CaStarman

Those are some great ideas. I am going to look online to see if there is a rechargable setup, either a rollup or the hat idea. If one of them will work it just might be the ticket. My Exploirst 500 might become more than just a geocache toy. Frankly, I was very disappointed when I bought my Explorist 500 as I did not understand the battery limitation. This limitation is the same for all the mfg's. It is an inherent problem for those who like to take long trips. I have wanted to take my gpsr on trips in order to log elevation gain, waypoints, along with general trip data. I thank you for your input. Now it's time to do some more research. CaStarman

it looks like I will have to keep looking for something else. I have decided that there is no good unit out there that can handle a multiple day backpacking trip. No one makes a unit that will allow me to keep the GPSr on during my actual hiking time. I have wantd to be able to log an entire three week backpack trip and then come home and input it into the computer. The ability to show the actual elevation changes along my rout is somehting I really want to do. But as of today there is nothig that can be bought that will do it for me. If there were lots of stores along the way I would dump my Explorist 500 and get a Garmin that allows AA batteries. But I am an ultralight backpacker and the only way for me to go a three week hiking trip from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney is to keep things as light as possible. I am not going to carry the additonal weight of three weeks worth of batteries just so I can log my trip. I have topo maps for that. I really appreciate your responses. Suunto does make a decent watch that has a barometer, altimeter, and compass. I know about the thermometer problem. Body heat does play havoc with that. I carry one of those tiny thermometers that attach to the zipper on my jacket. Thanks anyway people. CaStarman

I cannot imagine going into the backcountry without a standard compass. There is no way I am going to put my life on the line with just one piece of equipment. I want both. I was on the John Muir Trail a couple of years ago and low clouds came in and we could not see anything past about 75 ft. It made using an ordinary compass impossible. Also, at night using a compass is downright crappy. Using the backtrack feature of my GPSR is simply wonderful. A lighted screen and switching between screens makes night hiking, or finding your way in the dark amazing. I was hiking a new trail at night and I got lost. The trail simply stopped. I had no choice but to go back the way I came. I used the backtrack feature of my Magellan and I walked back the 2.35 miles in a total pitch black moonless night without a hitch. No way I could have done that with an ordinary compass. No way would I have even ventured out on a new trail at night witout a GPSR. I was not in the mountains either. I was in the middle of Thousand Oaks, CA. so I was in no real danger of any serious harm. In fact I could have used my cell phone to call in my exact GPS coordinates for search and rescue if I had needed to. Boy, would that have been embarrassing. Also, there is no way I am going to trust myself to only having a piece of electronics that no matter how well they are built these days can be dropped and for who knows why stop working. I would hate to drop my GPSR into a stream only to find out that the back cover was not on tight enough and water ruined it. There are any number of reasons electronics fail. I know the value of being able to work a compass with a topo map. But with a compass you have to be able to see points of reference in order to make navigating possible. I use my GPSR all the time for the normal everyday camping and hiking. But, I carry my compass too. It weighs nothing and it is always reliable. My topo maps are waterproofed and I take them along with me. I was at Malibu beach a little while ago, at sea level right, and my gpsr said I was at +62ft. So the accuracy of the GPSR is not perfect. So, if for some reason, it is important to know the true elevation I pull out the topo. But, in the last 26 years I have never had a life threatening situation that made knowing the elevation critical. I plan my hikes ahead of time and I know where I need to be and what I will do if things don't go right. I was snowed in at Tioga Pass a few years ago and neither a compass or a GPS were going to help me get out of my situation. Knowledge and being prepared are the most important qualities anyone needs when backpacking, ort even geocaching for that matter. For simple geocaching any kind of GPS will work. It truly is plug-n-play. But when you want to hike from Happy Isles in Yosemite to Mt. Whitney you need something more than a GPSR because whether you have the electronic compass turned off or not there is not enough battery life for a three week trip. And I am not interested in carrying three weeks of batteries. As an ultralight backpacker weight is everything. It all comes down to need and your personal abilities to be self sufficient in case the worst happens, and you MUST plan for the worst. If you base your life on a piece of electronics then I think you need to stick to geocaching and please do not venture off paved roads or away from city lights. The biggest mistake someone could make is to think that a GPSR now makes them an experienced navigator. The question you need to ask yourself is how would you fair if for any reason your GPS stopped working. I am a 29 year amateure astronomer and I can even tell direction by the stars/moon. But on a cloudy night that is impossible to do as well. I love my new Magellan Explorist 500. I love the ability to add all kinds of map data by virtue of the SD slot. I have scads of memory. I don't need all the memory at the moment, but it is nice to know it is there if I do. I want a compass in my GPS. I like having both. I love the bells and whistles. My dad told me once that whenever I bought something to buy the best model I could afford. He said I would I never be disappointed with the best of whatever I buy. What is the point of arguing about a compass. Those who only do geocaching don't need to know how to use a compass. And if you are out in the wilderness and prefer to navigate using a standard compass well that's great too. The typical geocacheres are rarely, if ever, out hunting for cahces in the dark anyway and they rarely are in a position to get lost. So what is the big deal with what we choose to use? If you don't know how to navidate with a compass then get a GPS with a compass. If you get a charge out of being able to find caches without an internal compass and you want the additional battery life for the GPSR then get one without a compass. Too each his own. Enjoy whatever you like to do, be safe and always stay within your abilities. CaStaraman

