musthavemuzk

if you look at the specs of the explorist models they all have the same processor speed. idk if the processor is the same but the speed is the same. my gf uses the GC and last weekend in dubuque she was getting frustrated with it. i gave up on it months ago and got a 62s. i like some things about the GC, but overall i do not like it. i like the long batt life. i like the amount of info on one screen when lookin at the cache listings and then at the cache itself. i have to move around multiple screens to get all that info. i do not like how sluggish and non responsive it can get. i do not like how long it takes to start up. but if you look around the forums here you will get alot of good and bad about the GC. we went with it due to its price point and feature list. we got it in july and it was 200. good luck Monty

first off good luck with your GC. depending on how active a cacher you are will say what is best option on loading your gps. most gps's have a max geocache limit as well as a max gpx file limit. pq results can be up to 1000 caches centered around a given location (be it a zip or a cache) or along a route(up to 500 miles long and up to 6 miles off the route). there are lots of options in setting up and running a pq. markwelll on here has a faq about that. as well as there is info on the pq page now about how to set up a pq. this would be 1 gpx file that contains up to 1000 caches. this would take just a little time to set the pq up and run it and then transfer them to the gps. so you could load several pq's onto your GC at one time and or you could set up the pq's to get just the caches you wanted. such as my size or type or other attribute. not to forget the time it was placed or last found and so on. depending on your area is to how much area would be covered in a pq. centering a pq around my house i go 21.4 miles to hit the 1000 cache limit by including all caches, even the ones i have found. when i was looking for my trip to NW MN i had to go 90 miles to hit that same limit up there. when i was looking in the twin cities i would go from 6-9 miles to hit that 1000 limit. you might also find you like certain sizes or types or d/t rated caches and you can set up the pq to filter that. now if you use the send to gps feature you are adding 1 gpx file each time you do this. now if the gps has a 200 gpx file limit then you will be full quick like that. as well as all the time spent doing that. that is just a bit of info Monty

if you do a search around these forums you will see alot of issues with the GC. some get fixed in short order and farily painless with support. and some have many issues as well as issues with multiple units. we are on our 4th GC. first one returned to best buy. and then it did as you said yours did. its replacement is collecting dust right now after it did the same thing. the next one bought from target. it too did the same thing. so far it replacement is working. there are directions on here somewhere on how to mayb get it to work again. though it never worked for me. good luck with this. Monty

first off i was reading this to my gf and she said to tell you that the mole ppl play checkers and not thumb wrestling. another thing to think about is virtual and earth caches. Monty

i saw a cpl days ago there is new firmware for the GC. figured this 4th one has been working fair for almost 3 months now i will let it be til after the first of the year. then will get the new firmware. as i thought i had seen something on magellans FB page that they were hoping for something after the first of the year to fix a few things. idk if this one fixed them or if it was something to start on that to make some owners happy. for myself i really wanted something up the food chain, but thought that the GC would fit out needs. we got into caching the end of july. today i hit 275 found in that time. most of them have been found with my 62s as i couldnt deal with the GC verry well. while i do like the electronic compass, it is not perfect by any means. i still have to start moving at times to get it to tell me the correct direction. not all the time but at times. now with the GC you have to be moving for it to tell you direction. as was said i would try it out and see. it might be ok since you are a casual cacher. mayb get with a local and see what they have for a gps and see if you like it. or like some of the features. the GC does have a few good things, but also some not so good. Monty

Some good caches on your list. I've done a good couple of pages from your list. took me 2.5 days to get to TRF,MN from CR,IA headed west and north and west and north and north and north and then east then north. had a good time. skipped over alot of caches because of size and location. caught some i had seen that interested me as well as as some that i hadnt seen. could have easily spent more time in some areas. caught my first virtual. tri-state (MN, SD and IA corner) http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...9e-0153cdb941ff if i had been wiling to wait i could have done my first earthcache the one morning. both mornings though it was foggy with alot of frost on the trees. which was gorgeous. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...57-241c2171677e still surprised to see multiples at rest areas. the one with the EC had 4 i think and the night before the rest area had 5. this was for both directions. tomorrow i am taking a friend towards fergus falls and a little past there to one called seven sisters mountain http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...bd-3d6ebedc7374 we have big toe on the list as well. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...61-c8991232a20e he is interested in various types to get a fair feel for it. idk if he will get into caching or not, but he has shown some interest as well as he wants to do some when he comes to ia that i have mentioned. the gauntlet series in cedar rapids as well as personal courage. all of which are subterranean. and some that i have mentioned are climbing trees ones. he is definitely more into that kind. as welll as he like to take his jeep out and put it to use. not out as much as i thought i would be so far, but still made it out for 2 today in TRF. Monty

