GeoTrekker26

A sock puppet posting on April 1st, what a surprise.

Just be careful you don't fall into the trap I did. I wanted to do a series on 30-40 mile route, all of which I knew would be within .1 mile of the road. I established a route and used a very small radius. When the route displayed on the map, it appeared to faithfully follow the road but when PQ displayed it clearly showed that instead of the road, link segments were used to construct the query. This meant that some caches on outside corners were omitted. When I reran it with a much larger radius all the caches were picked up. On a casual vacation route this might not be important but it could be if there are some scenic overlooks that have caches that get missed by the plotting method used.

An 18 piece (9 containers and 9 lids) Lock and Lock set is available today at woot.com for $18 including shipping. Remember the way woot works is that this offer expires today, March 14, at 11 PM CDT. I've never ordered from woot so as with everything purchase from an internet vendor, caveat emptor.

This must be something Garmin has changed with the new eTrex line. I upgraded my eTrex 20 to firmware version 2.70 yesterday and just checked to confirm that WAAS is still on. It was on before and after the upgrade. That said, it is still a good idea to check all you system settings after doing an upgrade.

Mine broke too. They sent a new one free. Did they send just the pin or the entire cover?

Go ahead a log the finds and sell the souvenir on eBay.

How I would do that when searching along a route?

When a pocket query (PQ) is initiated, the option screen is populated with system defaults. I find when I generate a PQ, there are many options that I always set the same in every PQ, yet I have to search through the screen a couple of times to be sure I've ticked them all. It would be useful to set and save the parameters I usually use so that a PQ generated either from scratch or from a newly created route would appear pre-populated with my preferred setting. I could then change the ones unique to that particular PQ. Thank you for considering this.

Excellent description! So, now a question I hope is easy, after I find a cache and want to remove it from the eTrex 10, how do I do that? You do not remove caches from the GPS with the GPS. When the GPS is connected to the computer you can remove GPX files just as you delete any file on the computer. Go to "GPS"\Garmin\GPX\ to find the GPX files. If you are loading individual caches to the GPS, then removing the GPX files holding the individual caches will remove them. If (when) you use Pocket Queries the individual caches that are part of the the PQ will remain until the entire PQ GPX file is removed. Are you marking the caches Found in the GPS after you find them? This will prevent them from being displayed when choosing a cache to navigate to.

Day 1 test results: UGH!!!!!!! Really ? How bad is bad ? Details. The firmware version number changed... That's it! I'm really bummed . How about supplying some useful details. A post that is "ugh" in its entirety is not helpful, nor is this one. The firmware number change from 61 beta to 70 was expected. Exactly what problems are you still having with the 2.70 release? Thank you.

I know this is not the correct answer and I hesitate to mention it because it relies on 3rd party software. And yes, I know it does not work on a Mac unless the Mac user runs a virtual windows machine on the Mac. I will mention it because some, like me, may really miss the feature. GSAK has a macro that creates a printable map with numbered caches on the map and an index list. It fully replaces the feature that was provided on the "old maps" before they had to be dumped because of the Google fee structure. There is a learning curve involved with both GSAK and getting the macro to print. Once you get past those hurdles you will have the nice paper maps you miss. (If you have or get GSAK, go to help and search for MAPPING. Read to the very end of the help topic.) Even with "paperless" caching, it is nice to have a map to plan your caching adventure. There are many reason "find next closest" doesn't give you the one you really want and a paper map can be a useful tool. Back to the original point. Yes, GC.com was forced to break some features we liked. They did not want to and are working to restore as many as they can. Until that happens, GSAK can be used my many cachers. It is a bandage, but like other bandages, it does work even though we would rather not use it. I hope this helps some of you.

An aside first: You have a copy of the manual on your GPS, but you are correct: it is almost useless. It sounds like you are loading caches one by one into your GPS. You really should look at using pocket queries (PQ) since you are a premium member. When you send caches to your GPS caches are contained in a GPX file. If you you send them one at a time, then you need to manually delete them and that is done by connecting the device to your computer and manually deleting the files. If you use a PQ you will have up to 1000 caches in a single GPX file. In this case there is no way and more importantly, no need, to remove caches that have been flagged as found. And note that "Found" is a cache attribute, they are flagged as such not moved to a special area. Indeed they can't be since they are part of a large single file in most cases. You have a modern GPS that supports paperless caching and are using a sophisticated web site that allows you to create very useful filtered lists of geocaches. As you learn how the two can work together you will really benefit from the combination and get more enjoyment from your GPS. Here is a very simple plan that you might want to consider. Design a PQ that locates caches that interest you. Have the cache run every week on the same day. As you are caching, mark the caches found in the GPS and if you want, add a short field note in the GPS. After caching, and before you download the next iteration of your PQ, log on to the web site and tell it to get your field notes. Use the notes to complete your online logs of the found caches. Then download the new PQ after it runs and replace the GPX and waypoint files on the GPS with the newer versions. This way you will have the latest info on caches (new logs and newly placed caches) and your found caches will not be in the new PQ. (There is a PQ option to skip caches you have found.) There is probably a lot of new things in the above simple plan, so just take them a step at a time. The most important thing is to enjoy caching! Good luck.