Just getting caught up on all the comments on this thread. Dot-Com, you are so right about Magellan losing customers if Garmin introduces a SD card port. I'm one of them. Garmin would be wise to do this simply to take market share. It seems like good business practices to me. The biggest mistake any company can make is not to listen to existing customers' complaints. If they don't listen to their customers then they will certainly lose a good percintage of them, not to mention make it nearly impossible to attract new cusomers from the other manufacturers like Garmin. The best thing Matellan could do would be to get off the dime and do everything they can to correct their problems. I'll tell you one thing for sure, if Magellan simply introduces a new model that has the fixes and leaves current customers unsatisfied there will be no way for me to ever consider going back to them. Iwould feel so betrayed that I would never consider the management at Magellan as reliable. Just my thoughts. CaStarman

Hi, I am a backpacker and the big drawback to all the handheld GPSR units is weight and battery life. I am looking into getting a Suunto X9. It seems this little wristwatch has all the bells and wistles my Magellan Exploist 500 and more. It has a 3 axel compass that will give accurate readings no matter what angle it is held at along with the ability to store lots of waypoints (500) and nearly 8000 checkpoints. It is pricy, at about $500 but if apears it will track an entire 3 week backpacking trip and still let me download my trip into my computer when I get home. At just 2.1 oz it is light and durable. With altimiter, compass, barometer, thermometer and the ability to store 5 tracks I can't seem to find a bad thing about it. I was wondering if anyone has anything that would deter me from getting this piece of equipment. It sure looks like it is the answer to my problems. CaStarman

Perhaps somone could give a list from 1 to ??? of each of feature for the 60cs (or 76cs) has and then you can make a point by point comparison. Then you could determine what features are important and which are simply fluf. It really depends on what you want to do. I like to backpack and I take mine with me. I like being able to set up direcories for each of the types of track logs I do, hikes, geocaching, etc. I like all the extra memory the Explorist has, which means I can load all the map data i want and never even come close to using up the memory. I especially like the 3axis electric compass the Magellan has. Moving or not, on level ground or not it works great. The color screen on is fantastic. Day or night it is just a bright and easy to read. I like the size of the Explorist line as well. It small and light but the ergonomics of it is very user friendly. But, if all you want to do is one day geocach hikes then ir really does not matter which one you get. I am sure either the Garmin or the Magellan will be great units. Also, you will get used to whatever mfg you buy. You will get used to the interface and how it all works. Familiarity is a big deal when it comes to a lot of things. Looks to me like I just repeated myself. There is an old saying that I have found to be very accurate. Get the best model of whatever you are looking to buy (up to your price limit) because you will never be unhappy with the bells and whistles even if you don't use them. You will never feel like you had to settle. And when it comes to selling it it will always be worth more than the one that has fewer bells and whistles. It is kind of like when I buy a car. I always get the sunroof, if it is an option, because even though I may never open it once, the car will still be worth more down the road (no pun intended) when it comes to selling it as a used car. Good luck and I am sure you will enjoy whatever you decide on buying. CAStarman

