RangerRicksClan

Thanks. I will look into those. I guess I was confused thinking a 100k map was really good, better than the 24k...go figure. I have no need for street navigation, we have car gps's AND iphones which just updated to a great spoken navigation. I just want to see where i am and where I am going. I am tinkering with the open street maps. Set up and downloaded to email CA, and China. Now to figure out what to do with the links they sent me....I also don't get how to 'overlay' which I keep reading about. Is that having more than 1 map at a time checked as enabled? Birds Eye is something I don't know enough about, just more money for now, but will look into it. I guess I am just having a hard time switching over to learn new ways of doing things. :{

I read the previous posts and am totally confused. Either I am doing something totally wrong, or am expecting something I cannot have. This is my first Garmin. Have had Magellan for years. I liked the exploits (EDIT: EXPLORIST) a lot, but unfortunately, the units are not reliable. They always froze up within a few mos and ALWAYS before a trip with planned geocaching. This time I said forget it, and went to REI for a Garmin. I had discovered with Magellan that this great site Maps4me has almost free maps (subscription but unlimited and worth it) which worked great. Loading was drag and drop. (I had a pc which was too old to use Vantage Points upgrade so had to do things the hard way, then bought a Mac and VP isn't Mac compatible) lots of work arounds and frustration. Unfortunately I haven't found anything like that for the Garmin. I took the unit to Zion np and it worked OK, but then, we were in a park without streets. Navigating here at home, I am used to detailed streets with caches marked on them. All I have is the topo I paid for with the unit but find pretty useless. (REI said I can switch it out for the 450 after I try it). I did download the CA, UT, AZ file depots topo maps but Still don't get streets. I am in CA. (someone on another thread mentioned problems with CA. topo) When I watched the tuturial videos, the map looks very different than mine. How do I get city street maps? All the talk about creating custom maps etc is beyond my knowledge. I have installed the base camp, webUpDater, Map Install, Map Manager. I called Garmin for help but the guy I spoke to wasn't much help. We are headed to China in the spring and if anyone has a recommendation of maps from there I would appreciate it, too. I know this is a lot, but on the same idea... One of the things I liked about the magellan is that the fields were at the bottom of the screen so I could see the destination at the top. On the Garmin, the destination is covered up by fields. Can that be changed? Thanks RRC

Ok everyone, question was answered. Thanks a bunch!!!!

Read those. I guess sometimes it is just grey area. Thanks.

There's a nearby lamppost cache listed as a D4 because there are muggles. Do you think I can ask a reviewer to do anything about it? Stick with finding caches you want to find and forget about the stat glory. And I would also recommending checking your pinkie toe from time to time. Especially when it hurts. I know mine does on a long trail. I did want the hike, the cache was the carrot. :} Broke foot. Could barely get it in my hiker shoe it was so swollen, but when I did, it felt better. Hiking didn't hurt. Taking hiker shoe off did. Needless to say, hiking felt better than lounging, so I hiked. :}

Ah, thank you for the help. I appreciated the link too. :} I see. I had to climb a park tree about 10 ft up for a 4, climb a sandstone rock formation that was like the "easy' part of Angels Landing....for a 4 Again I say, Angels Landing (4) should be rated higher! :} (or the others lowered, but they certainly are not the same).

Well, the question was how do I find out which terrain it is that is a 2, or 4 or 4.5 or whatever. I just read the column the wrong direction, but that doesn't change the question. :}

I just finished hiking the Zion NP Angels landing. The most dangerous hike so they say...I wanted a level 4 stat. I don't understand how a cache so death defying is a 4 when it appears I have 2 4.5 caches already and don't know what they are or remember them. How do I find out? I realize the terrain rating is up to the co, and a lot of reasons why they choose what they do. Last summer I climbed to high camp at olympic village in Lake Tahoe, on a broken foot (didn't know). The terrain was with the assumption one took the ski lift. it was a 1.5 rating and took me hours and was very exhausting physically. There should be a way to get permission for the alternative. Anyway, I want to know which caches I got were 4.5 and I could have fallen to my death on a 4. :} thanks

