nüvi caching – test #2

Erased the caches in the nüvi and reloaded them, using 1000 feet as the alert distance.

Went to brunch today and took the GPSr with us.  Found 3 “park and grab” caches along the way, using just the nüvi to find them.

nüvi caching – test

2trux downloaded his standard pocket query for 500 easy and unfound (by us) caches within a 26 mile radius of our house.  Then used the pilotsnipes macro to upload them into the nüvi.

Mounted the GPSr on the dashboard using Garmin’s portable friction mount (new design), then took off in the vicinity of the cache.  Since we live in the area,  we have a pretty good idea where it’s located.  Once we were within 750 feet (user definable number), an alarm went off, and a popup appeared notifying me that there was a cache nearby.  Selected the cache and let it route me to it.  Parked very close to it (parking lot micro) and found it, without resorting to our handheld unit.

nüvi caching

Have been doing research on “nüvi caching”.  Earlier in the summer, while talking with DRMOO at an dinner event in Ontario, we learned how they used a nüvi to navigate to the cache locations.  Once they got near the cache, they used their handheld unit.  We plan to use our nüvi in the same manner.

To load the caches, we used GSAK with the “pilotsnipes” macro.   The macro creates an export file, which is then used as in input to the Garmin POI loader to upload the data into the nüvi.

One can set a distance alert, so that you receive a beep/visual prompt when you are within X (feet/meters) of the POI (cache).  We also have access to the description, difficult/terrain ratings, hint, and last 5 logs.  While we’re not sure we’ll give up the PDA, it will be nice to have this information readily available to us, before we attempt to go after a cache.

Bought a Garmin nüvi today

On our past couple of visits to Sams Club, 2trux has been eyeballing a Garmin nüvi 255W.  We decided to purchase one today.