gcfishguy

Thanks folks....I had heard that the 'newer models' had some lockups and so on...and I had also heard of some that bought a newer model and then wished they had their 60 back... Just couldn't remember what ones they had bought... And I was surprised to see it listed as discontinued...it's only been out for a couple years, hasn't it? My 60 (like all them, I guess) runs like a champ and I can't find any fault with it, except it would be nice to have a bigger screen at times. I think I'll try to get my 'new gadget fix' elsewhere...hehe *Edit - Wow, reading that comparison, it looks like they really missed the boat on a lot of stuff. Aside from the visual aspect of the maps, there's nothing (that I use or want) that it does that the 60 doesn't....and in a LOT of cases, very nice features of the 60 were dropped on the Colorado....

Hey folks...thanks for the info in advance. I have a 60CSx that I got for a steal, one day old. And no, not stolen, etc. Someone bought it, wasn't what they needed and returning it wasn't an option. Anyway, I nabbed it for a great price. Was opened the night before. I've been using it for a couple years, and am getting the bug to upgrade. I can get a gently-used Colorada 300 for a good price. I'd like 'prettier' maps, and a larger screen as I find I'm using it in the car more and more. I don't care what maps come with what unit, I have the maps already, I'm just curious if I'll regret changing to the 300. My 60CSx is essentially paperless (pull down my PQs, export them with GSAK as a GPX (with the name tweaked to show the type, container, etc) , use POI loader to send the 4000(ish) caches as POIs, with all the details I need. I don;t do puzzles and multi's so I usually have no need of the cache description... Anyway, anyone have any huge peeves about the Colorado 300? Had one, hate it....? Have one, love it? If you have used the 60CSx and the Colorado 300, I'd love to hear what you think of them compared to each other. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like someone else said, don't let the quality of swag discourage you. We've all found caches that had been reduced to a trash can. Some of it is because newbies find it and take stuff, not knowing they're supposed to trade (or trade up), and a lot of it is just human nature (unfortunately). The vast majority of caches start out great, but eventually they're reduced to a paper clip and a "toot" from a Christmas cracker. (Words I've never used, but I know exactly what you mean...my parents ALWAYS had crackers at Christmas....thanks for reminding me of that...I think I still have a scar where a little plastic 'toot' hit me) Anyway...I was big on swag when caching with my daughter...she loved finding stuff and leaving good stuff for the next child to find. Now my daughter has found way cooler things to interest her...so I just sign the log, read a few entries and write my note and away I go. Now, I often will re-stock a cache that's looking crappy. I hit my employer up for swag (a phone company) and explained what it was for, and how it would travel around and change owners. Well, they jumped at free advertising like that, and sent me a BIG BOX of all sorts of little promo items, the stuff you would collect at trade shows. (keychains, 4" frisbees, little lawn chairs that unfold and sit on your desk as a cell phone holder, keychain compasses, and that sort of stuff). Nothing that's worth anything, but the sort of stuff that kids like. i rarely trade now but if i find a cache in a good spot that's getting lean, it will get a bunch of my stuff dumped into it. I say 'good spot' because if a cache is in a high muggle area, I'm not wasting good swag on it, for it to be muggled the next day. Some people get off on the 'stealthy' stuff, I don't. If I'm going to be seen and questioned, or if the cache will be muggled after I leave, I just don't bother with it. But again, that's just me. Anyway....it would be nice if more people carried re-stocking swag. A lot do, though.. And most cache owners will run right out and re-stock one of their caches if they're sent a note and advised that it's getting bad.

