SamSpade47

Hey... It was nice to meet all you guys up there at the Crazy Monkey Tripod Cache. Interesting cache to say the least. My hike only ended up being ~7 miles. I had come in from down near Squak Visit cache and came up to the top, hit all those up there, hit Tye Mill on the way out... My black dog usually limps around for a couple of days following a 4 or 5 mile hike (that's why I didn't join you for the planned 10 miles). Anyway, even after the ~7 miles she was fine the next day. I'm pretty happy with that. I had never been up to Squak Mt. Park before, it's a pretty nice place. I sure wouldn't want to go up there without the GPS and the NW Trails maps loaded. Seems like it's just a maze of trails up there. I look forward to next time...

Just for fun, I punched N37 W109 into Mapsource and Google Earth, both showed the position about 2.5 miles to the East and several hundred feet North of the Monument.

This works with a Nuvi 255W. Nav mode while USB cable connected: 1. Plug PC or generic AC/USB wall charger cable into the Nuvi255 and wait for it to go into mass storage mode. 2. Slide Power Switch to the right (LOCK Position) 3. Remove the USB plug from UNIT and immediately plug back into the UNIT 4. Slide the Power Switch on the Nuvi to the MIDDLE position. 5. WAIT for it to BOOT UP. 6. After Boots UP it will be in the Navigation mode. Hope this helps.

OK, here's a handful of caches that I like to go to at night. Not sure they are legal (proceed at your own risk). Goodnight Moon http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...e1-1ce1daff7d40 Bridge of Death http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...ff-398add765d61 Tibby's Bridge Cache http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...99-fd678b79b3c9 I Always Wondered What Was Down There... http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...cd-7d3b472a9dfa Not another NANO Cache, aka: 20mm Cannon Cache http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...ae-af7c7c9a1c0f

Can you post a screen capture vs. a digital picture of your display, so that we can get a better comparison?

Turning the unit off is not what you would expect. It's not like a switch is disconnecting the battery. Turning the unit off is only a "logical off". The radio receivers get turned off, the display gets turned off, power to the SD card probably gets disconnected. Be assured that some core processor functions are not turned off. One of the first thing that comes to mind is the time and alarm function... you can set the alarm and then turn the unit off, the unit will come to life at the alarm set time and start making noise... All that time when the unit was "off", it was able to know when to turn itself back on to enable the alarm. It wasn't really "off". "Off" just means, we're going to disable all peripheral functions and most core functions, but that we'll keep a bare minimum of functions going... maybe at a reduced clock rate... Bottom line is, the batteries will die. Probably after a week, let alone a month. Buy some rechargeables and don't worry about it.

Something else to consider, when you set your "home coordinates", don't give your real coords. Set it to a block away or something. Reason being, that if you ever loose or have your GPS stolen, you don't want someone knowing where you live. Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean people aren't out to get me.

The logs will most defiantly become outdated. What I do is: I have GC send PQ's weekly (premium membership required/ $30 per year) and copy the latest PQ to the Oregon. I do that on a Thursday, so that I have the most current logs for the weekend. The filtering isn't a flexiable as GSAK (more $$$) but good enough for me. I can help you spend more $$$ if you want, just let me know :-) Sam

Mapsource and Google Earth come to mind... Not sure if either are going to do all you want.

Mapsource and Google Earth come to mind... Not sure if either are going to do all you want.

I had noticed your comment about Google Earth and thought you misunderstood the question... sorry about that. I was poking around in GE and saw the Tools - GPS tab and thought I'd explore. It turns out that you can in fact use GE to show you position on your screen. I set my GPS to simulate a route, connected it to the computer and GE is following the simulated route. This brings up the question: if you were to actually drive a route vs. simulating one, how would you continue to receive the data from the Google Earth server for the imagery along the route? Could you download it prior? Just wondering.

There used to be a software package from Garmin called nRoute that would do that for you. It used to be at: http://www8.garmin.com/support/mappingsw.jsp It's not there any more. If you search on the Garmin site for "nRoute" they still have instruction for downloading and installing, but it doesn't work, the software is not there. You might give Garmin a call...

