Help with following the waypoint "directions" to cache

[KAMaddox]

I'm very new to geocaching. As yet we have only managed to find neighborhood caches or ones very close off the road/ trail. Today i ventured for the first time on a mile hike. It is an area that I know, although not well, so I thought I could manage it. However with a longer hike I found a huge issue! I'll do my best to describe.

 

I have a garmin eTrex Venture HC. As far as I can tell you can find your waypoint either by compass or map. By compass you have no way of knowing if the trail you are on will weave it's way to your waypoint or if you need to veer off to another trail or go off the trail altogether. It only points you in NSEW direction and says how far you are from destination. With the map. It only gives you the straight line path from point A to point B, not the path that actually follows a road or trail.

 

What I'm wanting to know is if this unit is capable of following a trail or road map and if so, how? I was under the idea that a geocaching GPS could be used as a stand alone device- maps, trails, turn left here, straight here,etc like a road unit- but perhaps I am wrong in thinking that. As far as I can tell it's a glorified compass but you still must do much legwork such as printing trail maps and knowing which trails to follow. Which begs the question why did I spend $200 on something if I still have to print maps. I could have skipped the $200 and followed the maps for free! I must be doing something wrong... any help, guidance, instruction would be much appreciated.

Edited August 8, 2012 by KAMaddox

[+niraD]

I am not familiar with that unit. Apparently, it does have routing, but I would expect that to work only for roads, and not for trails.

 

The main feature that defines a "geocaching GPS receiver" is the ability to do paperless geocaching. Specifically, it can load cache data from Pocket Queries, and it can record your finds and DNFs in field notes.

 

What maps do you have loaded? The basemap that comes with the device is fairly limited. If you want more detailed maps (with trails, terrain, topo contour lines, etc.), then you'll need to load them into the device separately.

[+JBnW]

I see you're from Ohio, or I guessed since that's where your cache finds are. You may wish to try these maps from gpsfiledepot. You'll love the price! I'm not sure if the Trails maps are routable or not, but at least it will show where the trail goes (if its included), and if a shortcut might make it easier to get to a cache.

[+39chevy]

The Venture HC does not have Auto-Routing capability and i don't think Auto-Routing works off road anyway.

It only has 24 MB of map storage so it is limited in the size of topographic maps you can load into it.

[+ngrrfan]

I have that GPS. Part of what you are asking is exactly the thing I went through when I started caching. The compass shows you needing to go west so off through the bush you go only to find that the trail you were on is 10 feet away.

 

First off, load some trail/topo maps in. These will show you some basic information about where you are. Secondly... very few people will intentionally hide a cache someplace where you have to do a lot of cross country bush-wacking UNLESS it is easy to do. Common sense is the key here.

 

Read the cache description and prior logs closely. They will give you all kinds of subtle clues as to what you may have to do to get to GZ.

Experience is a good teacher so as you cache more you will learn more.

 

The HC will not auto route you, it isn't designed to do that.