We have two GPS reciever units that we use on our Geocaching expeditions.
When we first started caching, I was using our Nüvi 200. Before I purchased the premium membership with Groundspeak, I would “print” each cache page to PDF on our laptop, and save it to a directory on the hard drive with the file name prefixed by the number representing the order in which we would search for it. This was our version of “paperless caching.” The laptop would be with us on the hunt, and we’d have the Nüvi pull us to GZ after manually entering the coordinates. I’d leave it in driving mode until we got close to the cache, then I’d switch to “off road” mode with map orientation set to “track up.” It was a lengthy process, and to be honest, I’m surprised that we stuck with it!
Our time on the hunt became a little less laborious once I installed the Garmin drivers that allowed geocaching.com to write directly to the Nüvi by way of the USB port. I would download the GPX files for individual caches to the favorites section of the GPS unit. This only showed me the GC number for each cache though, so we were still referencing the PDF files on the computer to know what we were hunting for.
Once I bought a premium membership, I found all sorts of neat ways to save time preparing for our hunts! The first thing that helped was the pocket query feature that geocaching.com offers. I would select the caches that I wanted to hunt, save them to a bookmark list, and turn that list into a pocket query. I could also run a pocket query that would include all caches that met certain criteria (for example, all caches that I have not found located within a 10 mile radius of our home coordinates). Once the query was created, I could download the GPX file that was rendered by the query only my computer and manipulate it with GSAK (the “Geocaching Swiss Army Knife”). At first, this program was quite overwhelming. In fact, I installed it, and didn’t spend any time familiarizing myself with it until well after the 30-day trial period was over. So I was dealing with the “nag” screens that were telling me to register the program at the same time that I was trying to learn the program!
GSAK has proven itself to be a very powerful tool, and I use it extensively. I’m sure I am still not using it to it’s fullest potential, but I know exactly what steps it is saving me as I use it, and I appreciate it very much!
The first thing I used GSAK to assist me with was downloading the cache information to our Nüvi. I could manipulate the naming to include the difficulty and terrain ratings, and at least part of the actual name of the cache – so there was no guessing about which cache we were hunting based on only the GC number. At this point, we still had the laptop along with us, but we had GSAK running for reference. We no longer had each cache page saved to PDF unless it was one we thought having the full log history would be handy for (GSAK only has the last 5 logs available, since that is all that is included in the GPX download from geocaching.com).
In September of 2010, we used my birthday money to purchase a Magellin eXplorist GC, which is a unit that was designed specifically for paperless geocaching. Any cache that was loaded onto the eXplorist included not only the cache name, coordinates, difficulty and terrain ratings, but also the cache type, container size, full cache description (with any pictures included in the description), the last 5 logs, listed attributes, additional waypoints, and even the hint! We no longer needed to bring the laptop with us, since everything that we knew from GSAK was now at our fingertips on the hunt!
Most of the time, the eXplorist is in total agreement with the Nüvi, and dead on the coordinates at GZ. Once in a while, it seems to get off by about 35′ from the Nüvi, and at those times I actually prefer to hunt with the Nüvi. I think that the reception of the eXplorist is effected by the battery level. Even though it “thinks” it has a satellite lock accurate to 15 foot, it is definitely off. Surprisingly enough, we’ve never had accuracy issues with the Garmin, it’s always been dead on.
Just a few months ago, I learned about Custom POIs (Points of Interest) on the Nüvi. This fixes one of my major complaints about the whole loading of caches onto the Garmin. I didn’t like that it put them all into my “favorites,” especially when I would accidentally load 1000+ caches because I forgot to select a specific subset for loading to the unit! My favorites got very crowded very fast! I did learn about the software reset on the Nüvi, which allowed me to clear all of our personalized settings and restore factory defaults, but that was a pain to do every time I wanted to prepare for a hunt. And having to re-enter our actual favorites (like “home” and other places that were handy to navigate to) was annoying, too.
I found a macro for GSAK that allows me to create a custom POI file, from which Garmin’s POI loader can then load all of the cache information onto the Nüvi in it’s own section. No more messing up the favorites. It is also just as informative as the eXplorist is, as far as paperless caching is concerned. So now, on the hunt, we have two paperless caching GPS receivers bringing us in to GZ!