In our early days of geocaching we used a borrowed Garmin eTrex (the basic yellow one) and printed out a lot of paper… some of which we still have. Last year I bought a Garmin Oregon 400C hand-held GPS. We’ve used it Geocaching and on a couple of trips. I also used it to do a little bit of benchmark hunting to see how well it works.
The Garmin Oregon 400C is a handheld GPS that has a color touch screen. For us, gone are the days when you have to push the click-stick on the front of the eTrex Legend or push the two buttons very HARD on the side of the basic eTrex. While those GPS Units are good units, they are not very “Nancy Friendly” because she tests her sugar and her fingers always hurt… so, the touch screen is a dream.
The second thing that’s important is having a Netbook. A netbook is light, easy to carry, and has a long battery life. Netbooks generally have less power than a full laptop and definitely a lot less than a desktop; using a netbook for gaming isn’t going to yield good results unless the game you like is Geocaching.
On the notebook you want a copy of some geocaching software. I like and have registered the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK). You can manage many gpx files and many databases. My Garmin Oregon uses a gpx file called Current.gpx to store cache information internal on the GPS unit. I can manage that gpx file from within GSAK. I keep a database of archived caches for informational purposes. Other software that I’ve tried is Cache Magnet, EasyGPS, and GPX Spinner. GSAK seems to fit my Geocaching methodology the best and seems to have the most flexibility.
If you want to do any benchmark hunting you need a copy of BMGPX. It converts National Geodetic Survey (NGS) data files into GPX files for use in GPS units and other Geocaching related software. There are a lot of benchmarks on the Geocaching site, almost all of them came from NGS data. With GPX files and GSAK you can build a pretty extensive database of geodetic data. A lot of the benchmarks in the database are lost or cannot be found easily. because of location… i.e. private or restricted property.
In order to take advantage of all of the great features on Geocaching.com, you will want to pony up $30 for the annual premium fee. Being a paid member gives you access to pocket queries which are one of the most important features you’ll use from the site if you want to go paperless. The pocket queries end up as zip files containing gpx files with all the info on the caches retrieved. You can place the info on your GPS; The newer GPS units can store the Cache Name, Description, some of the previous logs and other tidbits.
The final thing you need to go totally paperless is the ability to log on to Geocaching.com with your netbook or cellular phone while you’re actually out Geocaching. It’s much easier to log the cache while your actually there than it is to do it later. I’ve found that I sometimes don’t go back and log my finds later on.
I hope this helps some people or gives some ideas. Enjoy!
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