There's not really an easy answer... I will say that spending some time to dig around and read and figure out how to set up and use Pocket Queries is WELL WELL WELL worth your time and effort. In a nutshell, you set up one or more queries that creates a list of caches based on the criteria you select. (distance from home, micros, no micros, only regular sized caches, etc..) Each Pocket Query you create and save will be emailed to you on the day you set it to run. It will come in the form of a .gpx file. Your 'caching software of choice' will open that GPX file and then display the contents of it. You can then load all those caches and other tidbits (cache name, hints, etc) onto your GPS. A little work reading and figuring it out will save you TONS of time in the long run. I'll give you an example... You can search for caches with the site and pick and choose and send them to your GPS one by one if you want. But...you will find yourself in an area that you want to cache, but cannot because you have no caches loaded on your GPS for that area. By doing some reading and a bit of trial and error, i set up 9 pocket queries. Those 9 pocket queries contain each and every cache in my province (around 4300). I excluded micros because I cache in the woods mostly. In about 5 minutes I can sit down at my PC, saved those 9 PQ's from my email into a folder, have GSAK load those 9 files. That updates my list with any new caches that have been placed since I last updated it. A take another minute or so and clean out any archived caches. I then export that list as one big GPX file, run it through the Garmin POI loader and it pushes all 4300 caches to my GPS as POIs. That way, I'm able to cache where ever I happen to find myself when I go out fishing, jeeping, etc. It's nice because you can make it as simple and easy or as in-depth as you like. I wanted to have all those caches available to me, so I read forums until I found a way to do it. if you only want to load the dozen or so caches that you plan to hunt for, then do that. Not to be mean, but the best thing is to read, and experiment. It's next to impossible for someone to say "Do this, then do that, and presto!" But, again, in a nutshell....figure out what your criteria for your caches will be (distance from home, size of container, etc), set up a couple PQs and go from there. Take the GPX files you get, and open them with whatever program you choose, and then send them to the GPS. Sorry, I'm talking in circles, but it IS really tricky to someone how to do it, because everybody is looking for a bit different result...

I have a 60CSx and I rarely use the compass. My other 3 GPSr's didn't have that feature, so I just never used it. So far I haven't found the need for it, although I do understand what its purpose is. How it works - While you move, the GPSr looks at where you are, and compares that with where you just were. That's how it determines where you're going and what direction you're facing. When you go very slow, or stop, or turn around and walk the other way, it will get 'confused' and not be able to use the 'where you are now' and 'where you were a second ago' to give you an accurate indication of where you're going, or in what direction the waypoint you'll looking for actually is. The electronic compass will assist it in those confusing situations..it still had a point of reference (North) and uses the data from the compass to try and help you going in the right direction. Aside from that, it also acts as...a compass. It came with the steal of a deal I got on the 60CSx, so I have it. If I had to pay extra to get the compass, I wouldn't. If I ever need a compass, I have a Sylva Ranger that's always in my pack, and as a backup, I have a cheapie lensatic compass in my sealed 'emergency' kit in my pack. The compass would be handy for shooting a bearing and such, but (IMO) should never be relied on as a way to get you out of the woods. If your GPS fails, so does your compass.... I had asked a question about the 60CSx compass on here and got some good info, including the fact that there are actually sight marks built into the case of my 60... Hold it like you would hold a compass to sight with, and you can see the marks. Neat...but, for anything that requires a compass, I will use a compass since I always have one with me. As should everyone...and they should make a mental note of which way they're going into the woods before they leave the car, and in what direction roads run, so when they do find themselves lost, they can pull out the compass and by walking in the direction opposite to what they walked to get in, they'll get out... Sorry to preach, but sooo many people could just 'walk back out' if they carried a $10 compass and made a note of which cardinal direction they walked when they left the car. *Note, I'm sure the "How it works" part is dumbed way down, and that lots of people could expand on it, but that's the jist of it....

Wadcutter was referring to www.geocaching.com.... You'll learn, geocachers love abbreviations and acronyms... Good luck, and keep at it.

