Not Quite A Newbie

[BeeGoddess]

Hello! I'm currently shopping for a GPS unit and will most likely pick a Garmin and have narrowed it down to 3-4. I will use it for road navigation and I want to begin geocaching.

 

1. Does anyone have a unit with the "dedicated geocaching mode" and/or the "geolocation games" ... are these fun & helpful?

 

2. Is the City Select or City Navigator necessary or do the units come with sufficent mapping for road trips?

 

3. Do I need to get any Topo maps for geocaching?

 

I'm sure I could come up with more ???'s but that's a start

 

Thank you in advance!

Elaine

[+Mary&Dave]

1. Does anyone have a unit with the "dedicated geocaching mode" and/or the "geolocation games" ... are these fun & helpful?

We have a Legend C and a Legend Cx. They both have the dedicated geocaching mode. It gives you the option to find geocache (the closest waypoint with a "geocache" icon). When you've found it, there's a button to click that says found. This changes the icon to a found geocache. It is handy to be able to search for found geocaches at the end of the day to have a list of which ones to log online. This feature, while sorta nice, isn't really necessary. It helps save a few extra clicks.

 

2. Is the City Select or City Navigator necessary or do the units come with sufficent mapping for road trips?

The maps you get include major highways, large cities, and state lines. That's it. The mapping software gives you the rest of the detail. It's totally up to you, but I really like the ability of being able to search for a spot based upon address and have the GPS take me there.

 

3. Do I need to get any Topo maps for geocaching?

Garmin's topo maps are almost worthless. There is very little detail, and most trails are NOT shown. I bought them, and I wish I hadn't. The only thing they are good for is navigating very remote areas that have nothing else. They are certainly not a viable replacement for a good USGS 15' map. One plus is that they do display forest service logging roads (city select does not seem to show any dirt roads). This may or may not be beneficial depending on where you live, but in most parts of California, I find them basically useless. Some Garmin users have created their own custom maps of certain (very limited) areas which are published free on the Internet. I recently started using one of these instead, at least for local caching.

Edited June 16, 2006 by Mary&Dave

[+Team Neos]

1. Does anyone have a unit with the "dedicated geocaching mode" and/or the "geolocation games" ... are these fun & helpful?

I have a unit with both of those features. The games are OK, nothing spectacular, but they might keep a kid amused for a few minutes. You must be moving to play the ones I have tried so far.

The dedicated geocaching feature is handy, and I enjoy it. It automatically puts some of the icons in (changes the closed box icon to an open box icon when you tell it you have found the cache, and can be used to make uploading found caches back to you computer a snap, etc.

I lived without both features on my first unit, but eh, they are nice.

 

2. Is the City Select or City Navigator necessary or do the units come with sufficent mapping for road trips?

If you are getting a unit with autorouting, you definitely need one of the maps you named. I think I read in the forums that Garmin is discontinuing City Select--if so, get Navigator. The base maps have the names of major roads --in fact, they have the names of the larger roads in most cities I have been to.

 

3. Do I need to get any Topo maps for geocaching?

Do you plan to spend a lot of time geocaching well off the beaten path or in very rugged terrain? If so, then yes. If you will only be caching in cities and slightly rural areas (state parks with trails, etc) I wouldn't worry about it. The compass and tracking features will get you where you need to go along with the base maps.

 

All that said, I used an eTrex Legend with just the built-in base maps for my first couple of years of caching, and loved it. You should get the most gps your budget will allow, but only so you don't have to upgrade so soon.

[+Kryten]

1. Does anyone have a unit with the "dedicated geocaching mode" and/or the "geolocation games" ... are these fun & helpful?

 

The Garmin GPSMap 60CSx has both of these features. Geocaching mode lists geocaches separately from other waypoints. Unit can be configured to hide geocache waypoints once they has been found.

 

The maze game is particularly useful fur exhausting children. First find a large safe area of open space, then the GPS generates a random maze which appears on screen. As the children run about, their position in the maze moves. They have to find their way around the maze collecting flags. It's strange watching a bunch of kids running around avoiding a bunch of imaginary walls.

[+briansnat]

I think Mary & Dave were on the money with most of their answers, but I've had a different experience with Mapsource Topo. I've found it to be very useful for geocaching and hiking. I have both City Select and Topo on my 60CS and love the combination. On another unit of mine I have the choice of running one or the other due to memory constraints and I chose Topo.

 

Is it necessary? No, but if you go into the woods a lot, I think its great to have those big, solid green areas on City Select (or Navigator) filled with much more useful info such as contour lines, streams, lakes, swamps, etc...

 

To show what I mean, here are some examples from City Select and Topo showing the exact same area. City Select (top) shows a state park. Topo (bottom) shows the hills, streams and ponds in the park. Is Topo perfect? Absolutely not. I wish there was some more detail, but I think overall its quite useful.

