canyonlander

It's also very useful when you visually spot an area that you'd like to hike to. In canyon country, it's possible to see something yet lose site of it as you walk through the ups and downs of the topography. So I might see a neat canyon that I want to hike to. I'll find it on my topo map that's loaded in my GPSr and then put a waypoint on it. Once I start hiking towards that waypoint then I no longer have to be concerned that I can't see it while enroute. This ability is something very frequently used when bushwhacking in the backcountry.

I'm sorry, but that really struck me funny. Out of curiosity, what did you think the "MARK" button did/was for? (It's very useful when geocaching as well. ) No problem, it looks funny by I probably didn't explain it well enough. The MARK button will create a waypoint at the present positition, regardless of where the cursor is on the screen. Intuitively, you'd expect to be able to move the cursor to a location on the map and choose the MARK button to create a waypoint at the location of the cursor. Instead, you have to choose "ENTER", then ignore the "GO" prompt, then choose "MENU", then save as waypoint. The "MARK" button isn't even used to MARK a new waypoint other than the present location.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I think what was going on with the caches not showing up is that I had downloaded some 'sample' ones that were about 200 miles from my present location. I finally found them once I moved the cursor closer to that location. I've owned Garmin GPSr's since the 1980s and am constantly astonished at how they program their units. I can understand the need to not populate the search engine with too many items, but then they need to mention this 'feature' in what they call a manual. I used my 64s in the backcountry in Utah last month and spent quite a bit of time prior to my trip simply finding out how to mark a new waypoint at the cursor location- not intuitive at all, and a feature that is very useful when backpacking. Thank you for all your advice on downloading multiple caches. I think I'll go with a premium membership like I had years ago. I wish Garmin had more stability in their product line. It seems that every GPSr I've purchased had older supporting software that was discounted before it's time. I did manage to find an "open map" product for getting in a more comprehensive routable street map. I have an auto GPSr for my car and appreciate the 'free' updates that are available after the initial purchase. I guess they don't sell as many hiking units and that's why the data is outrageously expensive.

I just bought a GPSMAP 64s and had some questions. I used to have a Vista C and am generally familiar with geocaching, but haven't used it in about 5 years. What is the best way to get geocaches loaded into my unit? I loaded the Garmin Communicator plug in onto my computer and it seems to verify that the file downloaded properly to my GPSr. However, the geocache doesn't show up as either a waypoint or in the Geocaching page of my unit. I do see the geocache as having been saved in the GPX directory, but it's not showing up in my unit. Once I get that to work, then how does the unit put something into the "Geocaching" screen versus just a regular waypoint? Do I need a premium membership in order to load more than one geocache at a time into my unit? Is there any wireless way to get geocaches into my GPSr? I kind of thought that's what the Bluetooth connectivity was for, but from reading, it seems that it's mostly for interfacing with a cell phone. Any way to use the Bluetooth connectivity of my PC to load files rather than having to use a USB cable? Thanks so much for any assistance!

I'm playing around with my Vista and setup the "Accuracy" field to be displayed on the map. I says "21 ft" right now. I'll have to go out later and see if that changes. I recall that I used to get accuracies under 10 feet. I wouldn't even mind larger accuracies if it would be consistent.

It's been about three or four years since I've geocached and I just went out with my kids during the last few days. I have a Garmin Vista C unit and was surprised that the bearings and distances I was getting kept going back and forth by about 50-60'. We couldn't walk towards the target without the GPSr suddenly showing that the cache was in an entirely different direction. I pulled out my iPhone and used its GPS and it worked in a similar way. I don't recall from year's past as having that much variability in the signal. We were looking for geocaches in mostly suburban areas and with some moderate tree cover. I initially assumed my Vista C is going bad, but figure it must be OK if the iPhone was behaving in a similar way. Is it possible that when we went out that there were solar storms or other atmospheric disturbances that might have affected the signal that way?

Thanks!

I live in the US and own a Etrex Vista C. I'm travelling to Spain and want to use my unit over there. I do not have any international maps and I realize that the unit itself only has the US basemaps. However, can I use my GPSr by at least inputting waypoints and use the ability to drive to them? I'm assuming that no basemap will displayed but that all of the other functions will still work, correct? thanks!

Where did I mention self esteem? Trying to prove a point that isn't there, ha? My kids have no problem with their self-esteem. This sport is somewhat unique in that entails a wide variety of age groups competing for FTF's and very few rules. Any adult can easily beat pre-teen kids at this sport- and you call that sportsmanship? Hardly. Due to the lack of written rules, how about if I tackle this old guy when he's enroute to his FTF, or have my kids jump out from behind a tree and knock him down? Didn't see that prohibited in the rules. That way we could take advantage of the skills that we have being younger than him and he can take advantage of his fanatisism by getting up at 5 in the morning when my kids are still getting sleep for school. We could easily get all of the FTF's if we ignore the 'unwritten' rules. Your arguments only makes sense if you expect US to recognize certain customs of sportsmanship while allowing others to take advantage of the situation.

I personally don't mind if someone gets there first but it makes it tough for my 6 and 9 year old daughters to ever get one. We have a local guy who is retired and probably get 90% of the FTF's and he'll go out anytime day or night. So it pretty much makes it impossible for anyone other than a fanatic to get a FTF in our area. There are very few rules to geocaching so it's debatable what's meant by sportmanship in this game. But I would think that after hundreds of FTF's that it would be nice if this old guy would let some of the young kids get a few. If we throw sportsmanship out the window then I can certainly think of a lot of ways to make geocaching a pretty nasty endevour if it's every man for himself.