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I made it to the False Summit once, I've always wanted to return and make it to the top. Put me down as a potential...

Yesterday, I reloaded 2.85 and immediately got 8+ sats. I then reloaded 2.95 and again immediately (within a couple of minutes) got 8+ sats. I had been running 2.95 for a few days prior to yesterday and had been seeing 8+ sats. Then yesterday only three, with very weak signals. Not sure what's up...

Same here... yesterday I was getting 7/8 Sat's. Today only three. Nuvi sitting right next to the OR is seeing 8 Sats. Just reverted to 2.85, getting 9 Sats now.

Has anyone thought of the Cache'r Demographic? What do we look like on average? Male/Female ratio? Income? Race? Just wondering... Sam

Wouldn't this be a cross country ski or a snowshoe trip vs. a hike this time of the year? Sam

Just as an example of another configuration: 400t 4G Internal Memory 4G uSD Card Here's what's on the internal memory: ~2.7G gmapprom.img TopoUSA on internal Memory As GeekBoy stated above, it's different from the TopoUSA DVD Maps. ~278M gmapsupp.img various maps: 24k Washington (from GPSFileDepot), NWTrails (transparent trail overlay), SnoRanger (ski resorts trail maps), some Ibycus (Topo Maps of BC Canada) ~800M Free This is what is on the uSD CN NT 2009 ~1.1G gmapsupp.img CN NT 2009 Routable street maps for US and Canads ~2M GPX Files (insignificant really) ~2.9G Free space. I've found that this setup works nicely for several reasons: 1. You can set and forget the Topo US and City Nav... the 100k Garmin Topo obviously aren't as good as the 24k maps, but they are there for the whole country, no matter where you land. I get to Hawaii, Alaska, Montana, and Colorado occasionally. Also, with City Nav installed on the uSD card, again it's always there no matter where you go. 2. If you have other maps that you change occasionally (that are realatively smaller), it's much faster to update just the small imgsupp.img file on the internal memory. Minutes vs. Hours... As for the screen brightness, I can't really address that because I've not used any other units recently (as my previous GSP was a Garmin III Plus) other than I haven't had any issues seeing the screen. All you have to do is tilt in around a bit. Granted if you have it on a bicycle bar mount or something you are kind of limited. Someone mentioned that there is not option for putting the 400t Topo on your computer... There is a way. It's kind of a hack, but do-able. See this discussion. http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/8166106 It's easy for me to spend another $100 of your money, but I say go with the 400t and not be limited to the 1G internal memory, nor not being able to get the whole TopoUS on your unit... Just my 2cents. Sam

Are well behaved dogs welcome on the HOTM. They can be leashed if necessary, but they like to roam around and sniff stuff... like dogs do. Just wondering. sam

I just loaded the NW Trails WA only trail map, seems to work fine. I see the option for it in Setup, Maps, Select Map. I also see the trails over Topo 2008. Bummer that it's messing with you... Sam Were you ever able to talk to Garmin about your issue?

I just loaded the NW Trails WA only trail map, seems to work fine. I see the option for it in Setup, Maps, Select Map. I also see the trails over Topo 2008. Bummer that it's messing with you... Sam

The link doesn't seem to work. I'd be interested in reading that article. If you could try again, I'd appreciate it. Sam

The warning is added by the system. Not by the author. Hey TL, Just playing devils advocate here... So if the cache owners know the system puts that disclaimer there, why get their panties in a bunch if someone spoils? Seems like people are being a little to sensitive. Anyway, it's all good with me. BTW, we're practically neighbors, I'm over in Redmond, maybe we'll run into you sometime. Checking out for the night. Sam

Why is there a statement saying something to the effect of, "spoilers might be present" and "if you're spoiling, you might consider encrypting"? If people don't like people spoiling, why doesn't it just say, "no spoilers allowed"? Sam