JFDavis (Orion 6)

For most folks the altimeter is useless. For geocaching I LOVE the electronic compass. Also if you use it for hunting it would be nice. Consider breaking your leg or spraining your ankle while in the mountains. You can no longer walk fast enough to make the "regular" compass work but the electronic compass will work. If you will use it the thing is great. If not then don't pay for it. Personally, I use it about 95% of the time for geocaching. [Edit] The electronic compass tends to eat your batteries much faster than the regular compass but it can be turned off if you like. Bing! They're 'gadgets', 'toys', 'great for starting arguments!' But then there was that one time where.... I always seem to forget the old manual compass, back in the car; and when I remember it, I don't need it! I have used the altimiter to predict the weather-well a severe change. In mountainous country, like a slot canyon or next to a steep peak you don't get much warning about changes in the weather by looking up at the clouds. But the altimeter/barometer goes nuts! A sudden change is a good indication that the trek needs to head toward the car.

Centex - I'm waiting for Navigator Ver. 8 to come out. If I got two 1 gig SDMicro cards, would the entire USA fit on them if I split it at the Mississippi River? Interesting... Just tried this very thing (GPSMAP76CSX+2*1GB mSDs, City Navigator 7.) Room to spare! Best guess as to excess space is 25-50 tracks of 250 miles would also fit. In a first attempt I got everything except the eastern-most Atlantic coast states on ONE card using 93% of the space.

Which proves my point. That isn't a whole lot of map coverage. You can drive out of your map coverage range in as little as 15 minutes if you are running that on a Legend. Twice now you've made this point. And twice I find something to agree with in your comments and something to disagree with. If the user is in a high density area-say any large city with maybe a million or so people, the Legend may be cumbersome to use. One would need to limit map loadout to just what was needed. And replace as needed-hey they called them map-sets for a reason! But in a less dense area the Legend is 'perfectly' workable-I live in New Mexico. My Legend holds a Metroguide swath completely covering the major north-south interstate-500+ miles long by 50-100 miles wide and the region of Topo maps that make-up my 'back yard' about 500,000 acres give or take the odd 10,000 acres. Certainly more than 15 minutes even by jet. If I need to work in the southern half of the state it will hold that entire half of the Metroguide and the relavent Topos with room to spare-same with the north half or east or west. But it's all irrelavent. The original poster 'has' the Legend. The best answer for them is the one that gets them started at using what they have in a productive manner. The Legend is a great 'little' device. It's got a small heart (capacity), but it beats strong! If you run off your maps then either you planned badly or ....

You would be 'erasing' the marine point database. Something like a basemap version of the Bluechart. There are ways to recover and reload this 'basemap'. It was, at an earlier time, on the garmin site. I just checked; it's still there. You go thru the manual upgrade procedure with the license page etc; it's off on the right side. The Legend keeps it's preloaded basemap-I think all Garmin GPSrs do-it's hard coded. You replace a 'lite' version of the marine map. Topo is a marginally useful topographical map-similar to the paper ones with natural features like hills and valleys, bodies of water. Alongside a real paper Topo it can keep you from falling off a cliff. Seriously though, it's much easier to 'see' a topo feature and match it to a real feature than dead reconning(sp) from some point in civilization (like the end of a road). Where civilization is within visual range I frequently use just the Legend and the loaded topo maps for caching, walking, hiking, biking. Further off the beaten path a compas and a real paper topo map are the best additional equipment advice.

Is there a way to figure the specifics about how much you can store with each of these? I am in a similar situation with my Vista Cx 64MB card, and wondering how much more I can really put on that card, or whether I'll need to get a new card if I buy one of these map sets. I have a Legend (2 actually). Each chunk of map has a size. As you select the desired map area in one part of the Mapsource window you get a visible shading to show the extent of your selection and map coverage, a map name added to a list of chunks in a second window and a running accumulation of the space required at the bottom of the 'chunk' list. I'm in a rather less dense area-still a city-I get all of the Metroguide for the city proper and topo maps for an adjacent range of foothills and mountains.

I don't mind dealing with bystanders, except... Two recent finds come to mind. In the first instance the gawkers were all dog owners, with their dogs. Some of those dogs were the size of small horses. And like any group of similarly minded folks, once one went belligerent they all followed. "What was I doing under that there bush?", "Where was my dog?", AND THEN MORE POINTEDLY "You're not leaving any thing there that will hurt my dog, are you? And then the mumbled profanity! The second involved two older folks, their dogs and some well-worn waist packs. While searching I stepped into, actually over, some of the landscaping. This couple immediately veered directly toward me and upon closing the distance at quick time, the man began his itterrogation. The questions weren't so bad, but he keep fingering his waist pack, and what was well worn was the shape of a handgun. She had one too! I also recognized the brandname logo as a holster-maker. I backed off, but they went immediately home and called the police. I was stopped about two blocks away and questioned about 'trampling the bushes'. I had some print outs from the cache site and had left the GPSr running, so my explanation was plausible and the officer and I had a friendly exchange and I was on my way. Nobody stops a ballgame to query a searcher looking in the shrubbery, few poeple are concerned by someone taking clues from memorial plaques; but now I carry an old frisbee, some old jewelry, or a well used baseball to drop at the scene and claim that as my find when approached by strangers.