It depends on what you want to see of your PQ. If you only want to see the location of the PQ caches, then all you have to do is click on the little icons to the left of the map. One click and all the caches of that type disappear and a second click restores them. The icons for you PQ also disappear but the little balloons that mark them a part of the PQ remain. This works just fine if all you want to see is the locations. If your PQ contains mixed types of caches and it is important to see the location of the specific types of caches then this method won't help.

I would not expect an answer because you will find that most often the true puzzle is trying to figure what type of puzzle you have been provided. Once you figure that out, deriving the actual solution is often trivial. So while your intent is not to ask for a solution, you may actually be doing so. But I'm not really telling you anything you don't already know; you've solved and found than a few unknown cache types. Good luck!

I don't agree with that statement. Just the southern half (below 60 degrees) of Topo Canada V4 is over 3gb, toss in City Nav NA 2012 at 1.6gb and a few Birdseye images and you can easily hit 8gb and we have no pictures yet. I have a 16gb card in my montana, with about 14gb used Of course it does depend on the expected usage and desires of the owner, but a blanket statement like that is a bit erroneous. Quite correct. Thanks for setting me straight!

To directly answer your question: I have not experimented with different brands so I cannot say anything about tolerance to variations of cards. I bought the cheapest "brand" name I could find - Kingston, and have had no problems. I have noticed no performance difference when using the card and that included running the OSM map from the card. I have since moved the map to core memory. With everything loaded, including a 500MB map I still have > 1 GB free core memory. The only reason I got and used the SD cards was to be able to swap out databases while on a trip when I didn't want to use my hosts' computers to manage caches. At the time I thought the limit on caches was 2K. Now that I know the limit is 5K, I doubt I'll ever use the cards again. Also since core memory isn't an issue, anything larger than a 2 GB card would likely be a waste. With a being large map around 500 MB and a 1 K cache GPX file at 5 MB you would be hard pressed to fill a 2 GB card unless you wanted to load a bunch of pictures.

Load the nearby cache into your GPS and visit you proposed site to see if there really are good places to hide a cache. When you find a good spot use your GPS to tell you how far you are from the cache that concerns you. If, for some reason, you need to do the calculation from your desk, use the coordinate distance calculator mentioned in the above post. Or you can plot the coordinates of the existing cache in Google maps and use the measuring tool in Google maps.

As you have discovered, if you use the search results from the Play - Hide and Seek a cache, you will get loc files. I know next to nothing about the Magellan products but it took me less than 60 seconds to find help at the Magellan site. See http://support.magellangps.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=641&nav=0,2,9,117 You dismiss Pocket Queries with one sentence. The PQ is what you want to use as it will send an information rich GPX file to your GPS. Read the link I gave you above and if you are still having problems with PQ, please give us more details about the problems. Good luck. As soon as you get the Explorist working I'm sure you will like it

I thought that, but pretty sure someone here demonstrated that it can actually hold 5000 caches without noticeable lag. The 2k limit mentioned in the manual is waypoints, we all just assumed that included caches I documented my how I tested that my eTrex 20 will hold exactly 5000 geocaches in the recent forum post http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=288825&st=0&p=4952417&fromsearch=1entry4952417 The only items I should have added is that the testing was done with the US OSM maps loaded and active and the installed firmware is 2.50.

