I think geochaching sounds like fun and am looking at a GPS for doing it and for hunting and general navigation (car bike not getting lost in my house and such)

So do any of you geocache? whats some of the cool things you came across while doing it?

I have been looking at the Rino 130, has enough memory to store most of the state in it and a few other featues over the 120 and 110 models. I have read many good things about it but a few bad things like the radio on it sucks.

With the Garmin map software is there any way to hack it to use other maps? like the ones from google or mapquest or use some cheaper software? The software is like $200 and seems kinda steep when some of the GPS units that support it only cost $150.

Thanks

I just think it's fun.  Can't say I've ever found anything spectacular, but then I really enjoy just finding the geocaches!

The software is probably a good investment--it tends to have a lot of really neat features.

When I bought my GPS unit, Magellan was the top of the line (for consumer grade GPS) for reception, ease of use, and screen resolution.  Now, Garmin has equal or better in all categories.  Rhino is a good choice...should have WAAS (a system that gives greater accuracy under some circumstances) built in.

I still use my six year old Magellan GPS 315 to take ground position data for geospatial analysis projects.  I'll be upgrading to a decent Garmin with WAAS sometime in the next year.

Jim

I have a Magellan Sportrak color with the mapping software.  It works great for me.  I use it for Geocaching and four wheeling.

Quoted: .... So do any of you geocache?....or use some cheaper software? ... Thanks

I used mine, mainly for finding my way around dirt trails, etc.

If you are on a budget, a basic GPS, data cable and a free mapping sofware plus an old laptop is all you need....

My sons (4 and 7) and I just started a few weeks ago. Lots of fun. I got a Magellan explorist 400 on sale for $220 with a $50 rebate. I also like the Garmin line. I think the Garmins are a little easier to use but I have gotten used to the Magellan very fast. I wanted a unit that had a removable memory card and usb connection.

Havn't found much in the caches yet, best find so far is a travel bug.  You can now use Google Earth in conjunction with geocaching.com, very nice.

You can get by with a cheap GPS. The wide area augmentation system (WAAS) feature is nice because it can be more accurate if you can get a view of the sats. The Rino 130 has a bazillion features, but the battery life is also not that great--something like 8-11 hours on 3 batteries.

I keep finding them, thinking its drugs or something.  Cash would be nice

but yeah I need to get gps also, its a neat idea

Used to use a Garmin GPSMAP 60C for work and was very impressed by it's ease of use and great display. Had plenty of memory for all our waypoints too, was fantastic.

Good choice on the Garmin Rino - I have two 120's and the radios are great... Newer models may be downgraded.

I also have a NIB (used once to test it's accuracy) Garmin GPSMAP 76 and that thing will pinpoint your location, especially when you have the external antenna attached! Down to 3-5 feet IIRC, and worked well on a very cloudy day.

I don't even remember why I bought that last one... It sits in it's box unused because I like the shape, easy of use and familiarity of the Rino 120.


Geocaching is fun, and if you have a few caches within a few miles of each other you can make it a camping/hiking trip. There is a good website dedicated to Geocaching... Hmm, I did have it bookmarked Google it and you could probably find it. I found it, and it's www.geocaching.com - There is also a Forum there and a list of caches in your area.

My father-in-law got me into geocaching a while back as he is a huge fan of it here in California.

I use his handed down Garmin Etrex Vista.  It works like a charm.

Wouldn't mind upgrading to a 60CS or 60CSsx.

eTrex Legend (the blue one) and a Palm 515 (for paperless cacheing) and have lots of fun doing it.

FYI the current WAAS sat. is being taken out of orbit within the next 2 weeks and replaced with 2 new one.  The old one was at approx. 18 degrees off the horizon on the east coast.  The new ones will be 40 and 26.  They will also put 2 new ones up in the mid west to give the west coast better coverage as well.  I am in the process of updating my unit to search for the 2 new ones.

I'm using a etrex  and it's lots of fun. No mapping, but I wouldn't use it much anyway.