there is also http://wap.geocaching.com/ to get cache info once you get the gc# i will have to look into this info. i get email on my blackberry tour with alltel. well at least for now. will be switching to another carrier soon. just havent decided if i will follow to ATT or find another carrier. my home area is being picked up by att and that starts in jan. have to make a decision by then. if i dont then i am without a phone. im out of contract now. anyways i am not a ftf hound, but if i am available i will try. so i like to get the info on my phone. just wish it was more consistent. somedays i get all of the emails for new published caches and some days i get none or some. Monty

do not get discouraged. with you having a garmin i would suggest getting either bootcamp or mapsource from garmin site. both are free. load the PQ's into it and it should do all the work for you to send it to your gps. it should. as i do not have that unit i am not sure how it works. Monty

since you are a premium member you can use a cache or other coordinates as the center of the PQ search. this might get those caches that are in the area you want to look Monty

lookin through some tech sites this am i came across this http://www.engadget.com/black-friday/2010/ took me to this where i grabbed a spreadsheet and am scoping it out now http://www.dealsvista.com/deal/55152 not far enough into it to say much but there might be something in there as bass pro and cabela's are both listed Monty

there are a few threads here about this verry problem. some have had luck getting it to work again, some have not. calling support they should be able to walk you through it but make sure they go slow enough for you if you are not techy. good luck. we have had this trouble 3 times so far and 2 of those have been returned to store with the 3rd still sitting on the desk. the 4th one is still working fine so far. this one has lasted the longest at 2 months. Monty

i have a 62s and i am wondering if there is a way to have power to it while in the car to use the turn by turn navigation? not using batteries i mean. Monty

i have read it on here about some GPS units have limits of GPX files. so i thought the GC also had limits. there are threads about various garmin units where the GPX file limit is 200. so if you do 200 send to gps caches then you are stuck til you delete some or all of them, but you can do 1000 caches from a PQ you copy and pasted the gpx onto the unit and all is good. might hit the cache limit of 2000, 4000, 5000 long before you hit the gpx file limit. of course this depends on your unit. my 62s can hold 5000 caches. Monty

i hear ya. right place to look for info about their product....just like anything else.....the source is usually the best place to learn about it. Monty

so its wrong to find out about caches when going to a new to you area? Monty

i know. i have caught on here that its frowned upon to talk too much about it. i was just asking about a macro he used as it sounded like something i would be interested in Monty

how many times have you done the send to GPS option? i believe there is a limit to the number of gpx files the GC will store. this is where PQ's come in handy as well as using some software to load the GC. not always necessary, but it is an option. with a PQ you can have up to 1000 caches in the one gpx file and load many of those til you reach the 10,000 cache limit on the unit. if you just do the send to gpx you will come no where close to the 10,000 cache limit but will reach the gpx file limit. will have to delete the gpx files in the geocache folder on the GC. then you can copy paste the PQ gpx files into that same geocache folder. hope that helps Monty

seriously? we have returned 2 units to store with this problem and have a 3rd on my desk with this problem. the 4th one so far is still working. then again it is only about 6wks old. the longest so far one has worked for us Monty

this summer i moved from Thief River Falls, MN to Cedar Rapids, IA. after i got to IA my gf and i got into caching. i have been talking about it on my FB status's and some of my friends are interested. so i have been scouting the forums for a cpl months now for interesting caches that i might want to take it when i visit before christmas. i have come across some that are of interest. some on the way north and some up north. i have started a bookmark. i think i even made it public. http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.a...05-0632fa42e167 i am interested in small or larger caches. smaller than that are ok if the scenery and or history is good. great scenery history from the area cemeteries some of my friends have kids so kid friendly ones would be nice. i have not yet determined which route i will take to and from TRF, MN. the choices are plentiful. Thanx in advance Monty

