Miragee

Stick with Garmin and check out the Legend HCx as well. The online price for that is around $185-190. That has both the High Sensitivity receiver and the "expandable memory" for more maps and Custom POIs.

This doesn't answer your question either, but I never use the "lightbox" link. I have very slow dialup and it takes for . . . ever . . . for the image to appear. It is faster to view the log on a separate page and see the pictures there. I don't think I would like a "lightbox" on a cache page . . .

Oh boy, do I envy you! Many years ago I came down the coast from Eugene, OR to San Francisco. We only drove the highways along the coast and had a great time with fantastic clear weather. One campground in California was on a beach where we saw Elk. That might have been Van Damme Beach State Park or Russian Gulch State Park. Another campground was near Gold Beach in Oregon. That was probably Cape Sebastian State Park. Have a wonderful time!

The 60CSx is a great GPS unit, but the Vista HCx can also accomplish the same tasks in a smaller, more-compact size. If you make the move to Garmin, there are programs to use to transfer the waypoints including GSAK for use on a PC or MacCaching for use on a Mac. Garmin has a "Custom POI Loader." I use that to send almost 10,000 POIs to my Vista HCx. The cable for my Vista HCx is the same as that for my camera. If you become a Premium Member, you will have access to the .gpx files which have more data in them than the .loc files.

Honk!

Welcome to the Forums! Check out the many informative threads about using the Colorado in the GPS and Technology Forums. You'll find lots of help there.

Welcome to the Forums! Check out Garmin's website and their "Comparison Page." The new High Sensitivity GPS units, designated by an 'H' in the name, work very well in canyons and under trees. You will be amazed how much better a Legend HCx will be compared to your older eTrex. You definitely want to stay away from Magellan. Their Customer Service is terrible. Garmin has great Customer Service, if you ever need it.

In Cachemate, you can Delete the caches using the option available in the list on the page showing all the caches in that database. I load the caches onto the datacard and when I transfer new .pdb files using the card reader, I Delete the old files on the card at the same time.

Welcome to the Forums! I believe this has been discussed over in the Web Site Forum. That is where problems with the Site are discussed. A Search over there might let you know how others have solved the problem.

Cachemate won't work on a Blackberry, but there is an alternative program. I'm not sure of the name . . . it might be called "Cacheberry." If you do a Search of this Forum, I'm sure you'll find references to it.

The 60CSx is an excellent choice for Geocaching. As a Premium Member, you can get Pocket Queries to cover a large search area. Since that is an 'x' unit, you can use Garmin's POI Loader, in conjunction with .gpx files to load thousands of caches as POIs, if you want to. The POIs can have more information than Waypoints, including the hint, if you Export the information from GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) using the "smart name" codes. To get the most out of that GPSr, you'll probably want to purchase the City Navigator maps for auto-routing. If you don't need auto-routing, the Topo maps are helpful.

The older "Roads and Recreation" and "Topo" maps can be purchased on eBay for reasonable prices. Both of those can be loaded onto the blue Legend. The road data in "R and R" might not be as up-to-date as MetroGuide, but you can load a much wider area from those maps.

If you take a printout from Google Earth, and if the cache is clearly near the third tree on the left hand border of the park, and the hint in Cachemate in the Palm is very descriptive, you might have some success caching with only the Palm. There are several cachers who find caches without GPS units. Me . . . I often have trouble finding caches with a GPSr.

I just wanted to emphasize this last sentence. I enjoy it when someone leaves an interesting, descriptive, or funny log on one of my caches, and other caches they find. I look forward to meeting them at the next Geocaching Event. I can't say that about the person who leaves TFTC or TNLNSL.

I got five FTFs on a night hike last summer. One of the caches was this one which had a very cute container. A few weeks ago, I got six FTFs on my third hike to the top of Bell Bluff. The views from one of the new caches are incredible. My very first FTF is still the most memorable.

I started using a Palm m500 and now I have a Palm m515. Both of those are easy to read in bright sunlight. The Z22 and Palm TX can be very hard to see outdoors. You should be able to find a Palm m500 that connects with USB for $30.00, including the shipping, from a reliable seller on eBay. You might even see if someone in your area has one for sale on Craigslist. I use Cachemate on my Palm and GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) on my PC to handle the data from Pocket Queries.

If you limit the criteria for the caches in your PQ, you might not even need two PQs to get all the caches you will be interested in. When I was traveling, I requested caches with a Terrain rating of '2' and under with a Difficulty rating of less than '3'. If you don't like looking for Micros, you can eliminate those from your PQs as well. If you know where you will be, and you use GSAK, you can fine-tune the caches you put into your GPS unit using the Arc/Poly filter in GSAK. If you have an 'x' GPS unit, you can load all 956 caches, and more, using Garmin's POI loader.

Do you have an REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated) store in your area? They have all the different GPS units in stock and you can try out each of them. You might look at the eTrex units, including the Legend HCx and Vista HCx. Those can do everything the 76Cx/CSx or 60Cx/CSx can do, but in a smaller unit. GSAK is a great tool and the guys over at the GSAK.net Forums really know their stuff if you have questions when you get started with it.

I don't ever "schedule" my PQs 'cause I just update my database when I have the time to play with GSAK. Since they got things going again yesterday, I've been very impressed with how quickly the PQs I requested ran.

I use the same batteries and they work well. The only issue is that they seem to lose their charge quickly while sitting idle. I also used the Energizer batteries for a couple of years but found they would lose their charge very quickly. Could be they didn't last very long because I used the 15-minute charger they came with . . . but it probably lessened their lifespan. The new "Hybrid" batteries, like the Rayovacs available at Target, work great and hold a charge, unused in your pack, for a long time.

Many people start out using EasyGPS to download the .loc files from either the individual cache pages, or from a Search Page. EasyGPS has a GPS setup option where you can tell it the brand GPS you have and that you are connecting with USB. GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) can also be setup for your GPS unit. That is the program many people use once they become Premium Members where they have access to the 500-cache Pocket Queries.

I got a PQ I requested within a minute of requesting it.

Welcome to the Forums! I don't have a Magellan GPS unit, but I know GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) can Export in the correct format for the Magellan. I have several different databases in GSAK to organize my waypoints. You might look at that software as a way of solving part of your dilemma.

The Topo maps don't have unlock codes, so you can purchase those second-hand. The City Navigator maps do have unlock codes, so unless you are purchasing those with the GPS unit they have been unlocked to, they shouldn't be purchased second-hand.

Once you use Garmin's POI Loader, the POIs will show up under "Custom Points of Interest" instead of under Waypoints or Geocaches. If you are looking for the Custom POIs and hit the Menu button, you will have a choice to Select Database. That is when I can choose to look for Found, Found Archived, Unfound, Owned, or Benchmarks.