What is an Etrek like for Geocaching,?

Answer 1

Any GPSr will work fine for geocaching to be honest. The newer units, Garmin 60 & 76 series for example, use a newer antenna technology that gets faster satellite acquisition and keeps the signal better under tree (or urban) canopy where a cheaper unit might flake out.

After that, it's all about features: electronic mangetic compass, data cable for easy uploads of waypoints (caches), # of waypoint for memory, size of maps you can install, etc.

At Garmins web site, you can compare units side-by-side. Even in the eTrex line, there is a great deal of variety. My suggestion: Garmin GPSmap 60 series - I skipped color and the compass. I suggest determining your budget and buying the best one you can for that. Keeping in mind they all will "work" equally well for caching. Ease and usability is a different question.

Find you local caching organization and web site and see if they have a forum where you can find one used from someone who has upgraded recently. Michigan's site is mi-geocaching.org

Happy Caching - PittCaleb

Answer 2

The eTrex series from Garmin is not a bad way to go. The basic model is nice and inexpensive, around US$100 or less. However, I would suggest paying a little more for at least a eTrex Legend, which you can probably find for US$160 or so. It has the capacity for mapping software, which makes it double as a road navigation aid, which can be helpful if you are geocaching in a town or city.

I personally use an eTrex Vista, which is the top eTrex model that's not in colour. They are about US$220 or so, but have greater map memory, an internal compass, and altimeter (useful only in skydiving). My wife got a GPS 76 CS, which is really nice but on the expensive side. Sometimes you might want to stick with a less expensive model for geocaching as it is an on-the-trail use, but that's not as important as all of the models hold up fairly well against nature.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

I have an e-trex summit and I like it. It does not have the base maps and all that other stuff, but it gets me within 10 feet of the cache.