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Well, we did get a new handheld GPS to see how that impacted our geocaching. We went with a Magellan eXplorist 100 after finding it on pricegrabber for $80. The first thing I did was toss some batteries in it, enter the coordinates (in DEG MM.MMM format) directly to it for a cache we had already found and hopped on my bike to make a beeline for it. I got there, stood basically on top of it and according to the Magellan I was 5 ft away. Much better than the results we had with the car based GPS unit, which would sometimes drift some 200 or more feet around while you were standing still. The next day we went after two caches we had missed previously and found them both. GPS:2, Caches: 0.

So I’ve already made a page for geocaching on this site (it’s right over –>) and I’ll start updating it with our finds and misses. You can also check my account on the geocaching site, which is mlitherland.

One last comment, and then you can stop reading my blog for at least a little while. Before I decided to buy the Magellan I put a bid on eBay for a Garmin GPS 60, which is about feature equivalent to the Magellan (though 2x the price if you buy it retail). Well, I won on my low-ball bid, so I now have 2 handheld GPS units. I’ll be selling one (probably the Garmin) but as the Garmin was slightly used I’ll probably toss some batteries in it and do a review/comparison of the two. One thing’s for sure, though – I would not recommend buying the Garmin eTrex when for the same price you can get the much more feature complete eXplorist 100. The later comes with WAAS support and a much nicer screen and (IMO) user interface. I’m also really looking forward to getting the bike mount for the Magellan as it’d be a fantastic little bike computer including a speedometer accurate to 0.1M/H.