cliptwings

If it works for you, why change? The only reason I would use BaseCamp (or MapSource) would be to load portions of the map. In BaseCamp, you can pick specific regions to upload to your GPSr, versus uploading the entire .img file. This would be of value if you had a limited memory in your GPSr. But since you can use your Etrex 20's memory card to store maps, that wouldn't be an issue. Actually, I've heard it's a good idea to use the memory card to store maps versus the GPSr internal memory in case the uploaded map gets corrupted somehow. Your GPSr might not boot up if the corrupted file is internal. If the corrupt file is on the memory card, just remove the card to boot up the GPSr.

I still use MapSource, and I just upgraded to a new PC running Win 10 as well. I know Garmin doesn't recommend using it anymore, but I have not had a problem loading new Garmin maps, OSM maps, geocaches, and GPS tracks. I hate BaseCamp as well. I guess I'm not willing to learn the new system if the old one is still working for me. If you like MapSource, why not give it a try? The worst that could happen is it locks up or crashes, and you can uninstall it. But that hasn't happened to me. If you don't have the MapSource program anymore, you can go to gpsfiledepot.com and search for "mapsource" for directions to download it and update it.

I have an etrex 10 and use maps from the following site: http://www.gmaptool.eu/en/content/maps-garmin-fenix They are not topo maps, and are very primitive "stick figure" road maps, but they are very accurate and include trails. I initially downloaded them for my Garmin fenix watch, but they work well on the etrex 10 and don't use up very much memory. Therefore, you can upload a lot more area onto the GPSr. If you try this, there is one thing to remember. For the detailed maps to show up on the etrex, you must replace the base map (gmapbmap) file with the new detailed map file and change the name to gmapbmap.img. Works great for me!

It was a sad day for me. I returned my Touch 25 to REI after five months of frustration with numerous software glitches. I really wanted to like this unit. It was accurate, light, easy to use, and had a great touch screen (sometimes). But after several updates, Garmin has yet to fix several problems. Never got CHIRP to work, the touch screen intermittantly became insensitive, and going from map mode to geocaching menu froze up the machine. These things happened to both units I got from REI, so I'm pretty sure it's a software problem. And yes, I reported these issues to Garmin. I never used the filter menu, so I don't know if that was a problem on my machine too. Perhaps I'll come back to it in a year or so, but for now it's time to go back to a more mature system, the Dakota 20.

Howdy! I'm a proud, if somewhat frustrated owner of a touch 25, and I too experience an unresponsive screen at times. This is my second unit, bought from REI, and it still happens intermittantly. Another bug which drives me "CRAZY" happens when going from map mode to geocaching menu (description, logs, hint, etc) and back again. After looking at the logs and hint of the geocache I'm navigating to, I try to return to map mode by selecting the circular arrow in the bottom left corner. Sometimes it works, but then sometimes it returns to the geocaching menu. In that case, the only way to get to the map screen again is to recycle the power. These two quirks happened in both the units I bought, so I'm pretty sure it's a software bug issue. I've reported both bugs to Garmin, but I'm sure it will take a while to see an update fix. It's a great little caching machine, so I'm going to wait for more updates to the software.

Ah yes, GSAK! I have and use GSAK all the time. I just never thought of using it to filter cache owners. Thanks for the great idea!

I've researched this question and cannot find an answer, so I ask you folks who are smarter than I am. I know the process of placing an "ignore" filter on caches you don't want to see or download in a PQ, but is there a way to do this for ALL of a particular CO's caches? The reason I ask is because I am becoming increasingly frustrated with one CO in my area who has published hundreds (and I MEAN hundreds) of caches which are exceedingly difficult for me to find, plus other reasons I won't go into. Rather than look at this huge clump of unfound caches on my geocaching map, I would rather delete them from my view. I could, of course, delete them individually, but the process would take hours. Any ideas?

January is a great time to visit Tucson, and Tucson is a great place for geocaching! I live in the northwest area, but you will find a plethora of caches throughout Southeast Arizona. You say you are interested in mines, old buildings, and windmills. Well, I don't remember any windmills around here, but there are plenty of old buildings. There are many abandoned mines as well, but most are dangerous and should not be explored. You might google for ghost towns near Tucson. I remember a couple Southeast of Tucson off Interstate 10 that have some great stories. The mountains surrounding Tucson have wonderful and secluded trails as well as geocaches. The Tucson Mountains to the west are beautiful, and the Santa Catalina Mountains to the North have my favorite trails. The Santa Rita mountains to the South have great trails too, and the area is well known for bird watching. There are no BLM lands around Tucson, but be aware of State Trust lands that are primarily used for cattle grazing that you must have a permit to explore. In my neck of the woods (NW Tucson), there is a fellow nicknamed "Likinhikn" who has just about monopolized Catalina State Park. His caches are always well-received, and he has hundreds of them! Catalina State Park is my favorite place to cache, hike, and run because of the beautiful scenery and wide open spaces. I hope this gives you short overview of geocaching Tucson. Be sure to visit the Desert Museum and the Pima Air Museum when you're out here. These are the two places I take everyone who comes to town.