I did some testing today so I have real live data. I confirmed my eTrex 20 will hold exactly 5000 geocaches. The details of what I did: I loaded 5 pocket queries of 999 caches each. They were loaded one at a time, with a restart between each load. Each time I would search for caches in the newly loaded GPX file and in any previously loaded GPX files to be sure that none of the files were being ignored. The pocket queries were widely separated to insure there were no duplicate caches in the queries. I loaded a 6th GPX of 999 caches and it was simply ignored. Searches for caches in the 6th file were not found. Searches in the first 5 files returned results as expected. To protect myself against any possible problems the 6th file was on an SD card that I had previously used with no problem. This way if the system were to hang, I could simply remove the card. I removed the card and added caches one at a time. (This is the reason the original files contained only 999 caches.) The first 5 caches loaded as expected. With the 6th, I got an error message saying the number of geocaches exceeded the limit. Prior to the error there was no warning I was approaching a limit. The caches used in the test were traditional and multi-cache. While I didn't record exact numbers, there were about 50-70 child waypoints with each 999 cache GPX file. The 5 major GPX files varied in size from a small of 4,432 KB to a large of 5,309 KB. With all files loaded I have 1.25 GB free. It's raining today so all tests were at my desk, but I did not notice any performance degradation with the 5K caches in the GPS. I had thought that loading a cache description might be slower but I didn't detect any difference. I found the results interesting and useful; I hope others do also.

I fully understand the desire to have all nearby caches at hand for spur of the moment caching. I believe the 20 only holds 2K caches. I've never actually tried more but 2K is the number from Garmin's specs. But based on other inconsistencies among various Garmin pages on their site, I'm not sure I trust their info. I worked around their stated limit on a recent trip by loading 2K chunks on various microSD cards, which would not be convenient for your use.

You need to add the new Garmin eTrex 10, 20 and 30 to the list of devices that can use the "Field Notes" feature.

I enter my postcode and then get a list of caches, next to each one is a tick box on the left and an icon to download to gps on the right. I can select all of them by ticking the box in the title bar, but I then can't work out how to transfer all of them at once onto the device. You seen reluctant to describe what you are doing, so I am going to guess. You are going the Play menu and selecting Hide and Seek a cache. At the search page which is then presented, you are entering your Postal code which results in a list of caches in or near your postal code. Is that correct so far? If so, you can select them all then scroll down the screen and select download. Once they are on your computer, you can open the gps\Garmin\GPX folder and drag them all in there in one step. Or, much better, since you are a premium member, learn how to use a Pocket Query as others have suggested. It is an easier and better way to go. Also, in geocaching.com you should define a home location and your GPS type. You will find doing both makes interacting with the system and your device easier. I hope this and the other answers help you get started. If you need additional help, please take the time to explain what you are doing and what you are trying to do in more detail. That will allow the geocaching gurus to give you specific help. Good luck and enjoy your eTrex 10! Thank you very much for your help. I will run the pocket query tonight and see how I get on. I am still intrigued though...when you say 'you can select them all and then scroll down the screen and selet download' .....I just can' t see an option to download. All I can see is the phone icon next to each listing, but even when all are selected, that only downloads the one cache at a time Okay, since you asked: at the bottom of the page, below the last cache listed on the page is a section called "Waypoint Downloads". It contains the following text: "Waypoint Downloads "To download geocaches, check the box to the left of each listing you wish to download. When you're done, click the download button to the right. Read about waypoint downloads." On the right hand side of this section are two boxes, one is "Check All" the other is "Download Waypoints" I notice you said you see a telephone icon in the last column of the cache listings. Mine shows an icon of a green arrow pointing at a GPS. I would guess you have yet to define your GPS in your profile so perhaps you can't see the "Waypoint Downloads" section until you do. I don't know and choose not to delete my GPS info from the system to test the problem. Even if you get this feature to work, you DO NOT want to use it; the downloaded data is in LOC format not the more robust GPX format. I hope your next question concerns Pocket Queries!

I enter my postcode and then get a list of caches, next to each one is a tick box on the left and an icon to download to gps on the right. I can select all of them by ticking the box in the title bar, but I then can't work out how to transfer all of them at once onto the device. You seen reluctant to describe what you are doing, so I am going to guess. You are going the Play menu and selecting Hide and Seek a cache. At the search page which is then presented, you are entering your Postal code which results in a list of caches in or near your postal code. Is that correct so far? If so, you can select them all then scroll down the screen and select download. Once they are on your computer, you can open the gps\Garmin\GPX folder and drag them all in there in one step. Or, much better, since you are a premium member, learn how to use a Pocket Query as others have suggested. It is an easier and better way to go. Also, in geocaching.com you should define a home location and your GPS type. You will find doing both makes interacting with the system and your device easier. I hope this and the other answers help you get started. If you need additional help, please take the time to explain what you are doing and what you are trying to do in more detail. That will allow the geocaching gurus to give you specific help. Good luck and enjoy your eTrex 10!

This is not true, at least for the two accounts I tried. Sending mail to username@geocaching.com does not work.