arrowroot

We're driving two weeks in the end of July, starting and ending in Vegas, with stops at Grand Canyon (maybe both sides if we're not thoroughly sick of canyons by the end), east to Santa Fe, North to Great Sand Dunes, West to Mesa Verde, up to Moab and Arches, and then down through Capitol Reefs, Escalante, Zion, and Cedar City. I'm looking for the best, most interesting caches along the way. It's a family trip, so nothing too strenuous, and the main goal of the trip isn't caching. I'll try to collect some Chicago travel bugs before I head out there too. I'd love to hear some recommendations of places to go: from quickie roadside ones to places where I'll likely be hiking anyway. I'm not going to the bottom of the Grand Canyon or I'd certainly hit that one -- it's a goal I'm just not going to make this trip. So, what's a not-miss? I'll be bookmarking for the next few months to build my master query.

I also have the 76S, but there's a few things you should know: 1) Remember to turn on battery saver (Menu, Menu, Setup, Mode, Battery Save). I finally figured this one out after a year of draining batteries. 2) Speaking of batteries, invest in rechargables, save cash in the long run 3) Get Mapsource or Cityselect NOW. Basemap is really really really really really really really (lemme count, no one more yet) really bad. 4) Understand its routing capabilities aren't road-by-road and turn-by-turn but really point-by-point even with Mapsource. If you've got a long way on an interstate with turns, the route will show a straight-line path to the exit. That can freak you out, especially when it says you're off course. Extra routing points at turns (such as Chicago-Rockford-Madison-St. Paul on I90) help. 5) Make sure you get the latest firmware from Garmin's website, then don't freak out when things are different: the trip computer gets hidden in the menus instead of being one of the main screens. 6) Have lots of fun!

Hmmm.. even if MetroGuide 4 works in the 60cs, I'd be reluctant -- in the NW burbs of Chicago, it's got so many errors that I often lose about an hour per day of caching trying to find the road they're referring to, or finding a MAJOR river where it's not on the map (The Des Plaines River is non-existent for about a 6-mile stretch -- hmmph). Jeremy -- do you know if the Calendar info on the 60C/CS lets you store info associated with an event, e.g. "I was here at this time, and saw a yellow-bellied sapsucker" or "TFTC, TNFN" etc.? Is there any program that lets you download the calendar data, or is it basically stuck in the unit? Thanks, Joel

Another thread has enough info on the 60c/60cs, so I'll tell you what I saw elsewhere. Garmin The only other new-looking thing at Garmin is StarCaddy golf caddy software for the iQue, but I figure GC-ers and golfers are about as opposite as groups can get. Go to http://www.starcaddy.com/ if you care. Magellan I don't know too much about Magellan models, so I'll list what they were showing. Let me know if you need more data: All four units have most features in common: 16MB memory, SD card, 9 custom navigation screens, sun info, fish/hunt times, 500 waypoints, 20 routes, 2000 track points, 76+1 user datums, WAAS, 6.5"x2.9"x1.2" 8oz. Meridian Color: 120x160 16-color screen, marine navaids, external antenna connector, 13 hour battery life (all the others have 14) Meridian Platium: compass, barometer, thermometer Meridian Marine: Navaids Meridian Gold: Just the basics Cobra These guys had a big display with three models. Prepress said that they intend on owning the market. But they didn't know much about them, and had no literature. They had something basically GPSMAP76S-like, and a couple of eTrex-like models. They claim faster startup, 18-channels, tracking with only 1 sat lock, and all around better performance and battery life. I don't have any real details. Leadtek There are other GPS's that'll use Bluetooth, CompactFlash or the Palm connectors, but they have the first one I've seen that uses SDIO, usable with many Palms. Pricing not available yet, but the whole thing is 113.5mm x 28.4mm x 13.25mm. Antenna hinges to fold away or aim vertically when held horizontally (or vice versa-- I don't know which way's better), WAAS, and its own rechargable battery. They also sell a CompactFlash, Bluetooth, and "puck"-style cabled unit.