If I remember right, Chrysalides was a big help when I was trying to jam more info into my GPS, so I could use it to cache paperlessly. (60CSx...but I believe the Legend will do exactly the same thing) Like Chrysalides said, you can fiddle around with how GSAK names things. Building on that, I experimented with different naming conventions for the fields, and then export the GPX from GSAK rather than sending it to the GPS. Then I use Garmin's POI loader, and it grabs the GPX file and exports it to my GPS. The great thing about doing it that way, is that the caches are pushed up as POI's, not waypoints. That lets me keep my waypoints free for waypoints. I'm not into puzzle caches, so I rarely ever run into a cache that I need more info than I have on the GPS. (I cache mainly in the woods...so very few urban micros and stuff. Most caches I hit will be an ammo can or a PB jar in the woods...no need to have to have a big, long description for that) Some people think that the way I do it is way too much work, but it actually takes very little time, and I have all my unfound caches in my province on my GPS when I head out hiking or jeeping. (About 5000 of them) I used to try to figure out where I might be headed, run a few filters to have GSAK export the caches within a certain distance from where I thought I'd be, etc etc. More work in the long run, and my waypoints were always cluttered up with caches, and when we met to hit the trails, the plans may have changed and we went in the opposite area, and there I was with no caches on the GPS So, get your PQ's, feed them into GSAK, delete the old ones that have gone inactive, export a GPX, run the POI loader and push it to the GPS. Easy-Peasy. AND, when you select a POI on the screen, you have a 'save' option at the bottom. Once I find the POI (cache), I click on it again, hit 'save' and it saves a copy of the POI as a waypoint. When I get home, any caches I found are in my waypoints list as treasure chests, with the date and time I found them. Here's the 2 things you need to condense the info when you export the GPX from GSAK: Waypoint Name %drop2 %typ1%con1 %dif1%ter1 Cache Description Format : %Name %datelf %last4 %hint The first one generates the POI's name (that you'll see on your map screen on the GPS). drop2 just removes the GC from the name. typ1 just gives the first initial of the type. (Ex, Traditional) con1 gives the container (R for regular, S for small, M for Micro, etc) diff and ter are the terrain and difficulty So, on the map screen or POI list, you would see a name like: "QZ55 TR 22" Right away I can see that it's a Traditional cache, a Regular sized container, with a diff and terrain rating of 2 and 2 (thereabouts...). Hitting Enter on that waypoint takes me to the Description of the POI (What's built with the 2nd formula above) Name gives the friendly name (most of it) datelf tells me the date that it was last found. last 4 tells me the status of the last 4 logs (FFNF = found, found, not found, found) Handy to know if it's been muggled, etc. hint shows me the hint, decoded. (Or most of the hint, anyway) It sounds complicated, but if you have your PQ's loaded into GSAK, it's easy to export a GPX and load that with the POI loader instead of just loading them to the GPS with GSAK. And like I said, it keeps your waypoints free for waypoints, and there's no limit to the amount of POIs you can load. Well, you're only limited by your memory card, and even my 5000 caches takes a few KB. Any GPS with a memory card will likely have room for literally millions of caches exported as POI's. Search around and you'll find the list of GSAK commands you can use, if you don;t like the ones I use. I experimented and those fields are the ones that I found to give me the info I needed. Some people like different ones. And, I certainly didn't dream this procedure up myself, I'm just passing it along. It involved a lot of reading and research. And it works, very nicely. Oh, just don't enable the proximity alarms in the POI loader. I did the other weekend, thinking "hey, that'll be cool...it'll let me know when I'm driving by a cache..." Yes, it did, but it looks like enabling the proximity alarms removes ALL the info in the description area of the POI.

