Paperless Geocaching with Garmin eTrex 20 ?

[+cltinseattle]

Ok everyone, I need help with this. I have been thinking of upgrading my GPS to a Garmin eTrex 20 and it has "Paperless Geocaching". The advertising propoganda shows the screen of the GPS with the cache description and all of the log comments, etc. So how does this work and is it worth it? Some have said you need to have a Premium membership in order to use it. Is that true? I normally don't download a bunch of geocaches at one time. Normally I download maybe 2 to 12 geocaches in an area that I am going to be in for that day or that week end, when I find them and mark them as found and then log the find into the web site I delete them from the GPS and move on to another area. It seems like it would be useful though to be able to have the cache description and hints and other cachers comments available while you are searching, so it sounds like a nice feature. Can someone please explain to me how this works and if you can explain how it works on a Garmin eTrex 20 that would be even better. Thanks everyone!!!

[+NeverSummer]

Ok everyone, I need help with this. I have been thinking of upgrading my GPS to a Garmin eTrex 20 and it has "Paperless Geocaching". The advertising propoganda shows the screen of the GPS with the cache description and all of the log comments, etc. So how does this work and is it worth it? Some have said you need to have a Premium membership in order to use it. Is that true? I normally don't download a bunch of geocaches at one time. Normally I download maybe 2 to 12 geocaches in an area that I am going to be in for that day or that week end, when I find them and mark them as found and then log the find into the web site I delete them from the GPS and move on to another area. It seems like it would be useful though to be able to have the cache description and hints and other cachers comments available while you are searching, so it sounds like a nice feature. Can someone please explain to me how this works and if you can explain how it works on a Garmin eTrex 20 that would be even better. Thanks everyone!!!

You'll want to go over to the GPS and Technology Forumand ask over there.

 

Hope you can get it figured out!

[+pppingme]

The paperless units work by loading a .gpx file onto them.

 

There are a couple ways to get .gpx files.

 

- Pocket queries

- Individually off each page

- convert the pages html to .gpx

 

The first is the only way to go if you do more than a couple caches a week.

 

The first two require a premium membership.

[+Straight-Cache-Homey]

I have an eTrex 20 and what you've described is pretty much how it works. Well worth it in my opinion.

[+Straight-Cache-Homey]

To add- you will need a premium membership to use paperless caching w/ hints/descriptions/etc. My girlfriend has a premium acct.

[+BruceS]

Moving to the GPS and Technology section of forums

[+JL_HSTRE]

I have an Etrex 30 (basically the 20 with a few extra perks like Chirp compatibility). As someone who started caching with a smartphone, having paperless geocaching was a must when I got a GPS and I've been pretty happy with my Etrex. Using a GPX file - either individual caches or a Pocket Query (PQ) - will give you the cache name, D/T rating, cache size, description, hints, and recent logs on the Etrex.

[+ThreeTrees]

I as well have the eTrex 30, but the same applies to the 20.

I agree a Premium Membership makes life real easy when planning a caching trip to a a specific area.

I also rely on GSAK to manage and now also log my caches.

The ability to log your caches from the application linked to geocaching.com also makes life really easy, especially when you grab more than a few caches in a day. Having the ability to come home and plug in the GPS and fetch your finds apply a template and publish those finds all in matter of minutes is awesome. There is a learning curve, but well worth it.

I also use the "Garmin Export" Macro in GSAK, It loads the caches with custom icons (sames as the icons on the geocahing website, Traditional, Multi, Puzzle or Mystery, etc.). It also can load the last user logs and can do whole bunch more of really neat things.

All of the above in combination of free Topo maps from GPS File Depot makes the eTrex 20/30 a great paperless caching GPS.

[+cltinseattle]

Wow. See now that is a lot of the things I was wondering about. I did not know about free Topo's from GPS File Depot. I only know that Garmin charges a heck of a lot for their maps. The GSAK - don't know what that is either so I will have to check it out. In the past I have just kept things really basic, printed out paper descriptions to take with me, just kept a basic membership, pretty much just did things manually. A Garmin 20 or 30 is not cheap in anyone's budget and add on to that the cost of Garmin maps and you can spend a lot of money before you know it. So - if I can diverge a little bit from the original topic, I am still wondering about purchasing the Garmin 20 or 30. I have seen some reviews saying they did not track well for hiking but even the most basic Garmin that I have now tracks pretty well so I wonder if these comments are some of those "fake" reviews that are getting to be more prevalent online. You know, I just want to know that if I'm going to lay out 2 or 3 Ben Franklin's I want to know that it's going to be good for geocaching and hiking and possibly for highway use as well. Hearing from you guys/gals who already have a Garmin 20 or 30 really helps. Thank you!

[+Atlas Cached]

Wow. See now that is a lot of the things I was wondering about. I did not know about free Topo's from GPS File Depot. I only know that Garmin charges a heck of a lot for their maps. The GSAK - don't know what that is either so I will have to check it out. In the past I have just kept things really basic, printed out paper descriptions to take with me, just kept a basic membership, pretty much just did things manually. A Garmin 20 or 30 is not cheap in anyone's budget and add on to that the cost of Garmin maps and you can spend a lot of money before you know it. So - if I can diverge a little bit from the original topic, I am still wondering about purchasing the Garmin 20 or 30. I have seen some reviews saying they did not track well for hiking but even the most basic Garmin that I have now tracks pretty well so I wonder if these comments are some of those "fake" reviews that are getting to be more prevalent online. You know, I just want to know that if I'm going to lay out 2 or 3 Ben Franklin's I want to know that it's going to be good for geocaching and hiking and possibly for highway use as well. Hearing from you guys/gals who already have a Garmin 20 or 30 really helps. Thank you!

 

Definitely want to look at the maps over at GPSFileDepot - i use them almost exclusively!

 

If you want to keep things simple, GSAK will muck it all up. Great program for dedicated geocachers, but not probably needed for the casual geocacher.

 

As far as the eTrex 10/20/30, they are some of the only GPSr units that also use GLONASS to pinpoint their location. That is an additional 26 satellites over all other GPSr units - They are, from what I have read, very quick to get a lock, and keep that lock quite well.

 

For highway navigation, nothing much beats Garmin CityNavigator maps.

[+cltinseattle]

Ok, I bought the Garmin 20!!! Unfortunately it has to sit under the tree for another 25 days before I can unwrap it. Well, perhaps I can just wrap the box and no one will notice that I have a new toy to play with in the meantime. Thanks everyone!!!

[+Atlas Cached]

Hehe ... did that with mine last Christmas. Wife bought it for me as a pressie but I ordered it, gave her the box to wrap having extracted the GPS. Opened box on the day (with Etrex in pocket) and combined the two again without being noticed :laughing:

 

That's cheating!!!

 

[+cltinseattle]

sussamb you are my hero!

[+TXPathfinder]

I have an eTrex 20 and what you've described is pretty much how it works. Well worth it in my opinion.

I have a eTrex20 and like it very much but I do have a question. After geocaching and finding several caches and logging them online I delete the ones I didn't find that day but when I do that and want to return later to find them, I cannot log the coordinates from the Geocaching.com site. I get, "do you want to overwrite..." I say yes but the cache is not listed in my GPS. I have to manually enter the coordinate. Any suggestions beside not deleting the the original coordinates?