[Trekkers2012]

I've been interested in getting involved in geocaching for quite a while now and thought that I'd seriously get more involved this summer. Our local store had the Magellan Explorist GC on special and I was wondering if those of you who are familiar with this gps thought that it is suitable for a beginner geocacher.

Thanks,
Trekkers 2012

[ohmelli]

Well... I recently bought that unit, thinking it might get me EVEN closer than my smart phone. I honestly like my phone better! BUT... my 7 year old granddaughter was using the Magellan this evening - and had no trouble with it! I've gotta think that if she can use it, pretty much ANYBODY can!

[Flintstone5611]

A friend got one, and I don't think it gives directions, just a straight line to the cache. You can get that from cheaper units. It does have the paperless feature, but I do like using my Oregon450. It is a full GPS with paperless geocaching ability and the ruggedness that you need for the outdoors. Just my $0.02.

[6NoisyHikers]

We use an Explorist GC as our only caching device. Works great for us (not that we have anything else to compare it by) and was reasonably inexpensive at $150. It also comes with a month of premium membership so you can test drive pocket queries, etc.

We've had it for a year and everything still works perfectly. It gets good signal in the woods, but it doesn't much like being amidst tall buildings. I load up all the local caches once every few weeks and carry it with me whenever we go anywhere so we are always ready to cache. I've got about 7000 caches in it right now.

With my very limited (see: none at all) knowledge about GPS units, I would say that the Explorist GC is great for your standard suburban/regional park caching. Easy to use, even for kids, durable, and a decent price.

[hidnseek]

Magellan GC base map is street level worldwide. However it does not have auto routing or topo. If you want those suggest the 610 and added auto routing map (which provides voice directions)

As a basic beginner geocaching unit though, the GC is a good unit. One you can drop on the trail, in a creek and it will still keep going. Has the cache info, holds 10,000 caches, but you will want to update to remove disabled and archive and add new fresh caches. Easy to connect to computer and drag drop pocket queries to. Yes does provide a go to line from where you are to where you want to go, the base map may tell you road side or off road in a park, may not show all creeks (again that would be topo of 610)

[Brian~!]

I use one myself, and find it to be some of the simplest GPS to use. For one, you don't have to install maps, they're preinstalled, and there's no fancy method of installing the caches from a pocket query - you simply plug the GC in and open it up in windows as if it was a harddrive and copy and paste the pocket query files into the Geocaches folder. Really simple!

The only downpoint I find with the device is that I strongly recommend changing the options to set North to up and not have the device automatically correct - otherwise you'll spend hours on a caching run walking around in circles as you stride off in completely the wrong direction because the GPS hasn't updated yet. It's easily fixable and with that sorted it's a quality caching experience.

One thing I can't praise high enough - the buttons are on the front and are labelled! My last GPS had them uncomfortably on the side and with icons that I could never remember - I always used to hit all the wrong buttons first and end up on completely the wrong menu - has never happened with the GC.

[Mr.Yuck]

I'm kind of late to the thread, who knows if a decision was made yet. As you can see to the left of my post, I'm a somewhat experienced 9 year Geocacher, but the wife got me one of these beginner GPS units for Christmas. And it is of course a beginner's GPS, and absolutely I would recommend it to a beginner, I like it! I actually have nothing to add, it's all been said, including by Hidnseek, whom if you look at their signature line, is a Magellan Insider member.

[Melandrew]

We have been using an Explorist GC for the past year. Although it is a great GPS for the bigger that doesn't have a lot of money, it should be mentioned that there are some very annoying problems with this GPS. There is a pretty big delay when booting up the unit to when the GPS actually receives a signal and figures out where you are. We recently found out that there are no downloadable trail maps specifically for this unit which makes figuring out your roots a little more difficult on the fly. Another problem is that the compass is a digital compass and not electronic. This means that the GPS requires you to move several feet before it figures out what direction you’re facing. This poses a problem because once you get to the ground zero of the cache location; you must walk back and forth until the GPS realizes how close you actually are to the cache. My suggestion is that people new to the sport use a smart phone app that can give them a taste for the hunt. If they feel that this is a spot they want to continue with, then purchasing a GPS with a digital compass and capable of loading trail maps to make your life easier getting through the trails. Hope this was helpful.

[Mr.Yuck]

Melandrew, on 14 May 2012 - 06:01 PM, said:

We have been using an Explorist GC for the past year. Although it is a great GPS for the bigger that doesn't have a lot of money, it should be mentioned that there are some very annoying problems with this GPS. There is a pretty big delay when booting up the unit to when the GPS actually receives a signal and figures out where you are. We recently found out that there are no downloadable trail maps specifically for this unit which makes figuring out your roots a little more difficult on the fly. Another problem is that the compass is a digital compass and not electronic. This means that the GPS requires you to move several feet before it figures out what direction you’re facing. This poses a problem because once you get to the ground zero of the cache location; you must walk back and forth until the GPS realizes how close you actually are to the cache. My suggestion is that people new to the sport use a smart phone app that can give them a taste for the hunt. If they feel that this is a spot they want to continue with, then purchasing a GPS with a digital compass and capable of loading trail maps to make your life easier getting through the trails. Hope this was helpful.

Oh shoot, an electronic compass is a "high end" GPS unit feature. Lets put it this way, I've cached for 9 years with 4 different GPS units, and I've never had a unit with one. My smartphone app, which I don't use very often, does actually have one.