The Explorist 600 is a great unit. The compass works even when standing still. It is a 3axis compass which means it will work when standing on level ground or upside down - doesn't matter. That is very nice. The SD slot allows you to add up to a Gig of addtional memory. Do not underestimate the value of this. That means for around $35 you can put in an extra 512mb of storage, and for about $60 you can get a Gig of extra storage. You can store far more wayponts per track log than any other unit and it is very one-hand usable. It is light and the color screen is downright great. It is as wonderful in the sunlight as it is at night. You can configure and store your data as you want. You can create different directories for different needs. In other words, you can have a directory for just geocaching logs, and a different directory for hikes or camping, and a different directory for other types of uses. This way you don't have to scroll thfrough a million listings if you happen to be geocaching today and backpacking tomorrow. It has an altimiter and a thermometer and a barameter. Lots of stuff to get excited about. The 14 parallel channels working with WAAS and EGNOS technology makes this one of the most accurate handheld GPSr's you can get. Certainly none are better. I have never lost satelite tracking even under the oaktrees that line some of the trails I hike on. When I hike it is normal for me to be tracking 11 or even 12 satelites. If I am in the open I never, and I mean never, have less than 7. If the overhead cover is really dense then I will drop to fewer, but so does every other GPSr. Right now I am in my upstairs beadroom and I am tracking 4 satelites. When I go downstaris and watch tv I will drop to about 2 satelites (occasionally I will have to go back upstairs or out on the patio to reacquire satelites. Then I simply go back inside and contiue my play. I get accuracy readings down to 7 ft. when I am out in the open. Now some people say you don't need all the stuff the E600 offers, and that might be true, but it is nice that it is all included anyway. It is definately worth looking into. CAStarman

Oh Spamhead, Just because the Explorist line is not perfect please don't think that us users do not think it is a better unit (anb I do mean better) than the Garmin line. The flexibility of storing caches or logs in user designed direcories is so much better than what Garmin offers. The SD port is something Garmin is lightyears behind. The satelite tracking is great, I never loose signal, and there are other things as well. Please do not think that yours is superisor. I'll bet you say that the SD feature is not all that big of a deal, but when Garmin finally gets around to putting one in their units I bet your voice will be the loudest to be heard. You might not need or want all the features the Explorist line offers, but you know what? they are there if I need them. Can't say that with Garmin. I am sure Garmin makes a great unit. But not to be able to give credit where credit is due says just a little. CAStarman

I have a really good one. I wanted to buy a car charge adapter for when I am on the road or camping or whenever. So I went to the Magellan website and looked it up. I found it and ordered it along with some other stuff. Well, when it came and I finally figured it out, I laughed for five minutes and then I got kind of pissed off. Magellan does not make a simple charger that goes from the car port to the back of the E500 (or any of the other GPSr's in the Explorist line). You have to disconnect the USB cable that comes with the unit from the back of your computer, and plug that into the charger and then plug that on to the GPSr. HOW STUPID!!! I have to climb under my desk and unplug the USB and then have the extra wire hanging around and then when I get home I have to climb back under the desk and plug it back in. I mean Come on guys. This is one of thoses "gotta minute" moments. What were the engineers at Magellan thinking? I guess they thought they would "kill two birds with one stone" but guys, make a charger that simply goes from the car to the GPSr that I can keep in my car all the time, that does not have the extra USB cable hanging out the end, and that is about two feet shorter. I guess there are those who use their laptops while driving but I gotta believe there are plenty of people who just want a charger withoug the USB cable and the long length that would make it worth adding it to the Explorist line of accessories. I might be wrong but it seems right to me. Not to worry. I did find what I am looking for at Boxwave. They have the simple car charger along with all kinds of great stuff for the Explorist line that makes life a bit easier and less messy. They even have a AA battery pack that will recharge the Li-Ion battery when I am in the back coiuntry for several days or even weeks. I am always coming across a store that sells AA batteries when I am hiking and that makes life so much easier. It actually makes my E500 more than just a GPSr for Geocaching. I like Geocaching but I also like to take weeklong hikes. Without a way to recharge the battery in the backcountry the Explorist line is useless. I am not trying to rag, but gee, lets think a little. I like my E500 and a simple car charge plug is not too much to ask for, is it? You know what is funny, I would have paid more for a Magellan product. But now I get to throw the Magellan plug into a box and wait for my Boxwave unit to come. This is not rocket science here - this is pretty simple stuff guys. Check out the Boxwave website, it has some stuff for the Explorist line that Magellan does not not make available to it users. CAStarman

JHWK, You are totally right. Like the world "totally". It gives me a feel of being 10 years old again. LOL It is the stupidist thing I ever saw. You cannot go from the car port to the GPSr without having all that extra stuff. I ordered the car charger thinking that I was buying a cord that went from my car charge port right the back of E500. When it came it took me a few minutes to undestand what was going on. Then I was kind of pissed off when I realized I had to buy a whole nother USB conector cord if I did not want have to climb under my computer desk and disconnect it from my USB hub when I wanted to take my GPSr on the road with me. Then when I get home I have to climb under my desk and reconnect the plugs into my USB port again. It is too silly for words. I sat there looking at all the extra wire and what I have to do and I just laughed. I mean what else could I do? I couldn't believe you can't just buy a simple charge plug that goes right to the GPSr. It really is interesting how engineers (now to all you engineers out there lighten up) do stuff like this and don't ask us users what we need or want. I guess they thought they were "killing two birds with one stone" when they came up with the design. I am having to go to Boxwave to buy what I really want. What is so crazy is that I guarantee you Magellan would charge more than Boxwave, and I would have paid it simply because I also bought several other things when I bought what I thought was direct car charge unit. The people (I didn't say engineers) at Magellan are not thinking customer friendly here. Now I get to toss the Magellan charge plug in a box and wait for my Boxwave plug, which happens to be a carge plug that connects directly to the GPSr as one unit. What a waste of money. HELLO!!! Magellan, people hate wasting money. Are you listening Magellan? I doubt it. GO FIGURE. Other than that I like the E500. LOL CAStarman

