Greysquirrel34

Thanks for the replies, got casches into GPS only problem I seem to have or maybe it's just me as I am using a windows machine and my main computer is a Mac running OS x.3 and there is not a lot out there free tha runs well with that OS, there is one that cost $69.95 but thats not for me right now. The problem if it is one is that when I same a location it is save separately I would think and maybe it does it would go into EasyGPS all on one page and you could just click on it to edit it. I will check out their websiite when i get time, it's not really a big deal.

I am sure that these question have been asked and answered before but I can't find the answers to downloading to my Garmin Vista HCx. I have downloaded both EasyGPS and Garmin Communicator and have put a Casch page into EasyGPS but have not transferred it my my GPS. I see that EasyGPS downloads the page to my computer then I can transfer it to my GPS, but when it goes to the GPS are the coordinates displayed so I can us GO TO to find casch, does the same think happen when you click directly on the "Send to GPS" link, or are these two different functions and do different things and do I need to use both of these applications? Or are these just information programs and give me no more information than if I printed out the casch page? If there is a link somewhere giving me the answers please give it to me if not I am sure someone will have the answers for me.

I agree with you, we've been together 31yrs. and have never competed against each other we have always worked together, whether building a sailboat, remodeling our house, landscaping and even detailing our cars. So geocaching together won't cause any problems as long as we find the cache. She loves doing puzzels on any type and she love to figure out where things are hid.

I don't see that as a very good deal. If you shop around you could easily buy all the components separately and save money over what they are charging - and wind up with a 2 gig SD card instead of a measly 128 meg card. I got a 256MB card, maybe they changed it. When I was looking the best price I saw for a Vista HCx was $219 add the card, case and the topo 100 DVD and it didn't seem like such a bad deal, but prices change often so maybe now someone can do better by buying separately.

That will never happen, she doesn't do anything without me if we are both home except going to her mothers and I don't go near that house. But thats ok because she works and I'm retired and have nothing to do all day and all day to do it in, but I cant understand why I never have time to do all the nothing things I have to do all day.

Took my wife with me yesterday, my second day out, and at out firs stop I told her to look in one area an I would look in another, a few minutes later she found the casch and was very excited about it. On our second stop I had to give her the GPS as the terrain was hard for me to navigate, this is where I think I lost control, she searched and found the hide getting her hooked I think. When we got to our third stop, she grabbed the GPS and printed info and was on the trail before I even got out of the car.Same thing happend at the last stop. We went home and had dinner and she said we still had time to look for more, as we were ready to leave she picked up the GPS and info and away we went. What really got me was we were in a parking lot and she told me where to go and in the car had me park right in front of the hide area and found it before I got out of the car. Is she lucky or good, I don't know but I was told to print out more geocache's so we can look after dinner as this week is the only week left that it will be light after dinner. I think I have created a geocache junkie. Did pretty good for our second day, 5 for 7 mostly due to my wifes new found skills.

Take a look at this package. It may me what you want. The price is right and it's a good unit. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...rset=ISO-8859-1

I had it on a lanyard and fell on it and bruised a rib I think because it sure is sore. Nothing happened to it as it is in a case so not even a scratch and still works.

You need to understand that NO GPSr has ever found a cache, and that applies to the most accurate ones too. Your GPSr can only lead you to where you need to start searching (called GZ or Ground Zero) and once you arrive at GZ, your GPSr will only distract you from the search. Pete I am aware of that but I was referring to the comments in post #5 where the poster was talking about having fresh batteries. But thank for the reply, every bit of knowledge passed on by veterans of the hobby is appreciated.