I jeep with my local club, and we're out just about every Sunday. I usually hang near the back so I don't block anyone and will just say 'Geocache' on the CB. :-) If it's a well-known trail, they'll keep going, but slow so I can catch up. Sometimes they'll all stop and a bunch will jump out...now they follow me off the trail and try to find it before I do. A few weeks ago we just started into a trail and someone on the CB says "So Andrew, are there any of those...'things' on this trail?" Given the amount of jeeps in the thread in the previous post, there must be some in your area. I'm ...well, NOT in your area. ;-)

I jeep with my local club, and we're out just about every Sunday. I usually hang near the back so I don't block anyone and will just say 'Geocache' on the CB. :-) If it's a well-known trail, they'll keep going, but slow so I can catch up. Sometimes they'll all stop and a bunch will jump out...now they follow me off the trail and try to find it before I do. A few weeks ago we just started into a trail and someone on the CB says "So Andrew, are there any of those...'things' on this trail?" Given the amount of jeeps in the thread in the previous post, there must be some in your area. I'm ...well, NOT in your area. ;-)

Another vote for the 60csx!! I started with an eTrex 'Yellow', then a Venture, then a Legend HCX, and now a 60csx. I run completely paperless. Load my PQ's into GSAK, export a GPX with a few tags to edit the name and description, and use Garmin's POI tool to load them as POIs. Sound hard, yes. But it's not...at all. There's around 4500 caches in my province, and when I leave the house, I don't always know what direction I'll be heading in. (out jeeping with friends, or with the local Jeep club). This way I have all the caches in my province on my GPS at any time...along with the GC number, the terrain, difficulty, the cache name, short description and the hint. Since they're POIs, I can also set a proximity alarm for them (easy as one checkmark and setting a distance value...then it applies that to all the POIs I load)....so if I'm not looking at the GPS, I'll be alerted if I drive within a preset distance of a cache. And, they are POIs so they don't take up any waypoint slots...so I keep my personal waypoints as waypoints, and the caches as POIs. Also, when you find a cache, you just click on the POI on the screen, and hit 'save' and it saves a copy of that POI as a waypoint.... I come home, and any caches I found that day are in my waypoints. Super easy. And I never need a palm or print-outs, etc. *Yes, the fields for data about a POI can be limited, but it hasn't really been an issue. It does take a bit of learning, but for me, the software, hardware and what you can do with them is half the fun of geocaching. :-) Note - a Legend HCX will do almost everything that a 60CSX will do, but I prefer the form factor of the 60 and the larger screen, the external antenna, and so on.

Also - The Maritime Geocaching Association The Atlantic Canada Geocaching Association

On the menu screen, select "Tracks". You can clear the track log, and shut off tracks from there. But yes...it may save your bacon one day if you get turned around and can't remember which way is out.

25....! My guess is you figured it out. :-) I did the same thing when I looked for my first micro. I'd found a couple peanut butter jars in the woods, etc, and went to get a micro that was just around the corner from me. Well, on my 3rd visit, I finally found the darned thing. I even emailed the cache owner and suggested maybe it was gone. They took a swing by, nope, still there. I'd open the cache page up and see new logs. "easy find..." "Spotted this one before I got out of the car..." AGHHHH! Anyway, the reason I had such a hard time finding it was because I (like you) went at it too quick and never actually figured out what I was looking for, or how to look. I just looked, for...something. Once you have a bunch under your belt (and you have 25 so far) you'll start to 'think' like a geocache, and the finding will become much easier. And you have to remember, urban caches are usually hidden WELL, so as to not be found accidentally and muggled.

Not really overkill, but depending on how you feel about learning software, it might be frustration. (GSAK) I like what GSAK will do, it works well, it's just that it's not "Do you want to do this....? Do you want to do that...?" GSAK will allow you to work with pocket queries, keep your list of caches organized and updated. Also, you can use GSAK to create a GPX file of caches, then run the GPX file through Garmin's POI Loader, and push all the caches to your GPS as POIs, complete with the GC number, terrain rating, difficulty, type of cache, hint, cache name, the last 4 log results (found, not found), the date last found and part of the description. By doing it that way, you can load thousands of caches, and for all intents and purposes, go paperless. I don't do the puzzle caches, so a few lines is usually enough of a description for me. It's great...I have around 7000 caches on my 60CSx, and it's with me when I go jeeping. Wherever I happen to end up, if I want to grab a few caches, I can. And I can tell on the main screen if they're regulars, micros, etc. Again, it depends on your tolerance for software....if you're one of those that enjoys figuring stuff out, GSAK is for you. If you don;t think that way, then something simpler like EasyGPS would likely be a better option. GSAK is free to try....would give you an idea what you're up against, and make a decision before buying.

