GFource2004 Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 My husband and I just purchased a Garmin eTrex Vista. An anniversary gift to each other! We are planning our first "trip" this next weekend. We are *so* excited. Any tips? Advice? Words of wisdom? Quote Link to comment
+Desert_Warrior Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Any tips? Advice? Words of wisdom? RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES! MAHA-Power-x 2200 mah are about the best thing going right now. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment
+RockyRiver Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Get Metroguide USA for your detail maps, so you will have the small rural streets shown also instaed of just the major roads. You got 24 MB'sw of storage to load extra detail. http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/MetroGuideNT.jsp Quote Link to comment
CHTH Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 What do you mean by a trip? If your going on a trip in your car get yourself a plug in for external power. Save you a bunch on batteries. CHTH Quote Link to comment
GFource2004 Posted February 23, 2004 Author Share Posted February 23, 2004 Any tips? Advice? Words of wisdom? RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES! MAHA-Power-x 2200 mah are about the best thing going right now. Enjoy! We have children and they have been a main stay in our home for years! Glad to know Mom & Dad will get some use out of them now! Quote Link to comment
GFource2004 Posted February 23, 2004 Author Share Posted February 23, 2004 Get Metroguide USA for your detail maps, so you will have the small rural streetsshown also instaed of just the major roads. You got 24 MB'sw of storage to load extra detail. http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/MetroGuideNT.jsp Thanks, we got it! We ordered a bundled pack. It comes with MapSource US Topo + MapSource US MetroGuide, Cig Ltr Adptr, Carrying Case and an User Training Video. Can't wait! Quote Link to comment
+RichardMoore Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Any tips? Advice? Words of wisdom? 1) Read your owner's manual. This includes spending some time playing with your GPSr before you go out to find a cache. Have you made a waypoint for your home yet? 2) Go to www.geocities.com/richardsrunaway and click on Geocaching with Jeeps for the text of a brochure that I wrote. (Be patient, sometimes people have trouble getting on my site.) 3) Relax and enjoy yourselves. You're out there to have fun. Good luck on your first hunt! RichardMoore Quote Link to comment
+Imajika Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 1. Pick an easier cache for your first find. That's what I did and I was so excited when I found it! Sometimes if you pick a harder one at first, you can get frustrated. So pick an easier one so you can get the feel for your GPS and a feel for 'the hunt'. 2. If the cache you pick has an encrypted hint, use it if you get frustrated or if you want some idea of what you'll be looking for before you get to the cache site. There's no shame in using hints, especially for your first few finds. 3. Bring extra batteries...just in case. 4. I always have a pen in my cache pack. Some caches don't have pens to sign the log book with or the pen is broken. Nothing worse than finding a cache and having no way to tell the world you were there! 5. Most of all, have fun! Don't get too frustrated and take your time. Caching is supposed to be fun and I know you'll love your new hobby! Good luck! Quote Link to comment
+crzycrzy Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Oh yes, two things... 1) Congrats ! Welcome to caching ! 2) and most importantly... HAVE FUN !!! Quote Link to comment
Fledermaus Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 (edited) Some GPSrs are very basic and have poor to fair sensitivity. Some have lots of bells and whistles, inspite of there lack of sensitivity. Others have excellent sensitivity, lacking the bells and whistles, but others just fall flat on their LCDs when it comes to tree cover. I have several friends with various versions of the ETREX series. Personally, I won't trust the little yellow and silver ones(Venture, Map and etc.), since their ability to receive under heavy tree cover stinks. As for what I have, use and have recommended to friends in the past, is a good old fashion Garmin GPS-12. Even Garmin advertized it as being capable of "working under heavy tree cover". Furthormore, an acquiantanence told me today that it's still being sold. I was surprized, considering all the "improvements" in GPS devices in the last 3 to 5 years. New is not always better! I also use my RoadRunner and Thomas Guide for maps of the areas in which I do my geocaching. I have a friend who has one of those new Magellan units, as seen in your local Radio Shack store. I'll have to challenge him in some woods and see who's GPS quits first. *** Not all GPSrs are made the same, some are more equal than others! *** Fledermaus Edited February 23, 2004 by Fledermaus Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 (edited) I have several friends with various versions of the ETREX series. Personally, I