A few more observations on the 60/60s: 1) It's basically a one-horned big brother to the Rino 130: a little longer, a bit heavier, a MUCH bigger screen in color, and obviously no radio. 2) Menu system completely redesigned: text entry is off a grid of letters/numbers instead of a scroll-through (yay!) 3) I didn't see tracks, but routes appeared as a purple broad line surrounding the current road line -- much more visible than the 76 renders it. 4) The back has a circular clip for a belt holster, and the same clip snaps onto the mounting bracket on their display. I assume a car mount will work the same way. 5) There are 6 games on it, plus calculator and calendar 6) Geocaching-specific features include marking it as found: changes the icon, and puts an entry in the calendar. No clue on how that data gets transfered to a PC/Mac. 7) USB! USB! USB! See my other thread for other CES GPS info (Magellan, Cobra, Leadtek)

I'm heading to Vegas on Friday morning for the Consumer Electronics Show. I'll report back on GPS goodies when I get back (not taking a laptop for on-the-road reporting). I'll probably also report on some Vegas-area caches. Does anybody know of any products I should keep an eye on, aside from the Rino 130 and the Garmin 60cs?

I'm heading to Vegas on Friday for the Consumer Electronics Show. I'll be happy to report back anything interesting I find. Anyone know if there's some cool GPSr gadgets being introduced there? I'll be sure to check out the Garmin 60 series, but I don't know of anything else. Also, are there caches in the Vegas area anyone can recommend? I've already PQ'd the 100 closest to downtown (waaay too many virtuals), 'cause I'll have plenty of new cache goodies from the show, I'm sure. Anyway, Viva Las Vegas!

I've been happy with my 76S except for two things: 1) It eats batteries like cheetos -- especially when it's cold out, or if I forget to turn off the compass 2) Most of the time it is reliable, but it will suddenly decide it can't find satellites, on open highways, rivers without tree cover, or just a few bare trees above. I don't know if there's a problem with mine in particular, but it does get annoying to be just walking along, and "beebeep"

I'll second your desire for a PQ for Benches. I also really like the idea of one-time PQs too: I create PQs for one-time use more often than anything else anyway, but I've got to delete them myself too: a business trip or vacation where I'm going to download once, and then never again. Dealing with distributed databases, such as this, where some of the data is local, some remote, and figuring out how to update the remotes with the 'deltas' is always trouble. In some ways, Groundspeak might spend more CPU/bandwidth figuring out what's changed for each user, than in generating the GPXs on demand. A library of GPXs by, maybe, county would probably be worthwhile. But how to screen out what you've already seen? Hmm... if the GPXs have all logs, a program should be able to detect that you've been there. But it's all going to require a client-side program to do the job.

I would be very pleased to have color. It's often dificult to tell roads from tracks from topo lines from streams... Maps are some of the most info-dense media available, and color adds a huge factor for readability. It's pricey, though: a lot more than even the 76S. On the other hand, the battery life alone might make up for that. I'm lucky to get 8-12 hours off alkalines in the 76S. On top of all that, nobody's mentioned that it comes with a USB cable!!! Just having USB support from Garmin is a huge step: they don't officially support any of the Serial-USB systems out there, and they're all a little funky. Map download never works at the highest speeds, making filling 24MB an hour or more process. So apart from some software features I'd like to see (such as being able to quickly tell the device "I'm walking, I'm driving, I'm walking again" so I can track the actual exercise I'm getting), the 60C/CS is missing one major thing: better input, such as a touchscreen. The iQue has lots of things, but durability is, as pointed out above, sorely lacking. But when it comes to things like entering the next point on a multicache, naming a waypoint, locating a restaurant in the POI database, or just moving to a different spot in the map, a stylus would be a big help. Actually, just a little patch to pop up a grid of letters/numbers when I'm entering data, instead of linear scrolling, would be a big help (ya listening, Garmin?)

I've got to agree with the original poster: I've had my 76S lose signal where I can see the sky, on highways, on the river... Other times, it's a beaut: 10' accuracy circles with WAAS turned on (and I'm in the midwest, not the coasts where it works best (or so I'm told). Maybe it's my coats, maybe I put out an EM field, but I can't put it in a pocket for more than about 15 seconds or it will definitely lose signal. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

I found a fistful one afternoon, without it being considered a problem area: Each of the benchmarks were with 100 feet of an intersection, or part of the bridge/underpass. Some were classic brass disks, some were rivets, but all had been recently marked with bright orange paint, making it waaay too easy. These were all in Lake County, IL along CNW tracks. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

I found a fistful one afternoon, without it being considered a problem area: Each of the benchmarks were with 100 feet of an intersection, or part of the bridge/underpass. Some were classic brass disks, some were rivets, but all had been recently marked with bright orange paint, making it waaay too easy. These were all in Lake County, IL along CNW tracks. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