I hope this works for me. I have had a nightmare with tritons. Bought a 200 originally. After a few years, I can say I have had about 10 units all replaced by magellan, several of each upgrade. Each died, usually by freezing. I have had several 500's. I just returned one that died after 4 mos (3 mo warranty) and still got a replacement. The day I got it it froze again. Tried to use it yesterday (next day) and it froze again. So, they freeze. they lock up and do not turn off. They stay on a permanent screen or startup mode. They die. They work great when they do work. I has to be the design and not me! Each time I loose one I loose my stored data. Now, about Vantagepoint. That was my only way of saving info, maps, important material. 3 units ago that quit working too. I have become very familiar with Magellans phone center. Apparantly the vp was upgraded. Because my computer is older and only has 64 mb ram, I can't run the new "recommended" program that requires 128 ram. They said they don't have the old version anymore. Now when my units freeze, I loose everything as I have no place to store it. Magallan has given me the option of getting an explorist 510. (before I took the unit out yesterday for another test). I said I wanted to do some research on it, not knowing anything and not wanting to go from bad to worse. It seems the explorist also freezes. What is it with this freezing? I have had many outings and vacations ruined by having a unit that quit either right before a trip (like this week) or on my trip. We all know how long it takes to plan for a geocaching outing and the time lost when we head out and have nothing... So now my delema is do I go for the Ex510? Will they ever fix the freezing issue? Can I ever use VP again?

I posted this in another forum, but adding here: I have had a nightmare with tritons. Bought a 200 originally. After a few years, I can say I have had about 10 units all replaced by magellan, several of each upgrade. Each died, usually by freezing. I have had several 500's. I just returned one that died after 4 mos (3 mo warranty) and still got a replacement. The day I got it it froze again. Tried to use it yesterday (next day) and it froze again. So, they freeze. they lock up and do not turn off. When I take out batts and put back in, the unit goes back to the same window it froze on. They stay on a permanent screen or startup mode. They die. They work great when they do work. I has to be the design and not me! Each time I loose one I loose my stored data. Another problem is Vantagepoint. That was my only way of saving info, maps, important material. 3 units ago that quit working too. I have become very familiar with Magellans phone center. Apparantly the vp was upgraded. Because my computer is older and only has 64 mb ram, I can't run the new program that requires 128 ram. They don't have the old option. Now when my units freeze, I loose everything as I have no place to store it. Magallan has given me the option of getting an explorist 510. (before I took the unit out yesterday for another test). I said I wanted to do some research on it, not knowing anything and not wanting to go from bad to worse. It seems the explorist also freezes. What is it with this freezing? I have had many outings and vacations ruined by having a unit that quit either right before a trip (like this week) or on my trip. We all know how long it takes to plan for a geocaching outing and the time lost when we head out and have nothing... So now my delema is do I go for the Ex 510? Why can't they fix this freezing problem?

I have had a nightmare with tritons. Bought a 200 originally. After a few years, I can say I have had about 10 units all replaced by magellan, several of each upgrade. Each died, usually by freezing. I have had several 500's. I just returned one that died after 4 mos (3 mo warranty) and still got a replacement. The day I got it it froze again. Tried to use it yesterday (next day) and it froze again. So, they freeze. they lock up and do not turn off. They stay on a permanent screen or startup mode. They die. They work great when they do work. I has to be the design and not me! Each time I loose one I loose my stored data. Now, about Vantagepoint. That was my only way of saving info, maps, important material. 3 units ago that quit working too. I have become very familiar with Magellans phone center. Apparantly the vp was upgraded. Because my computer is older and only has 64 mb ram, I can't run the new program that requires 128 ram. They don't have the old option. Now when my units freeze, I loose everything as I have no place to store it. Magallan has given me the option of getting an explorist 510. (before I took the unit out yesterday for another test). I said I wanted to do some research on it, not knowing anything and not wanting to go from bad to worse. It seems the explorist also freezes. What is it with this freezing? I have had many outings and vacations ruined by having a unit that quit either right before a trip (like this week) or on my trip. We all know how long it takes to plan for a geocaching outing and the time lost when we head out and have nothing... So now my delema is do I go for the Ex510?