I went to garmin.com and compared the specs on the two. It seems the Legend has the edge. It has 8mb of storage versus 1mb of storage for the venture. This is important when you are loading lots of geocaches at once. Also, the Legend has a basemap that you can also add to. The Venture has no map at all. Just remember, these units are 2 or 3 generations old. They'll work just fine for your purposes, though. You'll need to manually enter coordinates and you won't have hints and descriptions on the GPS like on newer models. If you increase your budget to $50-$60, you might be able to find a used Etrex 10 on Ebay or Craigslist. The Etrex 10 is a great starter GPS, and it uses a standard USB cord to connect to your computer to automatically download geocache coordinates, hints, descriptions, and logs. Another alternative is the Magellan GC, which has good maps already loaded. Welcome to the club!

Thanks for the response, Red. Yup, it's got Chirp. If you go to garmin.com and look at compatible devices for the Chirp, the Touch 25 is one of them. Plus, Chirp is one of the menu items in geocaching setup. As far as the corrupt caches, I thought this was a problem too, so I loaded a few different ones and had the same result. I fixed the issue with a bad geocaching dashboard by reloading the update. That function works fine now.

Yeah, I know, NEVER buy a new car it's first year out, and NEVER, EVER buy a new GPSr until the kinks are engineered out. Well, I still love my stupid car, and I really like my new Etrex Touch 25. But the glitches are really annoying! I've documented three of them with Garmin, but troubleshooting didn't help. I wanted to see if anyone else is going through the same thing. I'm on my second unit (God Bless REI), but the new one acts the same as the original. First, when in the geocaching map screen, I touch the dashboard to get to the description, logs, hint, etc. That's all good, but when I touch the arrow to go back to the map screen, it slowly slides back to the description, log, hint screen, and the only way to get out of it is to turn it off and then on. Second, it won't find Chirp transmitters. Tried several, including one of my own, and all it shows is "Searching..." Third, When I upgraded the software from 2.6 to 2.7, the geocaching dashboard on the map screen disappears when I start navigating to a cache. Data is not corrupted. Just wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing these or other glitches.

I read Pacific NW's review here and was convinced that I needed this new toy. After returning from REI with a Touch 25 (the only model in stock), I commenced fiddling around with it. So far, I am very impressed. You may consider this a new and improved version of the Dakota series, or a smaller version of the Oregon series. I like the ability to select different profiles with a single swipe. The display is smaller than my Oregon 600, but also a heck of a lot lighter to carry around my neck. I have no problem (even with my old eyes) seeing the map display or reading text. As far as the annoying "pop up" menu mentioned above, I think I found a way to get rid of it. Here's what I did: I selected the "3 bar" menu at initial start up, then I selected "tracks." In the tracks menu, there's a selection for "Auto Start." Turn that on, and the GPSr will start tracking automatically when you start the GPSr (just like all previous Garmins). So now it won't constantly pop up a menu to ask if you want to start tracking. Another nifty feature I discovered is found on the map screen. It prevents accidental "touches" when the GPSr is bouncing around on your neck or while you're holding it. It's an icon that looks like a solid circle surrounded by four direction arrows. Pressing this icon permits you to "swipe" or move the map. On my Oregon 600, I accidentally set new waypoints all the time without this feature! I have no buyer's remorse. I love this little unit! In fact, I've got a couple of new listings on Ebay for GPSr's replaced by the Touch 25. It's small size, light weight, and generous features make it a great buy for geocaching, hiking, and biking. Just my two cents.

Wow, you've really got some frustration going on there. It might help the forum to know exactly what model etrex you have. There are several: The basic yellow etrex, etrex legend, etrex 10, etrex 20, etrex 30 to name a few. Once we know what you have, we can share our experience with them. Just to let you know, any etrex model does a pretty good job getting you to the cache, but it can be a steep learning curve if you're just switching from a phone to a dedicated GPSr. Tell us what model you have, and what your experience is, and you will get help from many people here.

As far as GPS watches go, I use a Garmin fenix for running and occasional caching. Although it is very capable and accurate, it has a very small display for viewing and navigating to geocaches. Plus, it's pretty expensive at over $200US. I would recommend the etrex 20. It's fairly cheap, reliable, accurate, and has a good display.