I'll second limiting the maps as much as possible: screen out the archived, found, hidden, etc. from the map, so I can see the forest for the trees. Another suggestion: While the "NEW" flag is nice, I'd really like to know what kind of cache it is before I go hunting it. Could you somehow make it possible to differentiate and still flag new items? Perhaps keep the icons and just change background color? One other thing: Can you add to the Search screen a "Search from Home Coords" so I can add the other filters (cache type, only unfound) easily? Thanks Arrowroot I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

I could be happier. It's a battery pig (especially with the compass on -- remember to use the button to shut it off), and it seems to lose signal in ridiculous places: on the creek with no tree cover, highways, etc. Maybe I've got a lemon, maybe I've got too-high expectations. But my buddy's bluetooth GPSr talking to his iPaq didn't seem to lose signal. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

I've been seeing a number of rivets recently placed in sidewalks, parking lots, etc., surrounded by a pink spray-paint circle or triangle, and occasionally a code number. Is there a new generation of benchmarks going in, or am I seeing general surveying going on in the Chicago area? I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

Is that really wise to leave seeds? Most of them are critter-edible, and in merely paper packets. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

My handle comes from the book "Bored of the Rings" by the Harvard Lampoon. I think it dates from the '70s. I was rather surprised to see it was unused when I signed up -- I figured the number of Lord of the Rings fans online would be huge, and Arrowroot is the parody's name for Aragorn. Also called Stomper, and a bunch o' other things. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

Stinging nettles are really not that big a deal. It's just a little formic acid. Some folks will have some swelling and serious irritation, others will just hurt a bit. For me, a quick wash with soap and water pretty much neutralizes it. My wife, though reacts much stronger. In either case, its effects are gone within a day, at most. Take poison ivy much more seriously. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

I'm happy to support Groundspeak and this site, but I would like to see a bit more value for the membership, namely the ability to do a limited number of 'live' pocket queries to create GPX files, rather than having to wait for the e-mail to arrive. If there were a limit of maybe 500 waypoints per week for live queries, I'd be more than satisfied. But there have been times I will want to go out *right away* with a PDA full of cache data to an area outside my usual zone. I've been conservative in my querying, and I don't even have a weekly query for the local stuff, since I don't want to waste Jeremy's bandwidth and CPU. So it'd be nice to get the occasional at-will query. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

First off, don't ever trust the 76's basemaps. One of my first caches I found showed me on the other side of the street, on the other side of the train tracks which crossed it from where I actually was. Secondly, the map data is often wrong. My personal address shows on pretty much every map system out there as being on the other end of the block. Repeat after me: THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY If it WERE the territory, it wouldn't be a map. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

I've had problems of it locking up, but power restart would fix it. Haven't seen that happen since, well probably version 2 software. Shutdowns usually only happen with low battery -- remember to turn off the compass! It eats batteries like Cheerios. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

Just installed version 5. Only played with it a couple minutes, but I'm already happy. Routing is much smarter -- I had it recalc a route, and it chose the way I went, rather than its previous choices which involved many miles of bad road. It also has a "Print Instructions" mode which produces something much friendlier to take in the car, even without the GPS. Lots more to play with, anybody else got some tips for the new version? I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

Does anyone have any pointers for using routing in Mapsource? There's a few peeves I have with it, that I haven't been able to get around: It's astoundingly stoopid (sic) at picking routes automatically, where it'll pick 2-lane roads over divided highways. Is there a way to say, "Use this road within the route" or do I have to specify waypoints along the way? It provides really poor descriptions of the legs of the route when downloaded to my GPSMAP 76S -- 80 miles of Interstate 43 were labeled as "Ramp". Can I relabel things, specify how it labels, etc., so I can have it say "Right onto I43" instead? Is there any way to printout the driving instructions, a la Yahoo! Maps or Mapquest? Thanks, Joel I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know

My favorite case of bad stick-o-flage was a cache hidden in a fork of about four limbs, four feet up a tree. Six different logs were leaning up to that fork, at a 45-degree angle making a bizarre teepee. I walked right past it, saying, "There's no way anyone would be trying to hide something *there*" (aside from the fact that it was a good 60-feet off by my GPSr). Fifteen minutes later, I decided to check it anyway. Yup. And to Sam & Kim in Georgia -- shouldn't it be Kudzuflage? I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know