 

 

Edited June 16, 2006 by briansnat

[BeeGoddess]

1. We have a Legend C and a Legend Cx. They both have the dedicated geocaching mode. It gives you the option to find geocache (the closest waypoint with a "geocache" icon). When you've found it, there's a button to click that says found. This changes the icon to a found geocache. It is handy to be able to search for found geocaches at the end of the day to have a list of which ones to log online. This feature, while sorta nice, isn't really necessary. It helps save a few extra clicks.

 

2. The maps you get include major highways, large cities, and state lines. That's it. The mapping software gives you the rest of the detail. It's totally up to you, but I really like the ability of being able to search for a spot based upon address and have the GPS take me there.

 

3. Garmin's topo maps are almost worthless. There is very little detail, and most trails are NOT shown. I bought them, and I wish I hadn't. The only thing they are good for is navigating very remote areas that have nothing else. They are certainly not a viable replacement for a good USGS 15' map. One plus is that they do display forest service logging roads (city select does not seem to show any dirt roads). This may or may not be beneficial depending on where you live, but in most parts of California, I find them basically useless. Some Garmin users have created their own custom maps of certain (very limited) areas which are published free on the Internet. I recently started using one of these instead, at least for local caching.

 

Thank you very much. This keeps me from having made a hasty decision about the Topos, especially since I wouldn't use them in the immediate future

[BeeGoddess]

Thank you all for the promp relies ... and for the examples of with & without Topo ... and the visual of children running into imaginary walls is priceless! .... I'll definitely go for the Navigator but hold off on Topos for now ...

 

McKryton ... are you sure the 60CSx has the geocache mode? I'm not finding it in the description. do you have one? I think I'm leaning toward that model & that feature would be neat to have

 

Thanks again everyone!

[+briansnat]

McKryton ... are you sure the 60CSx has the geocache mode? I'm not finding it in the description. do you have one? I think I'm leaning toward that model & that feature would be neat to have

 

It has geocache mode. Great unit, you will like it.

[+Munin]

... are you sure the 60CSx has the geocache mode? I'm not finding it in the description. do you have one? I think I'm leaning toward that model & that feature would be neat to have

While the geocache mode isn't listed on the main 60CSx description page, if you follow the Manuals link on that page you can download a copy of the Owner's Manual (it's a PDF document). If you read through that, you'll see the section about the geocaching-specific waypoint list on pgs 20-21, and the geocache setup screen on pg 72. (You'll also find the games that McKryton mentioned starting on pg 87.)

[+Mary&Dave]

I've had a different experience with Mapsource Topo. I've found it to be very useful for geocaching and hiking.

 

They are most definitely better than nothing. They just didn't live up to my hopes.

[+Night Stalker]

1. Does anyone have a unit with the "dedicated geocaching mode" and/or the "geolocation games" ... are these fun & helpful?

 

I am using a Garmin 60CS. You will save a little money over the newer 60CSX. If you should decide on this unit you will have to find a copy of City Select since the block size for City Navigator are 2 large to be useful. I personally would go for the 60CX or 60CSX since it has the sirfIII chip which makes it much more accurate under heavy tree cover.

 

2. Is the City Select or City Navigator necessary or do the units come with sufficent mapping for road trips?

 

You need have one of these 2 software packages since these units cannot auto route without it.

 

3. Do I need to get any Topo maps for geocaching?

 

I use Topo for geocaching. It gives you a lot of details that City Select or City Navigator does not. A lot of the smaller creeks and trails will not show up on City Select or navigator. If you are hiking this is very helpful, especially if you need to know which side of the creek the cache is on.

[+Kryten]

McKryton ... are you sure the 60CSx has the geocache mode? I'm not finding it in the description. do you have one? I think I'm leaning toward that model & that feature would be neat to have

 

Thanks again everyone!

 

Yes, I have a 60CSx, I got it about a month ago am delighted with it. I also have Garmin Topo maps (not so delighted with them ). The 60CSx can maintain a signal lock under tree cover long after my older GPS (Etrex Sumit) has given up.

[+briansnat]

2. Is the City Select or City Navigator necessary or do the units come with sufficent mapping for road trips?

 

You need have one of these 2 software packages since these units cannot auto route without it.

\

 

Not totally true. Garmin units can auto route on the base maps. Of course since base maps only have major roads, the feature is not particulary useful without the detailed mapping software.

[BeeGoddess]

Once again thank you all so much for the replies & all the good info ... I think I will choose the 60CSX and Navigator and hold off on Topos for now, until i'm more into caching ... Now to develop a signature item ... hmmmm ... I already have some cool ideas.. . . I'm looking forward to this new adventure!

[BeeGoddess]

... are you sure the 60CSx has the geocache mode? I'm not finding it in the description. do you have one? I think I'm leaning toward that model & that feature would be neat to have

While the geocache mode isn't listed on the main 60CSx description page, if you follow the Manuals link on that page you can download a copy of the Owner's Manual (it's a PDF document). If you read through that, you'll see the section about the geocaching-specific waypoint list on pgs 20-21, and the geocache setup screen on pg 72. (You'll also find the games that McKryton mentioned starting on pg 87.)

 

Thank you! I found all the info!