I would add openmapchest.org to the list. There you can download (via torrent) the entire US or many other countries in routable Open Street Maps. Works great for me!

I hope you haven't elliminated the fenix from your choices! I've owned the original fenix for over a year and really love it. It's amazing to me that Garmin can pack in all that capability into a wearable item. I use it daily as my standard watch, and it's great for jogging. As far as geocaching, it's a pretty good "minimalist" GPSr. I usually start with a run, then when I get close to a cache, I change the profile to geocaching and go for the cache. Then I change the profile back to running and go back home. The paperless functions (description, logs, hints) take a little while to load up, but they are still quite usable. No, I don't work for Garmin. I just like the product.

How about Topofusion? I use it for such things as you mentioned.

Wow, no responses and 71 views since 22 Feb! Anyway, I used to own an Explorist 400, similar to yours. I remember there being an adjustment to the display having to do with contrast. All of the black and white LCD screens have this. I don't remember the exact menu (the 400 is long gone!) but if you can get to "settings" and "display," I'll bet there's a selection there for brightness. It's worth a shot if you haven't tried it already! Good luck and go Garmin next time!

I think you answered your own question in the second paragraph. I have an Oregon 600 too, and I have discovered that it will not display geocaches outside some specific distance from your present location. I'll bet if you loaded up a PQ from your Texas location, it would work like a charm. If it doesn't work, you might hook up your Oregon to your PC and check to make sure the PQ is unzipped and placed in the correct folder in the GPS. It should be in the "GPX" folder, inside the "Garmin" folder. If you're using a memory card to store your caches (a good idea in my opinion), caches should be stored in the GPX folder, which should be located in the Garmin folder. I hope this helps you more than confuses you.

Yup. Got the original Fenix and wear it as a full-time watch. I use it for time keeping, hiking, running, and geocaching. It's a great watch, with about 2 week's worth of battery if you use it only as a watch. Once you turn on the GPS, battery capacity goes down, but lasts me at least all day for hiking or geocaching. As far as your question about geocaching, I find the only limitation of the watch is the small display. But the advantages are many. First, I always have my local geocaches loaded (about 200 at a time) and can go caching at a moments notice. Second, it has all the accuracy and sensitivity that my Oregon 600 has. Third, it displays cache hints, descriptions and clues, just like the big boys do. Finally, you CAN load up simple, detailed maps that you can actually use to navigate. I don't have the website in mind, but if you search for "fenix maps" in this forum, you will find the source. To me, it's amazing how much capability Garmin stuffed into such a small container. Hope you enjoy the watch!

Try topofusion.com, or google MOBAC. I use these to generate .kml and .kmz files.

This is still a good GPSr for geocaching, but it does not provide paperless geocaching functions such as description, logs, and hints very easily. But it has a great color display that you can add free maps to. You just need to do a little homework by reading the owner's manual. Good luck.

I, too recommend the Oregon over the Magellan. I own the Explorist 510 and the Oregon 600, units similar to those you are looking at. I would say the biggest advantage of the Oregon is it's clear, bright screen in sunlight. There are other advantages too, such as a tougher screen, much better battery life, easier to use menus, and better free maps available. I have had minimal problems with the Oregon. It locks up once in a while, but it starts right up again. My 510 eats batteries like candy, and the display is difficult to read without the backlight. These are just my opinions, so I hope you can get some more input. Good luck!

Yes, the Fenix is a wristwatch. Refer to Garmin.com for more info on the GPSr, but the website I posted has better screenshots of the maps and watch than I could ever take.

I just purchased a refurbished Garmin Fenix on ebay, and I love it! When I'm on a trip and want to save weight and room, it replaces my regular watch, my fitness watch, hiking GPS, and geocaching GPS. The only thing I found lacking is the basemap. It's an excusable detriment because the GPSr screen is so small and the processor isn't meant to support full blown mapping. However, while surfing "Bing" yesterday, I came across the following website: http://www.gmaptool.eu/en/content/maps-garmin-fenix It's a Polish site that has taken the worldwide Open Street Map (OSM) data and simplified it enough to fit a good chunk of street maps on my Fenix. I downloaded the Western segment (for free), and loaded up an area between Phoenix and the Mexican border that took up only 11mb on my Fenix. I tried it out this morning on a run, and it works great! Streets display as sticks and there is very little detail, but it serves the purpose well. So for those of you who are looking for a better basemap for your Fenix/Fenix2/Tactix, I think this site is worth a look. I found no viruses or other bad stuff in the download.