New Garmin Montana, Just Starting Out

[GearHd6]

Hello all,

 

I'm new to the geocaching scene. I recently purchased a new Montana 600, mainly for motorcycle use (on and off road) and I'm still very new to the unit. I know the basics so far and that's it. My girlfriend and I have have always been intrigued by geocaching but never actually got out and did any. I had an old Magellan eXplorist 500 that was not very user friendly so I really only ever used it for the fact it tracked our hike.

 

I'm wondering what the best way to get the most out of my Montana is. There seems to be a lot more caches available on here than Garmins Opencache site. I see there are actually a few within a couple miles of my house. I'd like to go check them out but I'm wondering if I need to hand enter the coordinates for each cache location? Maybe there are some good tutorials on here?

 

Thanks for any help.

[+Walts Hunting]

You can hook up your Montana and then on the cache page click down load and it will be saved on your device after installing the garmin communicator. You might have gotten some sort of free one month offer for premium with it if not you might want to do a short term premium membership so you can download PQs of all the caches in an area..

 

You are dead right about the dearth of caches in your area on their website.

[+geodarts]

As a member you can download the basic cache coordinates through the cache page or by doing a search and selecting caches (20 at a time) to download as a group from that page.

 

Your Montana supports "paperless" caching but to take advantage of that feature and have the cache description, hint, and recent logs on the unit, you need to become a full member, which allows you download .gpx files. Premium membership also allows you to do pocket queries, more directed searches of particular areas or along a route, and download 1000 caches at a time.

 

Some people use third party tools such as GSAK to manage or upload caches. As a basic member your capability using these tools (and the geocaching live API) is somewhat limited, but you could do searches and download basic cache information for the traditionals in a given area.

Edited April 9, 2014 by geodarts

[GearHd6]

Thanks for all the help! Much appreciated.

 

I'm trying to load a few to my GPS, I get to the user agreement window and check the box off and click submit and nothing happens. The user agreement window continues to stay open. My computer recognizes the GPS and can communicate with BaseCamp with no problem.

 

Edit: I got it to load on a different computer. Mine must be lacking a plug-in. I'll have to check into it more.

Edited April 9, 2014 by GearHd6

[+basscat5]

Thanks for all the help! Much appreciated.

 

I'm trying to load a few to my GPS, I get to the user agreement window and check the box off and click submit and nothing happens. The user agreement window continues to stay open. My computer recognizes the GPS and can communicate with BaseCamp with no problem.

 

Edit: I got it to load on a different computer. Mine must be lacking a plug-in. I'll have to check into it more.

I do some Caching off road with my KTM and my Mountain bike.... Not sure where you live but here in Michigan you can get the mapping and routes for the ORV trails to upload onto your Garmin...Makes things a little easier when you try to map recon a day of riding and Caching...

 

This Caching rocks and it helps motivate me to put miles on my Bikes...both of them...

 

As far as the plug in...Just log onto the Garmin site and download the Garmin Plug in for your unit...You can also get to the exact page by trying to upload Caches through geocaching.com

 

If you have already uploaded the Garmin Plug in go into "Compatibility view" on your computer and load geocaching.com into the box...(don't do like I did and load the forum page for geocaching(Groundspeak.com), it doesn't work..LOL)

Edited April 9, 2014 by basscat5