I'd second the idea for posting locally to get some starter caches. Our first was in a park on the north end of the residential area where we live. Sidewalks, grass, water fountains, and best of all only 1/4 mile from home. The second search looked simple, but I didn't read the directions completely! What I thought was about a 1/2 mile up and back to the cache and car turned into a 3 1/2 hour four mile hike up a fairly steep grade. Most of the search was bush and cactus country. There were several steep climbs, and it was HOT! 107 by the time we hiked out. Take the extra compass, water, a topo map, water, sunscreen, water, a hat, water, a first-aid kit and water. Don't forget your trinkets and water. Turn the GPSr on while you're getting all your supplies mounted, and set a waypoint at your car/horse/bicycle/buggy/plane/boat BEFORE you set out.

We got the second laptop; and three GPSr. I don't mind giving it over to someone else in the party-on those times I'm in a group, and as long as they wait for me! Still I think it most fun when everyone has a unit-it's very funny to watch five or six people converging on the same area, eyes glued to the screen until they knock heads!

I've got an etrex, an etrex legend, and a gpsmap76s. The only problem areas I've discovered are downtown and in rugged mountain areas. Both areas exhibit the same problem-narrow or small views of the sky. Heavy concentrations of steel also reflects signals, occasionally 'jumping' hundreds of miles from correct. A few steps in any direction giving more open sky fixes both problems.

I'm alone 80 to 90 % of the time. My wife loves the sport and goes as often as she can find time for it. The kids are mostly teenagers now-they have interests of their own, but occasionally we 'force' them to get out for a 'cleansing' walk. I like going early on weekday mornings-less traffic of any sort. The group thing might be fun-once in a while-I'm in NM, send email.

The posts here caused me a certain ammount of introspection and at least one good belly laugh. I was very surprised by how fast 7MB loaded into my Legend; equally surprised by how slow 22MB loaded into my 76S. The problem with loading all of two states especially if it must be swapped often does seem like a big annoyance until... How much of these two states do you actually visit in a swap period? Except for planned trips where the GPS would be just one of a myriad of details, my day tripping is largely restricted to a couple of fairly narrow corridors-probably less than 5MB of map data. I'm really not trying to be a smart***. I've got all of my states roads (Metrosource), POI (Roads and Rec), and 95% of the Topo maps in my 76S/Similarly with the corridors in the Legend.--One can never have enough maps; but consider this little true story: A couple of days ago I set out to do a little caching. Arriving at the open space area I was pleased to see a young female jogger who was also going to be using the area. As I donned my walking gear-vest, gps, batteries, walking stick, she rolled up her top, and rolled down the waistband of her shorts. She set off first at a faily good clip and headed south. I went nearly due east and was soon engaged in a difficult scramble up a steep hill. Off to my right and at a lower elevation I noticed the jogger making her way up the trail. Checking my GPSr I noticed I had about 0.15 miles to the cache. I misjudged the distance and mentally placed the cache near the summit. After many difficule steps I was shot; I was still 0.10 miles from the cache, out of breathe and a bit concerned about getting down the hill (I'm affraid of heights). I turned back, sliding and struggling to keep from rolling down the hill I used my behind as an anchor several times. Down below I noticed the jogger again ON MY RIGHT. Well that's enough embarrasment, here's the moral: All the maps in the world do no good if you don't turn them on/look at them. Seems the lady jogger followed a path around the hill. Same one I would have known about if I had switched from Metrosource to Topo Map sets. From the back side of the hill the cache was about level with the path, which wound up the hill gradually along a must less steep approach.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'making your own maps'. The CD/software you mention IS a map and you can put waypoints, tracks, and routes on it, then save that info in a file. That seems pretty standard as far as commercial GPS compatible mapping/map software goes. I've got the basemap that comes with the unit, the marine POI that replaces what the factory loaded and the users copies over if they use another Mapsource product (Garmin), Roads and Rec, old and new Metrosources, and the US Topo maps to put in my Legend/76S. I've got or have access to My stae and surrounding states National Geographic Topo map software and that can take points, tracks, and routes; but CANNOT be loaded into the GPS. There are (I think) some reasonably priced sharewares that purport to take a photo or other online 'map' resource and then create a GPSr loadable map, but I'm cheap and haven't done more than try demos on the PC. The newest Metrosource is a real kick; the National Geographic Topos are awesome! A big second to the rechargeable Batts; I'd get(got) the metal hydride types in 2100milli-amp hour versions.

Your(/any) GPSr is going to flutter/wave around. As different satelites are received, reflections from building, trees, etc, etc. If you sit still or set it down this will 'quite' to a tolerable minimum-such as when you are fixing the point for a geocache. I've got (my wife has) a simple little Etrex, a Legend, and a Map76S. They all flutter-even jump every now and then as far as 1500 miles! As you approach your destination, slow down. Maybe even stop/pause every 25 feet or so during the final approach. Your GPSr should similarly slow to a minimum flutter. While I would tend to side with the advice to get an Etrex if your needs are very basic, I would more strongly urge you to get a unit with 'mapping' capabilities if your needs are anything but VERY basic.