5lakes

I'm hoping for late June for the trip, although we still have one uncommitted person that we'll have to try to work in. Late summer definitely won't work and mid to end of July could work, but may take a couple of people out. Since we're still in the planning stage, is there a time frame that would/would not work for you? We want to make sure we take as much into the major planning session in a couple of weeks. I joined a geocaching list specific to the Black Hills and they are providing some great info, also. South Dakota Rocks!

Greetings! Thanx Tahosa and Sons. Actually, Colorado was considered, but fuel is a factor and we're in Minnesota. The expense would be too great. I've been there a couple of times. It's a great place and I love it. Actually, it's on my list of places to retire to. Team5150: Thanx for the info. Our troop has been to Medicine Mountain twice. We spent some time checking out the area with a visit to a fantastic museum in Rapid City. We will check out the book. The Scouts that will be going haven't been in the area as a part of Scouts, but most have been there with family. Is there a possibility that you would like to join us for a cache or two? Having a guide on something as challenging as we can find would be much appreciated. I'm not sure of a time frame, yet.

Greetings! I was a Cub Scout for a about a year. We didn't have a troop where we lived, so no Boy Scouts for me. Later, I was asked to be Scoutmaster for a troop that was having problems keeping things going. Did that for eight years, then took on ASM since my time was getting squeezed with other responsibilities. I've been ASM for the troop for six years. Scouting wimpy? Not around here. We've been on a weeklong cavalcade (horseback trip at Philmont), several Boundary Waters canoe trips, two trips to Florida to swim with sharks, etc., at the Sea Base. We're planning on a weeklong geocaching/ghost town exploring trip to South Dakota for this coming summer. There is a thread asking for help with ideas for that, but not much help, so far. I introduced geocaching to our troop last year. We're having a lot of fun. I've seen Scouting change the lives of boys and young men. Scouting can be challenging, but only if you want to be challenged. It's fun, if you want to have fun. It's all about attitude.

Greetings! Background: Boy Scouts are tired of the same old thing at summer camp. I've introduced them to geocaching and using our GPSrs for other things. Actually, the new requirements for Camping merit badge require the use of a GPSr (or at least the knowledge to use one). Tonight, they used them to "race around the world". Some of our Scouts have been to Florida to camp on an uninhabited, unimproved island for a week, been to Philmont, Boundary Waters, winter camping in snow shelters, and other assorted, now seemingly boring high adventure things. This is all well and good. Challenging, yes. Fun, absolutely. They now want to plan their own summer trip. What we've discussed is a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We're not interested in easy caches. We want challenges. Something like taking an entire day to find a single, hard to get to, yet rewarding cache/view. Along the way, we would like to find a ghost town or two. Throw in some Native American history of the area and we'll have the trip of a lifetime. Physical fitness is not a problem, as all the the Scouts are very active in sports, mostly track and cross country, including a state champion runner. All of them are also Honor or High Honor students for grades in school. Minimum age is 14. The adults are also in good shape. Support vehicles are a Suburban and 4WD pickup to avoid having a trailer. Both vehicles have been rock crawling and live for Minnesota snow. Primitive camping would be most enjoyable. We are looking at spending six or seven days in the Black Hills area and will not be limited to camping in the same place every night. The trip will happen during the summer of 2007. This will NOT be an "educational" trip. This is purely to enjoy the sport of geocaching at it's most primitive. The learning comes from the quality of the caches we will hunt. So, now we are looking for ideas to fill out the trip. Any favorite chaches with a rating of AT LEAST 3/3? Any ghost towns that have something to admire? Special events in Native American history, prior to the arrival of the rest of the world? Oh, I would be remiss to not mention that a water park would be a welcome stop. I will keep this thread updated as our plans come together and hopefully provide an "after action review". Many thanx for any help. Jerry AKA 5lakes

Mine does the same thing. Sometimes it does, sometimes it's sold black. The lines are almost always a different pattern. My first one did it with just lines on right hand side, the new one does it with lines all over. Another annoying thing to look for... Go to the NAV screen that shows the little battery in the right hand corner and turn the backlight on, if you look at the battery where the screen's really dark sometimes you can see spacing between the pixels. It looks like cat scratches. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. To me, it looks like a huge tic tac toe board. I'm sure what I'm seeing is just the normal spacing between the pixels. Low resolution. Funny, though, is that right now, inside my house, it's able to track four sats.

