Days Are Numbers

I love my Lowa Renegades. A bit expensive, but by far the best boots I ever hiked in. I have used them beyond their life expectancy, but I still use them. The stitching is just now starting to fray after 4 years of high impact use. I have used them in the mountains of Nevada and California, and the mucky, mushy swamps of Michigan. Weather it is 95 degrees or 10, my feet are cool when they need to be and toasty warm when needed.

GPS may not be taken away, but the system can be limited or even shut down. That goes for all navigational aids like LORAN and such. Abuse can result in priveliges taken away. Scanners used to pick up cordless phones, now you can't buy 800 megahertz scanners. Just for example.

I used to have a GPS 315, but have upgraded to the Map 330 and I love it. I agree the best way is to use EASY GPS, you should have gotten a PC cable with it. Although it is a good idea to know how to manually enter coordinates also, which is required for some of the multicaches. It would be bad to not know how to do this, then find a cache that only has a piece of paper in it with coordinates to the real cache. Also be sure your GPS is in WGS84 Datum. Most caches are in that. I would also recommend getting TOPO for the Map330, which allows you to put detailed maps into the 330, not only does this make it fun, but can save you some time and distance around obstacles (sometimes the straightest route is not the best). I spent countless hours learning all the things to do with the map 330, easy gps, and my map software, and still have a lot to learn. Dedicate a day for playing around with this stuff on the PC, not only will learn more, but it shows you some more of the advanced "bells and whistles" of your high tech toy. I don't even use my GPS to it's fullest potentional, but I know it does more. You have to taylor it to your liking. The best rule to survival is: "Become the Master of your environment". Know all there is to know, but remember the basics, lest we fail once completely dependent upon technology.

I used to have a GPS 315, but have upgraded to the Map 330 and I love it. I agree the best way is to use EASY GPS, you should have gotten a PC cable with it. Although it is a good idea to know how to manually enter coordinates also, which is required for some of the multicaches. It would be bad to not know how to do this, then find a cache that only has a piece of paper in it with coordinates to the real cache. Also be sure your GPS is in WGS84 Datum. Most caches are in that. I would also recommend getting TOPO for the Map330, which allows you to put detailed maps into the 330, not only does this make it fun, but can save you some time and distance around obstacles (sometimes the straightest route is not the best). I spent countless hours learning all the things to do with the map 330, easy gps, and my map software, and still have a lot to learn. Dedicate a day for playing around with this stuff on the PC, not only will learn more, but it shows you some more of the advanced "bells and whistles" of your high tech toy. I don't even use my GPS to it's fullest potentional, but I know it does more. You have to taylor it to your liking. The best rule to survival is: "Become the Master of your environment". Know all there is to know, but remember the basics, lest we fail once completely dependent upon technology.

I have been playing with GPSr's for years now. First in the military, then I purchased a Mag 315 which was the best in my opinion for the longest time. Then I upgraded to a Mag Map 330, which I absolutely love. But if I were new to the game and knew what I know now, and that is there are a lot of things you can do with a GPSr (that was a confusing sentence, eh). I would, provided I had about $500 to spare, go for the gusto and get all the bells and whistles, which would be confusing at first, but would provide many hours of interest and intrigue. At best, you will probably want your GPSr to interface with your PC, this is excellent for downloading coordinates, and just all around fun and interesting with a TOPO program. Not only could you map out your caches, but place your tracks on it, and completely research a new area to hide caches. I would go for a Magellan Meridan Platinum with barometric altimeter, already has a PC cable, then purchase the Topo CD-Rom which allows you to download detailed maps into the GPSr and the kicker is, buy the memory card, not cheap, either an 8, 16, 32, or 64mb for holding map info. Yes it is pricy, and they will make lots of money off of people who don't really know what they are looking for, but that is what I would get if I had the cash. Magellan just happens to be my favorite, someone else that has more experience with a GARMIN or others may know of one with those features too, I'm sure they're out there.

I would like to see something like this.

I would like to see something like this.