Night Stalker

I am not familiar with that model, but I use an Ipaq 3955. I have GPX View loaded on it. The size of my gpx files are 2 mb for 500 caches. I just drag and drop the file using active sync. each cache includes GC No. Cache Name, description, last 5 logs and the clues. This is a free piece of software, and is a bit slow to load.

You might also have to change some settings. Viewing street names is user chanageable to different zoom settings. Yours may be set at a really large zoom.

I would purchase City Navigator, and then access http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/ This site has free state topo maps that work well with your Garmin.

The first time you take it out you need to let it "cook". By that I mean you need to turn it on and set it down someplace for around 20 minutes so that it gets its current location and possibly gets the WAAS offset downloaded. This only needs to be done the first time.

Mapsource is loaded onto your computer. This software is mainly used when you pruchase additional mapping software so that you can select the areas you wish to send to your GPS. I would purchase a 2 gig card which is very cheap. When you decide to purchase mapping software you will have enough room for the entire US.

I used to be a strong believer that the shortest route was a straight line. I created a lot of 5 difficulty caches and lost my share of blood along the way. I now follow the trail. The find may not be nearly as interesting, but I come back with all my body parts in one piece.

I'm going to being up the olden days when we cached from covered wagons, but someone on the forums a few years ago checked this into out and listed the top 10 cachers in one day. I was number 10 with 26 finds. I remember that days well since we started before the sun came up and finished about 10 pm that night. Cache density was not even a term on the horizon at that point. We drove over 200 miles to find those 26 caches. In some ways caching was more fun back then, but not nearly as satisfying as today.

Mapsource came with my Garmin 60CX. Unless you bought a used one it should have come with yours also.

Check to make sure it has a tracking number on it though. The geocoins that I leave in caches are trade items and are meant to be collected.

I can verify the waterproof part for the 60csx, and I assume the 76. My 60 came out of its belt mount one day. bounced down a steep hillside and landed in a river. I am glad it did not float since the current would have carried it away. As it was, once I got to the river I saw my gps and its nice easily read screen (even under water). I retreived it and it is still working fine. As far as maps are concerned. This site has free high quality Topo maps for these units. http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps

Not sure what a Garmin 12 map is, but except for a few hacked maps you will need to pruchase the appropriate software from Garmin.

I can think of a couple of reasons for using the 60CSX. One is that it is truly waterproof. I know this for a fact since mine came out of its belt mount and ended up bouncing down a steep hill, hitting trees all the way down and landing in a river. When I got down to the spot where it landed I could see the bright color screen under the water. I retrieved it and it is still going strong. The screen is easy to see in all conditions. As described above it is very rugged. I have never used the Oregon, but friends who have state that you need the backlight to see the screen well, and I wouldn't throw and Oregon into a river to test whether it is truly waterproof.

I use my GPS in 2 stages. The first stage is using the map and turn by turn directions. I have a60CX and City Navigator so I am able to have my GPs route me to the closest parking place to the cache. At this point I recalculate off road and change to the compass. I try to see if this is the best parking spot, and if it is I start off cross country more or less following the compass. I say more or less because I have discovered the hard way that a straight line is not always the best way to a cache. I try and look for trails heading in the right direction and follow them as much as possible until I get really close.

I use EasyGps to send the Gpx file to my GPS. You can get this piece of software free through Groundspeak. It doesn't do anything fancy like GSAK, but it is easy. You open the file in EasyGPS and then send it to your GPS. It puts the files in as geocaches. I have a pda so I copy the GPX file into it and use GPX view to read the cache description, hints and the last five logs. I realize this takes to pieces of hardware, but since I already had the PDA I figure it will work good enough for me.

You should be able to load the maps onto a card. Which model of Oregon did you get?

I am not familiar with the model you have, but Garmin's in general are restricted to Garmin maps. If you have a GPS for vehicle use, I think they only work if you have the maps preloaded onto a memory card. If you can load your own there is one map sources that is free and will work for topo maps. It is http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps These are high quality state topo maps.

Until recently you could pick up at 30 cal ammo can at the local Army Surplus to 2.50, but I noticed last week when I was in there that the price had jumped to $5. This is still a pretty good deal compared to some of the other places that stock them.

There was a cache that a local cacher had hidden that I spent at least 6 months trying to find. Since I worked out of town I could only look for it on weekends. By the time I finally found it, it was time for snow to fall. I said many unrepeatable words about this darn thing, and like several above, when I did find it all I could say was DUH.

You have a lot of choices with a $300 dollar budget. I see a refurbished Garmin 60CX on ebay for $227. This unit is the one I use. You can purchase 2 gig memory card for under $20. When you have more money or the need you can purchase city Navigator NT North America. The cost is around $120, and is not required for geocaching, but is really handy since it will give you turn by turn directions for an awful lot of things including getting to the closest road to where the cache is. The CX and CSX series has a Sirf III chip which greatly improves reception under difficult conditions. If you do not wish to spend that much money you might want to look at other Garmin handheld GPS's such as the Legend HCX I saw on Ebay for $162. It also has expandable memory and will allow you to download City Navigator. If you decide to purchase one of these Garmins you can access this site. www.gpsfiledepot/maps This site had free Topographical maps for most states that can be downloaded onto these GPS's.

I am cheap. Since the OP has a pocket PC he could use my cheap way. I installed GPX view on my pocket PC. This is a piece of software that lets you read GPX files. It has little or no editing abilities other than being able to sort from the closest to the farthest away. All you need to do at this point is drag the GPX file from your pocket query onto your Pocket PC. You will need to unzip the file first if you receive your pocket queries zipped. You will be abe to read the cache page , the last 5 logs and the hint if you wish. This is free so you can;t get much cheaper than that.

You will need to connect your Oregon to your computer and have it turned on before you can see it as one of the drives in My Computer.

Since this unit will auto route you may want to purchase a memory card. 2 Gig max, and City Navigator. This will allow you to download detailed street maps for the US and give you the ability to get turn by turn directions. This can be very helpful for geocaching since you can have the GPS auto route you to the closest parking spot to the cache. This is not always the easiest way to get to a cache, but will get you into the area a lot quicker than figuring it out yourself. It also is nice since when you are done caching you can have it route you to a restaurant. I use my GPS for vacations as well.

You could try this site. http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps These are free 24 k maps. I have the Idaho maps loaded on my GPs and they are pretty good.

I was lucky enough to have Renegade Knight around to help me learn the ins and outs when I started so I didn't have to ask that question.

If they are the Garmin Topo maps they should work. There is no licensing fees for the Topo maps.