Explorist 610 use

[+chip722]

OK, new to the geocashing/handheld GPS scene. I have used my 610 to find several geocashing site with my 7 and 5 year old, and they love it. I am having difficulty marking areas while we are hiking. For example: going to new area and "marking" car/beginning location. The way I understand it is 1: Add waypoint,and then we can go explore ( without worry of getting lost). When ready to return I should be able to pull waypoints, and click on "car" and hit go, and shouldnt this return us? I try to let kids use GPS ( arrow ) to get us home, but it hasnt worked yet ( 3 times ).... of course I do not go anywhere that I do not know how to get home so when the GPS points kids left I know that we have to do right ( just an example). The directional arrow feature always works when pointing the kids to a geocash.I hope its just me worrying about "trusting" the thing.

 

Thanks for the help.

[+The A-Team]

I try to let kids use GPS ( arrow ) to get us home, but it hasnt worked yet ( 3 times ).... of course I do not go anywhere that I do not know how to get home so when the GPS points kids left I know that we have to do right ( just an example).

Can you tell where the GPS is trying to take you? Is it possible it's navigating to a previous "car" waypoint in another location? If you look at the map on the GPS, do you see the waypoint you're expecting to go to, and is there any kind of navigation line from your position to that point? If not, is there a line to a different spot, and what's at that location? Keep in mind that I don't own an Explorist, so I'm just going off of the manual.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Any waypoint that you enter should allow you to return to that point. Usually, you can add an icon (car, truck, cycle, whatever....) to help identify that waypoint -- just like a cache icon is usually a box. Throughout that excursion or outing, you should be able to access that waypoint and "goto" it. Some GPSr units hold those waypoints in a seperate file, but they are still accessible.

 

It (the arrow) should show you the way to go, just as if it were pointing to a cache. (BTW, a cache and a waypoint are the same thing, just named differently)

 

Something to remember, if you strike out and go to a number of caches, the route provided by that waypoint will be different in each case, be it high and dry, swampy, across the river or through the lake, it will be a straight line as the crow flies.

 

Be sure to delete that waypoint when you do return to the vehicle. It might be a very long hike to where your vehicle IS NOT there next time.

 

Another thing you may be able to do, activate tracking on the unit. Many, if not all, GPSr units will leave a 'breadcrumb' trail onscreen which you could backtrack with.

 

Hope that helps. Sometimes my explanations are about as clear as mud.

[+chip722]

Thanks for the reply guys. I will try again this week. I believe that maybe I get nervous when it directs me " as the crow flys". I will give it a shot somewhere I am familiar with and just see what happens.

 

Thanks again