I was out today looking for a casch located in a hole rotting stump, found the stump but no hole anymore just three sides. I know it was the right stump as the description said it had brambles around it and this was the only stump on the trail. As I was going back to the path my foot caught in one of the brambles and I fell face down on the path hitting my forehead and nose, there was some blood but I felt OK and just wiped the blood off my nose, I thought. Walked about a quarter mile back to the parking lot and when I came out of the woods some people were there and asked if I was OK and did I need to go to the hospital, I said I was OK and went to my car, when I looked in the mirror I had blood all over my face as I had scraped a large piece of skin off my nose. When I got home my wife asked what happened and just shook her head, washed my face off and all she had to do was put a band aid over my skinned nose. No real damage but it looked real bad with all the blood on my face. To ad insult to injury, the casch had probably fallen out of the stump when the side fell off so I could not sign off or leave anything.

As I know this area well I am just printing out the page of the cach and using the coordinates from that page, I can look at the map and see I should start to look and just walk it till I get the right coordinates. I have an old G3 Mac running OS X.3 and have not found any software that will allow me to download information to my GPS, they all seem to require a newer model and later software and as for the map datum I don't know what that is at this time but will look into it. As for checking out the logs, I have done that and all I missed were found in the last few days and weeks. I have new batteries and GPS is reading 9-10 birds so I would think it is accurate but as I am new at this I don't know if that is the case. Thanks for your and others replies and the info you have given me.

I live in Hendersonville NC and to day was my first day searching, not much luck 1 for 4. Went to Kanuga Kleen and coordinates put me 10 feet in the parking lot, search 30 ft of grassy area with no luck, then came Red White & Yellow, same result, clue says white and yellow must me red, only thing I say was a telephone book, also looked on grassy and gravel areas with not luck, then came Toms Park just could not find, then Just Off The Sidewalk, my N coordinates put me in front of a small tree but the W put me in the middle of the stream searched but area is quite overgrown and they have been working on that area. I must be doing something wrong, GPS is reading 9-10 birds, maybe just me being new. When I went to Just Off Busy Bend I found it without too much trouble, was real excited, signed log and left, when I was about a quarter mile away I went to make sure my GPS was off and it was not there, mad a quick return a there is was on the ground. I don't mind not finding stuff but if I had lost my new GPS on my first outing I would have really felt like a REAL LOSER. Had fun though and will go out tomorrow, there a lots to find around here.

j Thanks for all the replies, I ended up buying the Vista HCx bundle from Cabelas for $200 shchedule to arrive on Wed. I then have to learn how to use it, I have downloaded the owners manual and have read through it and it does not seem too complicated , I also keep a good stock of all size batteries and have a number of rechargeable so I don't think I will have a problem there.I don't travel very much so paying $100 for the city map module seem a lot to me, besides you can buy a GPS for your car for a little more these days, at least one that would fill my needs. I don't really know how I got to $200, I saw an add for a GPS for $85, did some reasearch and realized that was not for me, found what I thought I wanted for $121, then moved up to another for 185 and then saw this package deal for $200, hope I did the right thing.

I notice that all the x units have the card slot, thus the x, but have no memory installed, does this mean that all new maps have to be on SD cards that you have to purchase for $99 or are you still able to download free maps from web sites? I can see that being able to have a card that has city streets on in may be useful as this unit says it does turn by turn capabilities. How important is it to have an electronic compass? Neither of these two or many others have this feature along with an altitude indicator?

I was looking for a GPS for hiking and kept see some were good for Geocaching, not knowing what it was I did some research and found this great site which wet my appetite to find out more about it and found out it seem like a great hobby. Now I am not going to ask what is the best GPS as I know that will open up a can of worms as everyone thinks theirs is the best. What I am asking is am I on the right track, I have narrowed it down to two units in my price range under $200. My first choice is the Venture HC for $121 which seems to have most of what I think I will use, but I don't know that much about this stuff to make an intelligent decision. The other is the Legend HCx for around $65 more, both off Amazon. Now is the ability to use a SD card slot worth the extra money, or there more advantages to owning the Legend? I am also open to any suggestions anyone may make. I also see a lot of units on eBay refurbished, are these worth looking into, also Garmin says the refurbished units carry a 30 day warranty and the dealers on eBay are saying they have a 1yr warranty, Are these dealers just plain lying about the warranty or do some refurb units have a 1 year warranty?