Part of the problem is the large number of caches that are placed by some individual members. They have so many out there that they can't keep any eye on them. Now, I don't blame them because I appreciate the fact that they are placing caches to find. And they are generous enough to load up the cache when it is first placed. But when geocaching was newer, there were fewer caches put out by individuals and they could spend some more time maintaining them.

Some of us have a lot of small portable devices and have to contend with a half a dozen or so charging units for our house and car. It's nice not to have to lug all the charges and various batteries around every time we take a drive. I'm a real estate appraiser and lug around a laptop, GPSr, PDA, cellphone, digital camera, and laser measuring device in my car. The battery issue is a very big issue with me.

Haven't geocached in awhile and was looking at some cache pages. I thought in the past that there was some sort of notification on the cache page that showed I had already found a particular cache. Is that still there? Also, downloaded Google Earth with the KML files. Is there a way for Google Earth to indicate which caches I've found? Thanks so much!

Here's where they are advertising Metro Guide. At the bottom of the page it says "MetroGuide offers automatic route capability on the PC, which means you simply select a starting point and destination and MapSource calculates a route, which you then download to your unit." What they don't say it that procedure is USELESS because the Vista C will then wipe out that route. The Garmin rep who helped me over the telephone apparently read the same page.

Garmin's software product line is very confusing and I had called them when I purchased MetroGuide. I was told that was the product to buy because my Vista C had built-in routing. I wasn't told that it was limited to the base map data and was rather crude. Your comment make sense in that I should have bought City Select-- too bad Garmin gave me bad advice. I spent a lot of money on this unit and the software and am extremely dissapointed in it. Oh well...

I'm looking for door-to-door routing and your comment certainly seems to fit my situation. In any event, I forced the route to continue on a northerly path by creating about 10 intermediate waypoints but the darn thing will take a turn to the south to find the nearest expressway. Garmin needs to advertise the limits of their autorouting. It's essentiallyi been useless ever since I bought the unit. Thank you everyone for your comments- I appreciate your advice.

I'm using MetroGuide with MapSource. Garmin sure makes it confusing with the naming of all of these programs. Anyway, MetroGuide certainly has the routing features built-in, but are you saying that the GPSr will reroute no matter what, and basically ignore what I've done in MetroGuide? It would be so simple to have a function where autorouting could be turned off on the Vista C. I use the off-road option lots of times because the routing is so bad with this unit. It's easier to do my own routing that to constantly watch the unit recalculate its mistakes. I read some other posts where they put in some intermediate waypoints to force the recalcuate to stay closer to the intended path. I tried that, but the darn unit keeps taking a turn to the south (opposite direction) for about 10 miles before going back to the north. I've also had problems in the past where all of my routes ended up backwards.

I've never gotten routing to work correctly on my GPSr. I'm using MapSource and have created a route that reads (directions) correctly. I transfer it to my Vista C and start to navigate. As soon as I start, the GPSr recalculates the route which basically changes the directions. In fact, it creates a route that doesn't even make sense. How do I get the origina route create in MapSource to stick? Thanks!

I'm in the western suburbs of Chicago too and can only remember getting WAAS reception one time. I'm using the Extrex Vista C and am overall not pleased with the unit. The battery life is pitiful. And I lose reception all the time even under only moderate tree cover. I've always wondered if the unit is defective. My old Garmin GPSII Plus is looking better every day.

I live in ILL and have never received WAAS reception. I understand that the WAAS satellites are orbiting on both coasts which makes reception nearly impossible in the central part of the country. Where are you located?

I'm just starting to go paperless. Someone had suggested using Plucker and GPX Spinner. I've tried it and and really satisfied with it. An extensive amount of information gets loaded in the Palm using these two products. I'm suprised I haven't seen more people talking about these programs. Does anyone have any comparisons between using these two programs versus using Cachemate? thanks!

Thanks. I didn't realize it happens that fast. I guess I was used to the otherwise sluggish speed of everything else on this site- especially on the weekends.

Do I have to wait until a pocket query is generated by the system (maybe a day?) to get a download of caches in the GPX format? I can run my pocket queries by themselves in real time but am only given the option of downloading in the loc file format. thanks!

All great advice. I'm going to learn GSAK as I get the time. I like blindleader's advice too. The problem I've always had is that my choice of what cache's I like typically doesn't fit neatly into a few search parameters. I sort of hunt and peck around so I don't have an easy way to get them all on one search result page. However, I can just do a broader search like blindleader suggests then blow away what I don't need in EasyGPS. Thanks for the advice Clyde. Your program is awesome. I paid to become a registered member out of appreciation for your massive efforts your personal attention to your users. I will become a power user someday!

I'm somewhat new to caching and will download various caches one at a time to my desktop. How do I combine those caches so that I can do one transfer to my GPS? Right now, I open each individually and transfer one at a time to my GPS, then to the kid's GPS. I'm a registered user of GSAK and have Easy GPS too. I prefer Easy GPS for right now because I don't have the hours that are going to be required to figure out all the features for GSAK. It's a swiss army knife all right- but sometimes you just need a butter knife to spread some simple peanut butter:) Nonetheless, if GSAK provides an easier way to combine these then I'd appreciate any guidance. I also have MapSource (Vista c). It appears that all of these programs obviously have an 'Open' or 'Import" function but that usually creates a new file- the next imported .loc or .gpx file then creates another one. Thanks so much!