Just out of curiosity, I just turned mine on/off three times. Twice it did it, third time, no. I did have it running earlier at our Scout meeting. Maybe being warmed up as an effect?

Greetings! I have an Explorist 210 that does the same thing. I've never noticed any degradation of the screen, though. I just figured it's a part of the startup testing the screen or something. If anyone knows what it is, I'd sure be interested in hearing about it. Our Boy Scout troop decided tonight on purchasing three Explorist 210s. Our Scouts are having a great time with mine and we need more for our own program and to find chaches at summer camp. Knowing more about this would make me feel better about going ahead with the purchase. 5Lakes

Thanx. I guess I just didn't dig deep enough.

Well, I don't consider it a dumb question, nor do I think you're dumb. My point is that I had the same problem. I solved it by dumping EasyGPS and using GSAK. Once I had GSAK open, I was thinking that I should have tried it first. Granted, after 21 days you'll have to pay for it to use it effectively, but it beats EasyGPS for the Explorist 210. You'll still have to send the data through Magellan's software to your 210. But managing the data from gc.com is (to me) much easier in GSAK. Forgot to mention that GSAK will save your data as a .gpx file. Magellan's Geocache Manager will understand that file.

After doing as much research as I could (including scouring the forum here), I bought a Magellan Explorist 210. I felt that it fit my needs best. Granted, with gobs of money, I might have bought something different, but.... The only problem I have is that the more I use it, the more questions I have about how to get it to do things I hadn't thought of. I do some searching and there's no real source of good, detailed info specifically for the 210. Lots of reviews that tout the company line, but I want more, real world, type information. For example, when I bought the 210, it was bundled with MapSend Topo 3D USA software. I thought this was really cool. Then reality hit me with a brick. I hooked everything up and the software wouldn't recognize my GPSr. I was a bit miffed. I went to Magellan's web site and it says that this software does not support the 210 and vice/versa. Now, I was a lot miffed. Why bundle hardware and software that won't support each other? I'm not sure if I was more upset with Magellan for the mismatch or myself for not seeing it before. Well, having worked with computers for more years than I care to count, I decided that I would not be defeated. They put the two together, so I was going to find out how to make them work together. More searching, let down time and again. Then.... I found one web site with a solution. I can't find it now, and I freely admit that the solution is not mine. I just don't know who to credit. When you have MapSend Topo 3D USA open and want to transfer the map you've selected to your 210, select "Save to hard drive". It will then ask for the serial number of the GPSr the map is being created for. Enter the serial number for your 210 BUT drop the FIRST and LAST digits! MapSend (the version that was bundled with my 210, anyway) will extract the map you've selected and create a file that the 210 can use. Now, you have the map you want from MapSend and you will need to use the Magellan Conversion Manager to send the map to your 210. OK, so now I'm almost happy. I got the software bundled with my 210 to work with it. I was able to find a way to get the two to do what I read was not possible. Why am I not completely happy? I want MORE! I want a more detailed map. I want an easy way to get it into my 210. I want my 210 to wash the dishes when I take it camping.... Well, OK, I might be a tad unrealistic with SOME of my expectations. So, is there somewhere in the great bit bucket in the sky a real FAQ that can answer these kinds of questions that is specifically devoted to the 210? If there is, could someone let me know where? If not, would anyone be interested in seeing/helping to develop one? If I/we develop this FAQ, I/we would need a site to host it. I'd be willing to take the questions/answers and make the FAQ and do as much research as I can to answer questions. I'm not above doing a hard reset if I screw something up. Anyone out there think this would be a good thing? Anyone willing to help? Thanx Jerry AKA 5Lakes