redwoodkestrel

I'm pretty sure Magellans don't have the capability to do Wherigos. If you do have a smartphone I've found the WhereYouGo app to work really well for Wherigos.

Once the satellites are acquired, yes, the nearest geocache that is pre-loaded into the GPS unit will show up. However, the pre-loaded caches are only a small number of the total geocaches out there, so even the closest one that shows up in your GPS unit might not actually be very nearby to you. There are likely caches much closer. The best thing to do is delete these pre-loaded caches and download the caches that are nearest to you or the caches that are in the area where you'd like to go geocaching.

Sorry. Yes, unzip the the downloaded PQ and then you'll get the two GPX files.

The Magellan probably came pre-loaded with US caches. You should delete those out of the unit. You should be able to download caches with the Mac. Here's a simple workaround if Magellan Communicator is not working for you: 1. Find a cache you're interested in downloading. Press the "LOC waypoint file" download button (unless you're a premium member - then pick the "GPX file"). 2. Plug the GPS unit into your computer. 3. Open it like you would a usb drive - so you can see the folders inside. 4. There is a folder called "Geocaches." Delete the pre-loaded caches out of there. 5. Drag and drop the downloaded LOC file (or GPX file) into the Geocaches folder. There you go!

Can you describe what you're doing when you're downloading the cache to the GPSr? Here's a simple way to get geocaches into the eXplorist: 1. Run a pocket query 2. Download the pocket query - you'll get two .gpx files from this. 3. Plug the eXplorist into your computer and open it up like you would a usb drive - so you can see the folders inside. 4. Drag the geocaches gpx file into the folder called "Geocaches." 5. Drag the waypoints gpx file (it has "wpts" in the title) into the "Waypoints" folder. Now you should have geocaches in your GPS unit... up to 1000 with just one PQ.

In the Etrex go to Menu > Setup > Geocaches > Appearance > Set it to "Show Names" instead of "Show Codes"

Congrats! Following the journey was wonderful - such an adventure, I'm sure! Can't wait to hear more about it.

I'm sure someone can help - has anyone emailed to lend a hand? If no one else can I will, but I'm about to walk out the door and won't be home until this evening so I'm hoping someone else could do it sooner.

Looks like they're almost to Fort Albany... I wonder if there's an internet cafe in town? Just hoping we don't have to wait too much longer to hear if it was found or not!

I'm going with found it! Or at least found the remnants of. Can't wait to read the log, regardless. Such a great adventure!

So when you drag and drop them into the GPX folder, do they copy to the folder but you don't see any geocaches in your Garmin? Or do they not copy to the folder at all?

Did you unzip the file first? You should have two GPX files after that - one of geocaches and one of waypoints. Both should go in the GPX folder on the Garmin.

I've been thoroughly enjoying watching the progress over the past few days. Looks like they're making good headway today - I agree that they'll likely be at GZ this evening or early tomorrow... and yes, I hope they do send a message through the SPOT on whether or not they found it! Not sure I could take having to wait until they finally get to a computer or into cell service!

Check out the Cool Cache Containers thread.

It's totally fine! You should also see if there's a local geocaching group in your area - it's a good way to find people to go caching with. Good luck!

When I had an eXplorist GC I usually just ran pocket queries (so one GPX file that holds multiple caches), and then dragged and dropped the GPX files into the associated folders on the GPS unit. All the caches always loaded for me this way. If it works when you drag and drop files but doesn't work when you use an intermediate program (like VantagePoint) or a communicating program (like Magellan Communicator), then I'd say the issue is with the program. Sorry I can't provide more help to the specific issue, since I never used VantagePoint and I always used PQs (instead of sending caches one at a time to the Magellan). But PQs might be the workaround until it's figured out!

I only loaded the geocache files. The file size was 1.108KB. Things are working. My problem is that fact that any direction supplied by Geospeak are written by someone who knows what they are doing and thus leaves out 90% of the information or refers to it by a TAB designation that no one has any idea where that tab night be. At least when you buy something from China you can figure out what they mean by "plug the thing into the thing and plug the other end of the thing into the thing" The complete instructions that came with my DVD. "Things are working" meaning you got the geocaches to show up in your Garmin? My latest PQ held 100 caches and was over 200KB. This makes me think that the file you are putting into your Garmin doesn't actually have any geocaches in it. I'm sorry if this is a frustrating experience. I'm doing my best to help you figure out what the issue is. Once you get your first PQ successfully submitted and put into your Garmin, all the others will seem easy and so convenient! Promise!

Did you copy both files or just one? Make sure you copy over both - if you just copied the waypoints file you won't find any geocaches on the Garmin. If you definitely copied the geocaches file, can you tell us how big that file is? I'm wondering if maybe there weren't any caches in the file itself. When you preview the PQ on the geocaching.com website, do you get caches that show up? Sometimes people run PQs with two filters selected that cancel each other out and produce no caches, for example, selecting caches "I have not found" and "I have found" means that the query is searching for caches that satisfy BOTH those requirements, which ends up producing no results. The best thing to do is to simply check a day for it to run and don't select anything else.

Did you unzip the file? You should end up with two GPX files, one for the geocaches and one for the waypoints. Both should go into the GPX folder on your Garmin.

+1 to Glimmereyes' response. Private, temporary caches can't be created through the site. I recommend creating "mock" cache pages with all the usual info that you can print out and give to the campers, and then just add the waypoints into the GPS units/smart phones.

Check your downloads folder. That tends to be the default folder for downloaded files. Or if you're using Firefox, you can go to Tools > Downloads and click on the file.

Are you sure you selected a day for it to run? Click on it in the query list, and then click "Wednesday" for the day for it to run. Scroll down to the bottom and submit it. It might take a few minutes, but after that it should show up in the ready for download tab.

If the Pocket Query actually ran, and since it's less than 500 caches, it will show up in your email as a zipped attachment. Download it, unzip it, and then either drag and drop the GPX files into the appropriate folder in your GPS unit or employ whatever sort of communication software you might use to do it. Alternatively, if you go to "Pocket Queries" in the dropdown menu, and then hit the tab for queries ready for download, it should also be listed as a file there. Download it, unzip it, and then upload them to your GPS unit.

Maybe you were thinking of the Geocaching Lexicon?

There are caches considered "Challenge Caches" (different from the now defunct "Geocaching Challenges"). These are specific caches that challenge you to try to achieve different things - and once you have achieved them, you can log a find on the cache. The 365-day streak is a common challenge, and yes, it requires actually finding (not just searching for) a cache every day. Some challenges involve filling in your entire D/T grid, or finding a cache hidden on every day of the year, or alphanumeric challenges with cache names or cache owners, or finding caches in a certain number of counties or states, etc. Check out the US Challenge Caches Bookmark Lists compiled by shell1fish. You can find ones in your state that you might want to work toward.