Shumway

I've been frustrated by poor Candian coverage for quite some time now. But I have to give Garmin credit where it is due. They are constantly increasing coverage in Canada. The fact that Topo Canada came out at all makes me very happy. The price is unbeatable to get Topo maps of the entire country. One important thing to consider is that Garmin created the maps base on information they obtained from the Canadian government - or whoever the private company is that handles the data. If the trails were not included in that data then they will not be in Garmin's product. I find that many of the Canadian paper topo maps are hugely out of date... have not been updated since the 80's or even the 70's. Garmin can only work with the data they are given. Check out the map viewers on Garmin's site - You'll see some vast differnces between what is shown in the TOPO product compared to say.. City Select. I know one is for off road and the other is for on road, but some differences are obvious. EG There used to be a rail yard in downtown Edmonton AB. It was removed in the 80's. It still shows on Canada Topo. Why? because the Canadian government still hasn't updated the maps. The same railyard is not shown in City Select. Why? Differnent data source. City Select data comes from NavTeq, which has the street data quite up to date.. Ok... enough about the source of the data.... Now for as to whether TOPO Canada is a rip off. I don't think it is... If you want full coverage of the Canadian topographical maps at an incredible price, it's a fantastic deal. Garmin makes no claims that it includes detailed trail data for national parks, so you can't really expect them to be there.

I haven't tested this with my Garmin GPS yet. Delorme has a settig option where you can chose different GPS models. Hit the GPS tab on the bottom of the screen. Click the Device button. There's a drop down box with supported protocols listed. Select Garmin/Garmin - meaning Garmin GPS with Garmin protocol... Like I say I have not tested this so I have no idea if it will actually work.

I've been playing with Google's maps and am very impressed. But you're right, Canadian coverage is lacking. I experimented and found that the south portion of Canada is covered in street level detail. Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg are all fully covered. I was trying to figure out where coverage stops. It apears that full detail coverage sotps at 50% north where the CAN/US border is at 49%. But that rule deosn't apply in the east - IE Halifax is not covered in street level detail though it is much furher south. That leads me to think there may be a set distance from the US border where the detail level decreases. Not sure. I sent feedback to Google to ask about this, but have not received a response. My guess is that street level detail for all of Canada will be forthcoming. The data comes from Navteq, which I know does have all of the provices fully covered. I guess we'll just have to wait. When Canada is fully covered, this will be the best mapping site on the net.

So here I am driving down the most kitschy touristy street in Edmonton, and I see a YELLOW JEEP. I was a about to grab my digicam for a pic when I realized my GPS was at home. BUMMER!!!! ROFL I wasn't even thinking of GeoCaching until I saw the stupid Yellow Jeep. So much for the free stat padding I was hoping for!

Smart! VERY smart! I went out yesterday hoping to do a couple of easy caches... It s minus 25 with about 8cms of new snow. Well, it only took about a minute outside for me to change my mind and head for the nearest Tim Horton's instead. I'm thinking it might be time to move out west!

What a hotly debated topic! There's some some some some some My vew of LCs- I like them. I seriously enjoy finding objects and places that have something in common with what other people around the world are finding. I'd like to see the new LC moratorium removed. There probably should be a couple changes though. For example, there should not be a "home" location for a LC. I have a cache find in California - I've never been to California. So, my list of found caches is not accurate. It should show where I found the LC, not the home of the hider. A different section? Whatever, just make them easy to find on the website. As for how they affect the counts - That doesn't concern me at all. I'm not caching to compete with people. I'm caching because it's fun! The user stats page clearly distinguishes between the various cache types that have been found, so if you really care that much, just look at the stats. I notice it doesn't list failed attempts that have been logged. Hmmm. Do LCs pad the totals? Sure, some are easier than others. It's the same for trad caches. Is it padding if you find easy caches only? Does the one up a mountain get you more points than the one in the park down the block? Nope. So why should we look down on LCs? I've been craving a cache hunt...But.... Today it's -25 C outside - I'm not gonna bother tromping through the bush getting frostbite to find a @##$@ tupperware container!!!! Even if I did find one, I wouldn't be able to write in the log book with my frozen fingers. My only options... stay home or do a virtual or locationless cache. I picked a locationless today. And STILL FROZE DOING IT!!!!!!! Do I get bonus points for the trouble? no. Would I get more points if I found the ice block tupperware? No.

I had a tough one. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...6-CC500110E9B3} It's on a very busy bridge, tucked behind part of a girder and stuck on with magnets. The access is on the sidewalk / bike path with lots of people using it. When I first searched I felt way to conspicuous to reach under the girder. There mst have been 10 people passing by each minute. When I figured out the exact spot, I decided to come back at dusk to bag it. Not sure if that was a better choice. Imagine what people might think "Hello police.. some guy just stuck a black metal container on one of the bridge girders." On the other hand, seeing the bomb squad blowing up a cache can would make a much more captivating story than this one.

One of my recent finds was a lucky accident. I knew this one was attached to a bridge girder with magnets, but I had no idea which girder, or which side of the bridge it was on. Both sides of the bridge are accessible with sidewalks. i searched and searched and couldn't find the cache, so ended up going home empty handed. I went out of my way to drive across the bridge on my way home from work, hoping I might spot the cache. Then one day when I wasn't looking for it I got stuck in traffic on the bridge. Traffic was bumper to bumper and stop and go. At one point I had come to a stop, looked out my window, and there was the cache! What a lucky accident! It's not accessible from the street, so I came back later on foot to write in the log and leave some trinkets.