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Hello from Appleton,
My name is Sarah and I’m new to geocaching and new to the WGA! I’ve only been caching for about a month. I’ve already met a few fellow cachers from the area. Hope to place a few caches of my own after I have a few more finds under my belt!
I haven’t purchased a GPS yet (using my phone) and was wondering if there are any suggestions on what device I should get?
It’s nice to meet everyone here and any help for this newbie would be appreciated! 😀
Thanks,
Sarah
SBartl9049Hi Sarah,
Welcome to the fun err addiction. I was in you position in early February. You should have come out to the cache bash in West Bend this weekend. There were reps from both Garmin on Megellan. If there is an REI near you I think they let you try them out and I know they have FREE classes on picking a GPS. I ended up choosing a Garmin Dakota 20. Money was a bit tight so I could not get the “fancy” models at the time. It has worked very well for me. If you meet other cachers asked to try theirs out if you can.
Hope to see you on the trail or the next Cache Bash (Aug 9-10,Welcome! Garmin is one of the big players in the game, delorme has a couple of nice units as well.
I personally own a Garmin 60cx, however since the advent of the geocaching app I’ve not used it as much any more. Being able to download a pq with all the pertinent data right in the phone is significantly more than the 60 series can hold.
That being said, I still think my 60 series is much more accurate than my phone and I would not leave the trail without it.
–Mike
Hello from your neighbor to the south (Menasha),
Welcome to geocaching and the WGA! These forums are great for answering questions, seeing upcoming events, and many other topics.
I wouldn’t be much help in recommending a unit, but there have been several informative threads over the years…maybe one of our more tech-savvy members can suggest how to search for them. Or they can relate their own accounts of good selection. I do know that the popular opinion is that if placing a cache, it is better to do so with a GPSr and not a phone, because the coordinates will tend to be more consistently accurate.
Keep an eye out for events/meet & greets in the Green Bay/Fox Valley/Oshkosh area. There are several regular ones every year, and often others too.
See you around!
amita17
DebbyWhat amita17 said, except the Menasha part. We’re another 20 miles south.
WELCOME! 😀
If you go to Gander Mountain, ask for Jesse (merc_inc) he’ll be very helpful with helping you pick or try out a new GPS.
(BTW, Garmin Oregon is my fav for about $299) I own a Oregon which gives you the paperless caching option much like your phone.
I live in Neenah so feel free to contact me in you’d like.
Following the signals from space.
Just got done doing downloads for the West Bend cache bash and I saw a lot of Magellan Explorist GC coming throught. Nice little unit built specificly caching and they are going for about $125. Pricing is not bad for just starting. It is a lot easier to spend $125 for a Megellan, then it is to spend 3 or 4 or 500 for a Garmin unit.
At this time I use a Garmin Colorado 300, but have been thinking about switching to the Magellan Explorist series.
Hi Sarah,
Welcome to Geocaching!
I am from Greenville/Appleton area. I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions or even meet up some time. I have a daughter who caches with me sometimes, she is 10 years old – she is the other part of Curly Girls.
I have an event ready to publish for Friday, September 21st from 7:30-9am if you can make it.
Garmin is the way to go, if you are looking for a GPS. I have 3 of them….
Lisa
HI Sarah
Im also from Appleton. Welcome to the WGA and geocaching.
as for the GPS, don’t know, don’t use one. Look for a couple of my caches here in the valley, you don’t really need a GPS for any of them.
cache on, maybe see you on the trail sometime
Muggle BWelcome aboard Sarah. I like your avatar and I just smiled as I thought about how many times I known exactly where I was and it made me nervous. 😆 (i.e. The cache “Wet Maze” comes to mind).
Anyhow – I’m a Garmin fan and have been using my < $200 Etrex Legend for 3+ years now and don't see any need to change. Garmin has updated the Etrex line and for ~ $200 you can still get a very good GPS. I use my iPod Touch for paperless caching, but most major GPS units now include this. You also have a smartphone which should be able to be used for this (depending on model / platform).
My favorites are puzzle caches, but unfortunately there aren’t enough of them in the Fox Valley area to keep me busy.
Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for the warm welcome! I see the consensus from most for a GPS is the Garmin. Has anyone tried the Magellans? I was mostly looking at the eXplorist 110 or 510. I know Garmin has good units (have one in my car), but they seemed a little pricey for there handheld units. Thank you for all the suggestions, I will continue to research and find one that will work for me!
And for those of you in the Fox Cities area, would it be alright if I contacted you privately about placing caches in the area?
Thanks again for the warm welcome and hope to bump into those of you in the area while caching around! 🙂
@codejunkie wrote:
Welcome aboard Sarah. I like your avatar and I just smiled as I thought about how many times I known exactly where I was and it made me nervous. 😆 (i.e. The cache “Wet Maze” comes to mind).
Anyhow – I’m a Garmin fan and have been using my < $200 Etrex Legend for 3+ years now and don't see any need to change. Garmin has updated the Etrex line and for ~ $200 you can still get a very good GPS. I use my iPod Touch for paperless caching, but most major GPS units now include this. You also have a smartphone which should be able to be used for this (depending on model / platform).
My favorites are puzzle caches, but unfortunately there aren’t enough of them in the Fox Valley area to keep me busy.
CJ, you are so full of Hooey. There’s lots of “?”, you’ve just done them all.
Following the signals from space.
CJ, you are so full of Hooey. There’s lots of “?”, you’ve just done them all.
Hooey! Now there’s an expression you don’t hear much of any more. But welcome Sarah…you’ll get a lot of hooey in these forums from time to time. And lots of useful info too. I have a Garmin GPSmap 62s and love it. It’s a little pricier but has the paperless caching option and I can download my finds right to my computer with it. Hope you get up to my area some time :bartrod:
Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)
First, Welcome to this crazy sport and even crazier gang of very helpful clowns. 😆
I currently am using a Delorme PN-60 and love it. I used to use a Garmin, but went to this for the paperless caching and metter map options. I just started using c:geo, but not for finding the cache. More for instant information and logging caches on the go. At Cache Ba$h, I logged all my cache in the field with it. Gave me more time to chat and such at night.
Hi Sarah,
You can private message me here or through Geocaching if you like. I’d be happy to help.
I use my iPod touch for paperless caching as well, so you don’t necessarily have to buy an expensive GPS unit. Plenty of options out there. Buy what fits for you and when you are ready, you can upgrade. That is how we did it.
Good luck!
Lisa
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