thanx now to figure it out Monty

interesting thoughts on this. we have not hid any yet, but are looking into that. we are planning spring for our first hides. we know what we like to do and have done others if they present themselves. the other day i was out and about casually scouting and was surprised at the lack of options in some places to hide. when i had looked at the map i was like look at all that available area.....then i get there and i see why there are none there. Monty

please do tell of this macro you use. i have a 62s Monty

thinking a little differently here and i do not mean to throw this offtrack at all. we picked up a magellan explorist GC in july. overall i hate it. my gf uses it and likes it. however we are on unit 4 since then. it has some good things going for it, but not enough to recommend it to anyone. it is also a caching unit only. so that means itis not for those who want to use it for hiking. so i went and picked myself up a garmin 62s. i like it alot. is it great or perfect? mayb mayb not. i went with this over the 450 or 550 as there were concerns and comments about visibility in sun or during the day with the touch screen units. i kinda looked at the delorme pn40 and pn60, but i just couldnt go that route as battery life on the 40 was poor and the occasional i cannot get things to work on it concerned me. but the 60 has a much better battery life i read on here. i didnt care much about topo maps preinstalled. so the 450t and 550t and 62st were crossed off. with them being garmin units there are alot of free maps available online for them. the delorme come preloaded with topos. i paid 399 for my 62s at the brick and mortar bass pro shops near me. the 62 was 50 less at 349 and the 62st was 100 more at 499. they had the delorme pn40 for the same price and the pn60 was another 50. i do not remember the cost of the 450 and 550. i felt lucky as i got to play with all of the units in the store. yes they werein demo mode as they could not get a signal inside. but i did get to see how responsive the touch screens were and how they went from screen to screen and the menu system. i do not think a person could go wrong with many of the units out there now. i know i wanted as paperless as i could get. i didnt care for touch screen. i wanted a card slot i wanted turn by turn if i could get it. i wanted electronic compass seems many ppl go for garmin since they seem to be the leading player in gps for awhile. the open source community also has maps available for them. recently the new magellan units were released. idk about them. they have alot of gadgets and such with them, but do they work as a gps unit? with the time i have had so far with my 62s i would likely make the same choice if i had to do it again. Monty

difficulty/terrain ratings (d/t) can be helpful as well as logs. when you view the maps you can view the terrain on the map. so thismight be of use as well. depending on time and when the trip is planned youmight want to contact either the cache owner (CO) or a cacher who has recently found it to ask their thoughts on if it is kid friendly. there are also attributes that might indicate kid friendly or other things as well. mayb if it is close enough you could scout it first? over time you will start to see and learn what d/t ratings are ok for you and yours. Monty

depending on how long you will be in Duluth you will have tons of places to visit and lots of incredible scenerly up the north shore to check out. i got into caching after i moved from NW MN to IA and i am planning a trip up there soon. i know i will not have enough time to visit all the ppl i want to and cache all i want to, but still gonna run around northern MN caching. i do not remember how close it is to duluth but MN's oldest is up in N MN. alvin's phone line i think is the name. there are many waterfalls up the north shore and i would guess many earth caches as well. enger tower is one i plan on hitting when i get to Duluth. i also want to revisit the ariel lift bridge. idk if there are any caches nearby but still it is interesting to watch the container ships go under it. split rock lighthouse is an icon up the north shore as is Gooseberry falls. there are other places, but those are the closer ones. glensheen mansion in duluth is another interesting place. eery story around that place. enger tower http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...f4-b36b4ae7e11e alvin's phone line it appears to be quite the haul from duluth though now that i look http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...ff-5884516f5f51 be warned though depending on time of year you go to duluth it can be COLD. as it is N MN and the wind coming across lake superior has no mercy. as for where i do not want to go caching? so far i have no such list. everyplace i do go i wanna grab at least one cache. Monty