UPDATE: Here’s a sixth reason – Garmin BirdsEye Topo.
Still rocking a Garmin 60CSx or maybe an eTrex? Have you wondered what the new units offer? Here are our top reasons to pony up for a new Garmin:
Five reasons to upgrade your Garmin handheld
April 25, 2011 By 41 Comments
Satmap Active 10 TREK review
February 1, 2011 By 1 Comment
The Satmap Active 10 TREK
Garmin chirp wireless geocaching beacon
October 15, 2010 By 10 Comments
UPDATE: Now available at Amazon
The Garmin chirp was announced this morning — a wireless geocaching beacon designed for multi-stage caches, although it seems to cry out for other uses as well.
Slightly larger than a quarter and weighing in at 1 ounce, the chirp has a one-year battery life and a range of 32 feet. It can transmit hints or coordinates for the next stage of a cache
Wireless-enabled Garmin Dakota, Oregon and GPSMAP 62/78 series units are listed as compatible. The chirp is password protected and provides the owner with stats showing the number of visitors the chirp has recorded.
Handheld GPS 101: Geocaching
August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This is the fifth in a series of posts designed to help introduce beginners to the use of handheld GPS receivers.
Geocaching is a sort of high-tech treasure hunt and a great way to learn to use your handheld GPS. To begin, go to geocaching.com and enter your zip code. You’ll likely find coordinates for hundreds of nearby caches. You’ll need to register (free) to be able to download them directly to your GPS.
Magellan eXplorist 510, 610 and 710 unleashed
July 15, 2010 By 24 Comments
UPDATE 3: Read my hands on review of the Magellan eXplorist 510.
UPDATE 2: Read my hands on review of the Magellan eXplorist 710.
UPDATE: Here’s some screenshots and a discussion of capabilities and accepted map formats.
As expected following the success of the Magellan eXplorist GC, the company today announced several new additions to their updated handheld platform: the Magellan eXplorist 510, 610 and 710.
Anti-geocacher hits Pacific Northwest
June 1, 2010 By 3 Comments
The so-called Forest Defenders is a group (or more likely, an individual) conducting a “personal war against Letterbox and Geocache littering in eco-sensitive areas.” This drives me absolutely crazy; it’s people like this that give environmentalists a bad name. If you want to limit impact in natural areas, a good start would be to ban people and trails period. But hey FD, in case you haven’t noticed, humans are part of the ecology too.
Magellan eXplorist GC review
March 29, 2010 By 75 Comments
Hands on with the Magellan eXplorist GC
The Magellan eXplorist GC
Magellan eXplorist GC first looks
March 22, 2010 By 26 Comments
UPDATE: I’ve posted my hands-on review of the Magellan eXplorist GC.
Magellan is announcing a new handheld today – the eXplorist GC, which is designed specifically for geocaching. I’ll have a full review up soon but I wanted to go ahead and give you a sneak peek.
The eXplorist GC is set up for full paperless caching, meaning there’s no need to print out a bunch of info from geocaching.com before heading out. Perhaps the nicest feature in this respect is the ability to sort / filter caches in just about any way and combination you can imagine.
The interface is pretty intuitive. In my early testing I’ve been fairly impressed and think Magellan may have a winner here. I’ve included a couple of screen shots showing the filter feature below to whet your appetite for the full review. In the interim, is there anything specific that you want to know about the eXplorist GC? Chime in below and I’ll try to include it.
Expected to be available next month, the eXplorist GC is priced at $199.99 (MSRP).
Geomate.jr review
June 30, 2009 By 13 Comments
UPDATE: This product has been discontinued. Here are my current geocaching GPS recommendations.
The Geomate.jr
Garmin Dakota 10 and 20
June 26, 2009 By 5 Comments
UPDATE: Read my hands on Garmin Dakota 20 review. I also have a dedicated Garmin Dakota 10 page.
Rumors have been showing up online for awhile now about a new handheld series, and today it’s official – the touch-screen Garmin Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 have been announced.
The Dakota series seems to be filling the eTrex niche. They are rated as having a 20 hour battery life (vs. 16 for the Oregon series) and they will not come with pre-loaded detailed maps – only a basemap. Screen size is 2.6” (diagonal) vs. 3” for the Oregon series. Both Dakota models support paperless geocaching, but not Wherigo cartridges. One interesting thing – they both will store up to 200 tracks compared to the Oregon’s 20!