I also vote for the playground attribute!! Great way for people with little ones to do a few caches and hit the swings and slides. Also a great way for the rest of us to filter them out. If you want to place them , fine, but I (and many others it appears) have no interest in hunting them, just for the type of stealth involved. Public is public, but parents should be able to take their kids out and play without having to keep an eye on one of us looking like a pedophile, while we're thinking we're being 'stealthy' and blending in like a ninja. Some people love them (those with little kids) and some hate them (me) So yes, great idea!! The ones that like them can filter for them and the rest of us can filter them out.

Personally, I would buy one at a well known store, and buy a good name (Sandisk, etc). Counterfeiting memory cards is getting to be big business now, so I would stay away from any source you can't be sure of. They'll collect smaller capacity cards, re-badge them, and alter the file allocation tables so the cards report a higher capacity than they are. They work okay until you hit the original capacity of the card....then things go downhill. So far I've had 2 counterfeit cards. They were 1GB cards, re-badged as 2GB. I used them in my DSLR, and when they got half full, the camera threw an error. (The card is full, but to the device reading it, it's only half full. Hmm..."Not full, but I can't write to it....error!") Because the file tables were messed up, I also lost all the photos that I had taken the entire day. I contacted the site where I bought the cards, and after emailing them a total of 11 times, then waiting in line at the post office, then another month and half of emailing, I got my money back. Learned my lesson....deal with a well know electronics store, pay a couple more dollars, and have peace of mind. Just wanted to let you know about that....if you know where to look online, you can find great deals on cards, but they're not always such a bargain.

Ahh, thank you very much!!!

Short story.....you draw a square, and it's not square.... The long story... My father is a prospector (minerals, etc) and he needs to print off topo maps that show his claims, claim posts, claim lines, etc. He's been using Topo Canada, and everything has been fine. The best way I could think of to make him maps that he can print off for his reports is as follows: Add the waypoints for the claim posts, then use the route tool to make a straight line route from post to post. (Claims are 400 meters on each side, and the sides run exactly N, S, E, W (Magnetic)) This worked great, as he'd end up with a printable map with the posts, and the claim lines represented by the route lines from post to post. Problem: They got a new computer, and I set it all up for them, and installed TopoCanada (6.10.2), and then checked for updates. I downloaded the latest update, and made sure everything worked.....A-1. Only issue is, when he enters the waypoints for the 4 posts, and makes a route around them, it's no longer square.... It's square according to the measurements and degrees when you draw the route, and even when you use the measuring tool to measure corner to corner, but you can see on the screen and on the print that it's NOT square (visually). I even tried using the track tool, and running a line south (magnetic) for 400m, then west for 400m, then north for 400m, then east for 400m. I end up exactly at my starting point, and the lines all measure exactly 400m, and measuring from corner to corner is perfect....the software says it's square, but it's not (visually, or on a print). So, I went home to my computer to think about it. I uninstalled mapsource completely, cleaned up any garmin folders, and reinstalled it from scratch, and tested before updating. Ta-Da! I do the same thing, and it's square like it's supposed to be. (Measurement wise, and visually) I downloaded and installed update 6156 (6.15.6.0), and it's back wonky again, without changing any settings at all. All lines are 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees (magnetic). Heading is set to Automatic Magnetic Variation (W19.7), which is correct for where we are (NB, Canada) All lines are exactly 400m long. (obviously I can make them any length, the result is the same) And this happens if I create a route around the 4 points of the square, or if I use the track draw tool to draw a perfect square. Now, I could wipe his, install Topo, and then add the Trip and Waypoint manager (to get the track edit option) and leave it like that (with no updates)..I tested that, and it works on my PC. But, he should be able to update to the latest version. I've googled (usually I'm pretty good at finding answers) but this isn't proving to be easy. Can anyone shed some light on it...? TopoCanada off 3 CDs, Version 6.10.2. Initial install works fine. Problem comes about when installing the update 6.15.6.0 Thanks!!!