True, you can start getting into downloadable trail maps with a $200 unit (Garmin Etrex 20, or Magellan Explorist 310), where the Explorist GC is a $150 unit.

[Melandrew]

Mr.Yuck, on 14 May 2012 - 06:08 PM, said:

Melandrew, on 14 May 2012 - 06:01 PM, said:

We have been using an Explorist GC for the past year. Although it is a great GPS for the bigger that doesn't have a lot of money, it should be mentioned that there are some very annoying problems with this GPS. There is a pretty big delay when booting up the unit to when the GPS actually receives a signal and figures out where you are. We recently found out that there are no downloadable trail maps specifically for this unit which makes figuring out your roots a little more difficult on the fly. Another problem is that the compass is a digital compass and not electronic. This means that the GPS requires you to move several feet before it figures out what direction you’re facing. This poses a problem because once you get to the ground zero of the cache location; you must walk back and forth until the GPS realizes how close you actually are to the cache. My suggestion is that people new to the sport use a smart phone app that can give them a taste for the hunt. If they feel that this is a spot they want to continue with, then purchasing a GPS with a digital compass and capable of loading trail maps to make your life easier getting through the trails. Hope this was helpful.

Oh shoot, an electronic compass is a "high end" GPS unit feature. Lets put it this way, I've cached for 9 years with 4 different GPS units, and I've never had a unit with one. My smartphone app, which I don't use very often, does actually have one.



An electronic compass is now found in GPS's in the $300 range. I've been looking at the Garmin 400 as it has this feature and a bunch more. This is why I have always suggested that if someone is starting out and is not sure how hardcore there going to go with the sport, to try the cell phone app at first. If you feel that you don't want to drop $300 to $400 into the sport after a couple months, then go with the Explorist GC. I have just found that it requires a bit more patients when using it. I've owned my Explorist GC for almost a year now. I don't regret my purchase, however if I was better informed I wpuld have saved my money and purchased one with the Wherigo and electronic compass features.

True, you can start getting into downloadable trail maps with a $200 unit (Garmin Etrex 20, or Magellan Explorist 310), where the Explorist GC is a $150 unit.

[northernpenguin]

Mr.Yuck, on 14 May 2012 - 06:08 PM, said:

True, you can start getting into downloadable trail maps with a $200 unit (Garmin Etrex 20, or Magellan Explorist 310), where the Explorist GC is a $150 unit.

Just a note that the Magellan GPS units are so far a complete and total pain in the behind when it comes to creating trail maps for them. If you're interested in trail maps, particularly the community generated ones you are far, far better off with a Garmin that's less than 6 years old. The eXplorist GC is a great entry level device but not for custom maps.

[Mr.Yuck]

northernpenguin, on 18 May 2012 - 11:05 AM, said:

Mr.Yuck, on 14 May 2012 - 06:08 PM, said:

True, you can start getting into downloadable trail maps with a $200 unit (Garmin Etrex 20, or Magellan Explorist 310), where the Explorist GC is a $150 unit.

Just a note that the Magellan GPS units are so far a complete and total pain in the behind when it comes to creating trail maps for them. If you're interested in trail maps, particularly the community generated ones you are far, far better off with a Garmin that's less than 6 years old. The eXplorist GC is a great entry level device but not for custom maps.

True, especially coming from "The Mad Mapper of Halton". What I should have said is you can get into downloadable maps, without the word trail inserted, in a $200 and up Magellan.

MelandDrew quoted me, but didn't post anything. I hope they didn't have an epic blast for me or anything! I still stand by "meh" for having a handheld GPSr with an electronic compass though. Digital "you have to be moving" compasses work brilliantly, as far as I'm concerned.

[hassanjulie]

I just purchased a garmin etrex summit hc off e-bay for $131 total still trying to figure out what I am doing but still fell back of my old magellan meridian gold to double check my coordinates. Meridan is set up for meters and garman is ft.

This post has been edited by hassanjulie: 21 May 2012 - 06:59 AM

[hidnseek]

hassanjulie, on 21 May 2012 - 06:54 AM, said:

I just purchased a garmin etrex summit hc off e-bay for $131 total still trying to figure out what I am doing but still fell back of my old magellan meridian gold to double check my coordinates. Meridan is set up for meters and garman is ft.

You should be able to go in to the settings and change ft to meters. Not sure the details on your unit, but if you play around you should find it.

[Paul n Susan]

northernpenguin, on 18 May 2012 - 11:05 AM, said:

Just a note that the Magellan GPS units are so far a complete and total pain in the behind when it comes to creating trail maps for them. If you're interested in trail maps, particularly the community generated ones you are far, far better off with a Garmin that's less than 6 years old. The eXplorist GC is a great entry level device but not for custom maps.

I agree 112%, I have a Magellan Triton 1500 and I build my own topographical maps using freely available vector data, and I incorporate the Ontario Trails Project whenever I build a new map. It's a real trial, and I have varying degrees of success. I *think* that my topos are compatible with the Explorist series - 310 and above (although I don't think you can upload maps to the Explorist GC, and I really haven't tested it with anything but a Triton). If you're an Explorist user in Ontario and would like a map with Ontario Trails, feel free to drop me a message and you can be the guinea pig, I'd be interested to know how it works.