I got my Explorist 500 about three months ago and I love it. The color screen is very very good. Nicely seen in the sunlight. The light can be turned down low, although I wish I count turn it off entirely, and at night the highest brightness setting will actually blind you. I just keep it on low all the time and it works great. I do like how it fits very nicely in the hand and how it is so easily worked with the same hand that holds it. I REALLY like the SD slot. I can download all kinds of stuff. I love the flile tree for storing tracks and logs by category. I can have a separeate file for Geocaching, vacation trips, backpacking, multicache trips, etc. Like any other product there are always things I would like to see changed or added, but overall I thnk I made a very nice choice. Feature for feature it comares very well with any product on the market. And, when you add the SD card benefit I think Magellan makes a super unit. It is just that until Garmin adds this feature to their units (and they will some day, you can count on it) some people will downplay the benefit simply because it is not available with the brand they like. But when Garmin adds this feature you will hear a different sound from those same people. Since I found out how to recharge the Li-Ion battery in the backcoungry using a AA battery pack from Boxwave I have found that I can put hundreds of waypoints on a single huge track if I want and save it to the SD without the problem of worrying about space. I can always go to a 1G card if I feel I ned the additional space. At least I have the choice. I think I will be giving my E500 to my boys and I will get an E600. I like a few of the goodies that one has. CAStarman

I believe Boxwave has what you ar looking for. I was looking on their website and they have quite a lot of car chargers and such. I believe I saw one that goes directly from the carging port to the back of the GPSr without the USB connector. CAStarman

Thank you for the heads up. I will get ahold of him ASAP. CAStarman

Monday 10/3. I just took a look at the website and theyhave the Explorist XL on reserve for $449.00. Not $369. I also like the idea that the XL is on AA batteries. At least you can take this unit ouit into the backcountry for a week. It is kind of impossible to recharge your lithium battery at the top of Tioga Pass on your third day out. That is the only significant drawback to the Explorist line. If I were a serius user of a GPSr I would have to consider a different brand. I wish I had bought a different brand. I just don't understand how Magellan can be so shortsighted. CAStarman

I sent you an email. This would solve all my problems for my long hikes. I could now log an entire two week trip into the Sierra's. The battery life is the only real concern I have had since buying my E500. Your experience has really given me a lift. I am an ultralight backpacker and the E500 is a great choice for the kind of hiking I do. Thanks again for putting your experience on here. It is good to know that there there is a solution for what I was beginning to think was dead. Thanks, CAStarman

EScout Thans for pointing me in the right direction. I appreciate it. Qconner. What I meant was there is no way to look at the average ascent or descent of a days hiking. Explorist needs to have a way to look at a track and then let you know what the cumulative increase or decrease is for either the day or between wayponts without having to do the math manually. To spend the battery tiime at the end of the day or just after finishing a particular leg of the trip (when you are out in the field) in order to see just what the elevation change was is a big waste of battery life and time. If there was a screen or a way the unit could tell you what the elevation change was for the track you did that day (or just finished) that would be really nice. Or if I just finished going up 800ft. in the last 45 min that is great to know too. For those who profile their trips such a feature like this is very useful. Right now, if I want to know what the elevation change is going to be I have to make a way point, or write my current elevation down on a piece of paper, and then make a second note when I get to my particular destitation. The only thing is, I don't always know where to mark my beginning point. Quite often I get to a point in my hike and I really want to know exactly how much elevation change I just experienced. It is not the current elevation that is a problem. Sorry if I was confusing. CAStarman

My Explorist 500 has a great altimiter. It is on the mains screen and it shows exact elevation at every moment. As you move the elevation changes. I am getting to appreciate the E500 nore and more every day. CAStarman