won't trust the little yellow and silver ones(Venture, Map and etc.), since their ability to receive under heavy tree cover stinks. Intresting, I've owned an eTrex Legend and currently own a Vista and both provide excellent reception under heavy tree cover. I have a friend who has one of those new Magellan units, as seen in your local Radio Shack store. I'll have to challenge him in some woods and see who's GPS quits first. Not a valid comparison. When a Garmin loses its sat lock, it tells you immediately. The Magellan will attempt to continue project your position for a period of time. In other words, it may not have a lock, but it makes it appear that you do. This "feature" of the Magellan is probably the root of many of the posts boasting about superiority of Magellan's reception. Any tips? Advice? Words of wisdom? Start with a few easy ones until you get a feel for the sport. I find Mapsource Topo to be more useful for geocaching than Metroguide. The topo screen can tell you if there is a ravine, stream or mountain between you and the cache. It can also tell you which side of a river the cache is on, so you start out on the correct side and it can also tell you if its at the bottom or top of a cliff. You'll save a lot of walking in both cases. Don't place things that you would have otherwise thrown in the garbage in the cache. If it belongs in the garbage, put it there, not in a cache (you will be surprised how frequently people use caches as a place to get rid of their junk). Don't expect your GPS to go down to zero feet, or to find the cache exactly where your GPS tells you it should be. Finding a cache 40, 50 or more feet away from what your GPS says is ground zero is normal. Keeping the last paragraph in mind, once your GPS indicates that you're within 40 or so feet, you can put your GPS away and start looking. First look for the obvious spots. A tree stump, hollow tree, boulder, a crevice in a rock. Next look for something that appears to be out of place. Perhaps a pile of sticks, or stones. If you come up empty, you can pull your GPS out and approach the area again. It may lead you to a slightly different place, where you can continue your search. Replace the cache the way you found it, or in a manner consistent with its difficulty rating. In other words, if you find it out in the open and its rated at 2 star difficulty, you can be sure the owner didn't want it that way, so hide it better. On the other hand please don't try to "help" the next person by leaving the cache exposed, or building stone arrows pointing to the cache, or leaving flagging tape to mark it. Believe it or not, this has a been done. And like everyone else says, have fun! Edited February 23, 2004 by briansnat Quote Link to comment
+Desert_Warrior Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Some GPSrs are very basic and have poor to fair sensitivity. Some have lots of bells and whistles, inspite of there lack of sensitivity. Others have excellent sensitivity, lacking the bells and whistles, but others just fall flat on their LCDs when it comes to tree cover. I have several friends with various versions of the ETREX series. Personally, I won't trust the little yellow and silver ones(Venture, Map and etc.), since their ability to receive under heavy tree cover stinks. I also strongly disagree. Having owned several from the yellow to the Vista, I see little if any difference. Some work one day, the other the next day. No clear winner from my point of view. One thing I DID notice is that the E-Trex series will alert you immediately that satellite reception is poor. Other units will keep quite about it, hoping to re-gain satellite lock and continue. For the period if time you have no lock but don't know it, who knows where you might end up. Many of the magellan units are good at that. So, another "TIP" If you have one of the units that don't tell you right away that you have poor reception, don't hike in the woods - in the fog - near a cliff - ..... you get the idea. BTW, the E-trex series are battle-proven. My son has destroyed 3 of them now. Fell on the first in a raid one night. Second one the display shattered when a 120mm mortar hit near his position. Not clear on what got the 3rd yet. Geocaching is much easier on GPSRs. Quote Link to comment
GFource2004 Posted February 24, 2004 Author Share Posted February 24, 2004 I just wanted to send a big THANK YOU to everyone who replied. Ya'll are a wealth of info! I am so excited to take all this knowledge and put it to the test!! Only two more days! Quote Link to comment
BassoonPilot Posted February 26, 2004 Share Posted February 26, 2004 (edited) All of the pointers I would have suggested regarding GPS usage and "the hunt" have already been mentioned, so I will only advise you to rehide the cache at least as well as you found it and to remove as much evidence of your search as is practical and possible. That way, the next visitor will have as good (or better, if the cache location was in need of some TLC) an experience as you. EDIT: Oh, yes ... and don't forget to waypoint where you parked your car. Edited February 26, 2004 by BassoonPilot Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.