Being who we are, we have likely shown our kids pocket knives and made sure they understand that they are tools and not toys. The problem comes about when a child that hasn't been taught any of that finds the cache by accident. It's not the gun owner's kid who's going to pick up one of his dad's guns and shoot someone, thinking it's a toy. Hopefully he's been taught, warned, and shown. It's his friend who's over at the house and has never been shown safe gun handling and respect for it. I never knew about the reason for banning knives (prison work crew, above) but now that I hear it, it sure makes sense... The common sense reason would be that you're taking something potentially dangerous and putting it out there where you can't control who finds it and what they may do with it. I'm not talking about adults...I mean kids. I certainly wouldn't want to hear about a kid that bled out after he cut himself playing with a knife that *I* left in a cache. To the OP: If you caching in a 'rough' area, or in an area where sketchy things go on in the bushes, expect just about anything. (Not left by a cacher, but rather an idiot thinking he/she is being funny) The type of people that would abuse a cache generally aren't the type of people that will venture too far from their niches. Choose caches in places that those sorts of people wouldn't go. There's always the chance that there's something in there that you wouldn't want your kid driving their hand into...even natural stuff like mold and mildew from leaky caches. Just make sure they understand that (with anything) Mon or Dad will open it and check it out first, then it's theirs to dig through all they want. Having to wait while Mom or Dad sorts through the Halloween candy doesn't discourage them from trick-or-treating....they know it's a part of it. Same would apply to finding caches.

Re: paperless Do a bit of searching around for how to export a large amount of caches in a gpx file, and then use Garmin's POI Loader to send them to the 60CSx as POIs. I have 4881 caches on my CSx right now. If you fiddle around with the output you can have the cache ID (drop 2), cache type, container, terrain and difficulty as the name of the POI. Ex: T31Z TS 22 is the name of the POI on the screen, which translates into GCT31Z, Traditional Cache, Size Small, Difficulty and terrain are both 2. Then in the info section of the POI, I can see the cache name, the date last found, the found/not found results from the last 4 logs, and the hint: Treehouse Cache 4/18/2009 FFFF No need to climb When I export in GSAK, the "Waypoint name" is %drop2 %typ1%con1 %dif1%ter1 Cache Description format is: %Name %datelf %last4 %hint I never do mystery/puzzle caches so having a huge long description isn't usually needed. So, I hunted around on the net, found some info, trial and error, and found a system that works for me. I do a lot of jeeping, so I never know which direction we're even going to be headed when a bunch of us head out for a day, and I found that I was always getting caught in an area that I didn't have caches for. So, the amount of POIs are only limited by the amount of memory (you can store millions on a typical card) and I don't remember the last time I needed more info than what I had on the 60CSx. If I'm heading out to actually cache, (as opposed to grabbing one here and there while jeeping) I'll load all my caches up on the palm pilot, but again, I don't remember the last time I had to dig it out. It seems like a lot to do, but I can download my 10 PQs, load the gpxs into GSAK, delete any archived ones, export one big GPS, then load the contents of that GPX onto the 60CSx as POIs in about 5 minutes. Once you're set up, it's simple. Not a big deal to do the night before I head out. Take the time to get all that info crammed into POI's, leave the netbook home, and love your 60CSx all that much more. :-)

'99 TJ Sport, 4.0, 5spd, Black, Daily Driver 2" Suspension Lift 31" Explorer MTs CB and Recovery Gear Custom Rear Bumper On-Board-Air system built from an AC compressor off a ZJ NB Jeep Club www.nbjeepclub.ca

