify, I'm referring to an as-the-crow-flies straight line that connects the start to the end. There are no tiny short straight lines in between.

I'm creating some MapSource routes on hiking trails halfway across the country. The routes turn into straight lines on my GPSr when viewing the route using Map. Go To navigation doesn't do me much good since they'd be starting from home. When I get out there and choose Go To navigation, Off Road, will the hiking trail routes turn into curved lines? I feel like I'm missing the obvious here and any help is appreciated?

I wanted to get a couple of friends who don't have GPSr's interested and participating. I've been printing the description and log page, a Google map, and Google Earth aerial map for them. Now they're finding caches faster than I can calibrate my compass! I'm working the easy ones with them, and suspect they won't have it so easy with the more difficult ones. Just the same, they're hooked. Amazing if I managed that since I'm brand new to the hobby myself. Looks like the hobby just sells itself!

I got mine at Walmart, too. Amazon was a little less but had a no-return policy on it. At least Walmart will give you 15 days to return with no restocking fee. And I liked the idea of returning it to a local store if need be without a shipping charge. You're getting a lot better accuracy than I am. Is accuracy dependant on the number of locked satellites?

I made a swap for a wooden disk. It has a large happy face on one side. On the other side it says a nickname, :0), Geocaching since 2005, and a City and State. I was just planning on putting it into another cache. Does it have some kind of significance or I am supposed to log something somewhere? Thanks people

This is great! My second find was today. That's 2 finds out of 12. Okay, I'll stop posting my score after this. But I do want to say I enjoyed reading about everyone else's first scores. Happy Hunting!

Yippeeee!!! My first find!!! It was so exilerating!!! Had 3 pairs of eyes today, and it definitely helps! This was a good cache for new cachers.

Thank You for your support, Neos2. And everyone else who's taken the time to reply, too!

I think I can hit both of these caches using a different route home from work. They sound like good ones. Especially when they say good for new geocachers or don't need to leave the sidewalk.

I carry a flashlight and a mirror with me when I cache. I also carry a telescoping magentic tool and an automotive grabbing tool. (Finf these in a good automotive store). I use the mirror to peer into dark places and around corners without poking my hand there. The flashlight can be used to reflect light onto the mirror to light up dark spaces too. The magnetic tool is strong enough to retrieve magnetic caches that are far down into pipes, etc (and it's been useful a few times for dropped caches!) and the grabber does a fantastic job of grabbing those hard to reach caches. (Make sure you get the kind that you push on the end to make it open up--the kind you pinch together to get them to open never work as well). I'm glad to hear the map and gps are getting you to the right spot--sounds like you have it set correctly, then. Now you have to resist the urge to think the gps will get you exactly to the cache. Think more in terms of withing 30 feet. Some people will say further, and that might be true if the cache is close to a building --because of signal bounce--but 95% of the caches I've found were within 20 feet of the posted coords. I love your tools idea. Pretty soon I'll be needing a larger caching bag.

Today I went back to find one cache I looked for the other day. This time I had a Google Earth map with coordinates with me. Both the map and GPSr pointed me to same spot, except my GPS was telling me to move a couple of fractional degrees West into the building, which would have been okay except that there was no door. The spot was around a couple of very large metal boxes against the wall (one said Transformer something), plus a meter of some kind. I was about to start feeling behind the boxes when I looked and saw a bunch of hornets and nests hanging all over the back of the boxes. So in this case, a poking stick was just about the worse thing I'd want to use. And that is a big problem down here, noboby wants to sticking their hands or sticks into a hornets or wasps nest. Well, I have, twice. Besides the red hot, burning, piecing pain shooting all the way up my arm, it hurt like hell! They're all over the place down here, at least around my house. Well, as you might have guessed, today was a no go. I was hoping to come back here hollering and hooting, but this was not to be. I'll keep trying!

I just found the answer on my own to this question. I've been looking at the compass at home without navigating to a waypoint. So I didn't see the bearing arrow. When navigating, the bearing arrow will show me how many degrees I'm off. Was a silly question to begin with.