I am an ultra light backpacker and I have seen many different mfg's here and there. It really depends on what kind of hiking you want to do. If you are a dayhiker where you go out for the day or afternoon then just about any kind of stick will do. I would get the telescoping kind as well. When compacted all the way down they fit real nice in the car or for travelling on a plane or in a park bus. If you want to get more serious with your hiking you can spend a lot of money on a pair of carbon walking poles that virtually have no weight to them at all. I really like my Peak Ultralight Cabon poles. They are made of a carbon material and weigh just at 8 oz for the both of them. I even cut off the straps because I never used them and they seem to get in the way. There are some poles that weigh less than 5oz but they get pricey and they are not telescoping. 1. Get telescoping poles 2. Get the lightest pair you can afford. 3. I suggest you use two for your hikes. they really add a level of stability. 4. I have tried the ones with a shock absorber and I did not find them to be any more useful than the ones without. When I go down hill I just go a big slower and that seems to be all I need. But I have heard people sware by them. It is just that you only find the shock absorber oples on the high end of the price range so expect to spend upwards to $100 for the pair them. To me it is all in the weight. I rally like my poles and I would never hike without them - ever. CAStarman

In my daypack I take my stove and food, mini flashlight and my headlight for when I end up walking at night. First aid kit, signaling mirror, cell phone, two walking poles ( I will not hike without them), Gerber multipurpose tool, I usually go for most of the day do I take six liters of water in the form of 2 three liter Platypus hydration bags. Since I use dehydrated food for my meals I need the extra water. I also take several bandanas, my hat, sunscreen, whistle, and some toilet paper/kleenex. Finally, I carry writing materials. I tend to go on all day hikes. I like to cover about 15 miles or so (round trip) depending on how difficult the terrain is. I have thought about getting my ham radio license. I think that would be a nice piece of equipment to have around. Hope that helps. CAStarman

I do all my goecahing alone. No one wants to go hiking and looking for whatever people have hedden in the hills. Thats ok with me. I get to get out of the house and I also am preparing to hike from Happy Isles (Yosemite Valley floor) to Mt. Whitney next summer. All things considered I would rather go with someone, but if I have to go by myself thats ok too. castarman

I wish I could have the ability to see both my current position coordinates and the geocache coordinates at the same time. Because it is often easier for me to hone into a target using the coordinates and match my location to the geocache. I hate having to go back and forth to the POI and then back to my location. I really wish I did not have to write down the geocache coordinates hold a piece of paper when I am getting close to my target. This might sound a little tedious when compared to some of the more sophisticated comments above, but I am a simple geocacher and the simpler the better. Magellan has not made their product very user friendly and that is one the most important things to me. I am not a big tech person and I just want something that is strong on capability but also easy to use. I have experience problems wth my E500 taking a very long time (as long as three minutes to give me my 3D location. It has been taking a long time (up to a couple of minutes) just to save my current track. I am glad I found this thread because I was about to contact Magellan to see if there was something wrong with my unit. My boys are in their late teens now and they are looking into getting GPS's for when they go on their longer hikes. They were disappointed when the lithium battery only lasted for about 11 hours or so. The ability to buy AA batteries at a local store is a very nice benefit. Especially when you do not want to carry the added weight of the recharging stuff. Not to mention, where are you going to recharge it anyway. For those trips that are longer than a day the lithium battery limitation makes Magellan a pretty useless choice. If anyone knows where I can get a battery pack that will attach to my E500 I would be very pleased to hear from you. There is no elevation changes along the way unless you input a waypoint. I find this very important. I like to know my average ascent and descent between waypoints when I hike. This is one of those duh moments. Just a note for Magellan: My two boys are looking at GPS units for their backpacking trips next summer and they have said they are going to be looking at the other makers. They have heard some of my complaints and how I am not sure I made the best choice. I don't intend to be ragging, but Magellan needs to understand that bad publicity will hurt a product more than good publicity will help a product. I really hope Magellan is listening to this thread. If they are not, well it will be their loss. One other thing, I really hope Magellan understands is that people really hate it when they feel they have made a bad choice. Especially when you consider the cost of one of their top of the line products like an E500 or E600. If they would fix these bugs and enhancements they would really have a product that would be very difficult to beat. Thanks for the thread. I really hope I did not ramble too much for all of you. CAStarman

Is there any way to put in a set of coordinates and then let Geocache give you the closest five, or ten, or so nearest caches on a map? If I am going to be in a ceratain area, say Yosemite, or where ever, it would be nice if I could quickly find caches near by. Scrolling through pages and pages of listed caches and trying to find out if they are close to where I am going to be is very time cosuming. Also, if I think I have found a great place for a new cache it would be nice to know exactly where any nearby caches are. Thanks, Tom N.