For the PC, I used CacheMagnet. It has an option to send caches to the ipod as individual notes. http://cachemagnet.googlepages.com/home If you're familiar with GSAK, here's a macro that will do it as well. http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=6998

Hi folks. Not new to caching, I have a 60CSx, and a premium membership and use PQ's and GSAK. I've gone the paperless thing with Cachemate on my palm, and GPX Sonar (if I remember right) on a pocket PC. The most recent toy is a Blackberry 7250. I'm looking for a simple application to load my caches (4000...would love to load them all) and just be able to look at the description, hints, etc in the field. I disabled data on it, because I only use it for voice, so it essentially acts as a plain old cell phone and organizer (sync with Outlook via USB cable) I tried Cacheberry, but did't have much luck with it. I can load a small amount of caches in a GPX, but not many. It seems to start transferring fine, but then it finishes, and that's it. No errors, no new caches were loaded. It just keeps showing the 14 or so I loaded from the small GPX. I saw on a forum that 50 may be the limit in a GPX when pushing them to a 7250. I take lots of drives, and explore with my jeep, and there's 4000 caches in my small province, so I like to have them all with me, because I never know where I'm going to end up. Sounds crazy, I know, but that's the way it is.... I've been using GSAK and then the POI Loader to generate a GPX with the name as (drop2), then type, container, terrain and diff. Then using the notes to give the full name and hint. That's been working fine, but when you're up against a cache that has important info in the cache description, you're out of luck. A simple, simple app like cachemate is all I need, but I need something that will run on the 7250.....help please!

I've had good luck hitting up my employer for swag items. I work for a phone company, and they have tons of hand-outs that they give away at functions, trade shows, etc. Free advertising for my company, and free swag for me. Items include, small frisbee's (about 4" across), caribeeners with a small compass and LED light on them, pins, those little retractable clip-on zip dealies for holding car keys or ID badges, little folding lawn chairs designed to sit on your desk or coffee table and hold your cell phone or remote control and so on. Other places to get swag would be trade shows or home and leisure shows, boat shows, etc. Not saying to hit them all and scoop all the stuff you can, but companies are always handing out free little trinkets that would make good swag. I've pretty much stopped trading since the kids are at the age where their interests include anything but caching, but I always carry a full swag-bag, and often drop a half dozen or so items into a cache that has room and is looking depleted. I remember the sad look on my little girls face when we'd open a cache and find some moldy calling cards, a golf ball and some leaves. The people that bring small kids with them sure appreciate a well-stocked cache. It's not what it's all about, but it sure goes a long way to keeping the kids wanting to go find the next one.

"(in the garmin world that is the "H"s or the "x"s)" Not to nit-pick, but the H does stand for the high-sensitivity receiver, but the X stands for eXpanable memory (can take a memory card to store more maps, etc). And, the C stands for Colour. And, a lot of the high-sensitivity Garmin units do not have the H in their name, like the GPSMap60CSx. In the eTrex lines (Legend, Vista, Venture, etc) the letters all apply (meaning, if it's missing an H, then it's NOT high-sensitivity) In the 60 and 76 lines, I honestly don't know how you can tell if it's an older non-H unit. Seems to me that the olders units weren't high-sensitivity, but the newer units are, yet they share the same name....someone that knows, please chime in. I would definitely recommend making sure you get a high-sensitivity unit. They will maintain a lock in places where the non-H units lose signal completely. (Tree cover, canyons, etc) It will make a HUGE difference as soon as you get in the woods or under any other sort of cover. My non-H Legend CX would lose signal as soon as I came in the house, but my 60CSx can be powered up while sitting on my computer desk, in my windowless computer room, in my basement, and always find sats and get right down to 7 meters. It will also spend an entire day in my jeep's center console under the arm rest, or in the glovebox, and records tracks without ever dropping the signal.