Legallysane

I'm sure there is a 'simple' solution to my quandary of not knowing which cache I am looking for. I've recently begun geocaching as a hobby to have fun outdoors with two of my grandsons. The oldest has a Geomate,jr. and I have an Etrex H. As you can see, these are both very basic GPS. Since there are no caches near their home, we must jump in the car and start out looking. The Geomate just points to the nearest 20 caches and gives the distance; there is no map or name given. My Etrex H does have a sort of map and the waypoint name is given if I have typed it into the EasyGPS but only the first 6 letters. We look a the computer map before starting but quickly become completely confused about what we are looking for. Driving around trying to follow the directions of a 10 year old looking at his Geomate is very frustrating for all three of us and I would like to have an actual map in the car showing the cache(s) we are looking for. How do YOU do it? Do you plan beforehand which caches you will look for? Do you carry a map on your computer in the car? In your GPS? Legallysane, but a Second Opinion Has Been Requested

Maps. How do I get them to bring with me? The ones on the internet are not very detailed.

Thanks to all for your wonderful advice. (Now where were you when those 2 feet long green and yellow spiders were attacking me yesterday!) Just kidding. OK THINGS I'VE LEARNED THANKS TO YOUR ADVICE: 1. what that 'set waypoint' thingie is (etrex E) and how to use it 2. that a sweet looking little patch of woods next to a park is just camouflage designed to suck you in. It is actually a nasty, 10 mile square, geocacher eating trackless swamp about 50 feet in. I swear I could hear it giggle and smack it's lips as I tripped for the 10th time. 3. the 'treckback' or breadcrumb feature should be used early on, not after you have hacked blindly for 30 minutes attempting to get out. It will gleefully lead you right back in the same blind circles to the cache area where you started. (or so it seemed to me when I looked up from the GPS to see the same ground zero I had left hours ago). 4. to set a waypoint at my car 5. to set a waypoint at my car. 5. to set a waypoint at my car. 6. to bring a compass, cellphone and batteries and pay at least a bit of attention to my direction. 7. to have fun. !!!!!!!! PS. I am gonna find that cache !!!!!!

Yes, I'm new to this wonderful sport/hobby but I am sitting here with bumps, bites and scratches right now typing this. Today I thought I'd get one that is not too far from my home that said "..there is a trail ..." so I put on my long pants (learned that lesson on my first hunt!), drove to the little park and did indeed find a trail of sorts leading in the right direction. Feeling smug and happy I set out with GPS in hand only to have the 'trail' disappear about 100 feet in. 1 hour later, after stumbling my way through dense underbrush, stickers and the biggest spiders I've ever seen my GPS finally said it was ground zero. Whew! Searched for a half hour but never found it. That is when I looked up and realized I had NO idea where I was. Oh poop! I had no cell phone and no idea which way to go so it took another hour of stumbling, stickers and a big stick (to beat off those spicers) and lots of dark muttering before the idea to use another waypoing to try to get out occured to me. This finally worked but my question for experienced cachers is: how do you keep from getting lost?

This might seem dumb but I have seen it happen a few times. But did you turn the GPS unit on after plugging it into the computer Hey, changing my internal to GARMIN and also turning it off and back on seemed to work! Thanks to all

submitted by mistake. please ignore

I have an eTrex H. Just got a serial cable and connected it to my PC but nothing recognizes it. Not the Garmin software, not EasyGPS and not Geocaching.com when I tried to load some LOC files. I keep receiving the error message that they can't find my device. (which is ironic considering that it IS a GPS, right? Designed to find things and yet it is invisible) Hmmmmmmm. Any advice?

Just ordered a serial cable from ebay for $17. Although I am getting much better at entering coordinates manually and have found 4 (count 'em) 4 caches !!!!! Thanks to everyone for their help. Now .... how do I get rid of all these bites, bumps, and itchy things all over my body ? legally sane. (although my wife thinks I am crazy for bumbling around in muddy woods when I could be in an easy chair)

Many thanks for the advice I am headed to Amazon right away. But that still doesn't explain the strange connection points on my etrex H. I've seen many types of cables but nothing that would hook to them. well. off I go to Amazon !!!!!!! update: well I now see how it connects and I found the serial cable but it was $29. thanks again to everyone.

[/b]My very first GPS arrived today; a nifty new yellow etrex H. I found the on button right where it should be, pushed it, went outside and in less than 20 seconds 4 satellites were locked in. But that's where the easy stuff stopped. Once I discovered how to put coordinates in (you know: N 234224 W234555) it took a LONG time to laboriously move the cursor, scroll up or down, press enter, move over again, press enter, scroll, etc. etc. etc. ).Right away I went to the web site looking for how to download those coordinates to my computer and into the etrex. This is my problem that I hope someone can help with: Garmin says I need a type A to mini-B USB data transfer cable. OK, no problem there. But looking at the picture of the cable and then looking at my etrex H, there doesn't seem any way the cable can connect to it. The etrex has a flap on the top covering four connect round points but I can't see how normal cables can connect there. Am I missing something? And while I am exposing my ignorance, how do I get the downloads to my computer. Is a premium membership the only way or are there less detailed downloads available for free members? and yes, I am legallysane

I am a lurker only because I have nothing to add and everything to learn about geocaching. My total caches found is now ..... uh ..... none. However my grandson and I are going out tomorrow to search using the geomate.jr. I bought him for his birthday. Oh, I also bought an etrex H for myself but found it quite daunting and hard to fathom. Took me 2 hours of Google searches to discover how to put coordinates in. Is it really THAT time consuming to do?? Gee. Well, that's it for here in Louisiana. and yes, I am legallysane !!!