It's not just a matter of pity--I always log my DNFs. It lets the owner know there may be a problem if several people DNF a cache. It may also help them rate a new cache if too many people can't find it. It lets them know people are still looking for the cache (some owners archive caches that don't draw many visitors). It lets others know a cache might not be as easy as the owner thought it was. General rough sizes: nano or pico -- about the size of a pencil eraser micro - 35 mm film cannister, deck of cards, breathmint container or smaller regular - about the size of a sandwhich, a baseball, or a tupperware dish large- about the size of a loaf of bread to the size of two large showboxes or larger Caches do tend to be a bit hidden: Look in holes in trees, but don't forget to also check up in trees and down in the roots, too. Look under railings, on the back of metal signs, on the inside of gaurdrails, and on the underside of metal benches in urban areas. In woodsy spots, look between large rocks, behind unnatural piles of sticks, and in hollow logs. In the deep south look in Palmetto trees (carefully), in the far north look for something that will hold a large pill bottle, in Louisville KY look for something flat and out of place that doesn't seem to be out of place or something in the poison ivy. The last part is only joking, but we have notice regional trends as we travel. The general sizes you've listed will come in handy. I might keep a cheat sheet of it in my manual. And yes, though I haven't actually looked in one, palmetto trees seemed quite abundant in at least two caches I was seeking. I'm more concerned about those nasty bugs they harbor than getting hurt by one.

Right now I'm finding that the print-outs actually work great for me. I put together a shoulder slung caching bag that helps me keep my hands free. It has the print-outs, some swag, gloves, and cold water (yesterday I was caching in 86 degree heat). I found the last found date and last log date to be helpful. One cache wasn't logged during the whole month of April. The owner checked on it and found it was stolen. Glad I didn't spend too much time on it. Thanks for your reply.

I tried this one yesterday, Tonka_Boy with no luck. I realize my GPSr was showing a margin of error of 21' but the coordinates were showing an area of scrub, palmetto trees and such. It's hard to imagine the owner meant for cachers to go in there! I am a bit squimish about spiders and snakes, but my friend wasn't, even in flip-flops. She was looking quite hard and even came out of there saying that this was fun. I'll have to bring her along on more outings. ;-)

Most (all?) GPSrs give you the ability to enter in coordinates, and navigate to them (the compass screen on the GPS will have an arrow on it point to the cache). There are a number of ways to get caches in to the GPS. Given that you're using a Garmin unit, you can use the "Send to Garmin" option on each cache page to transfer the data. Alternatively you can hit "Mark" and then edit the coordinates to match the cache location, or use any one of a large number of programs to transfer the data (Mapsource, EasyGPS, GSAK etc). Then hit the "find", and "find" the point you're looking for (under waypoint). HTH. Thanks for the reply, ibycus. I'm sorry I misled you though, and I could see how my statement would be confusing. I already have been using GSAK, geocaching, and MapSource to transfer waypoints to the GPSr. The Find option gets me to the waypoint coordinates fine. I've been relying on map page though, so I'll give your suggestion a try, and start using the Compass page, too.

Thanks for everyone's replies. Today I went out and used the Off Road navigation and text directions (electronic compass) to get me close to cache. Then I used Mark to find my current coordinates and compared that to the caches (click Quit so I didn't save Mark). (Didn't find the cache anyway and I looked all around ground zero. This was supposed to be the easy one mentioned on this page.) I'm just going for local, urban caches. Markwell's FAQs sound like you should carry a magnetic compass with you, too. Is that the way most cachers do it? What page on a 60csx will it tell you to go to, say 15 degrees? Looks like I'll have to acquire some compass reading skills now!

Thank you, Markwell. I'm going to have to study this a bit, as well as your FAQs.

Nice! Was this your first time out?

I'm experiencing the same problem.

This is "true" but if you do run into compass navigation and it is not stated in the cache page which is being used, it is a good idea to ask before hunting. If it is an electric compass, it is possible that the hider is not be aware what settings are being used. I'm using an electronic compass, if that helps answer my previous post with more questions.