TWiG – This Week in Geocaching – Garmin Responds

This is the ninth article in a ongoing series titled, “TWiG – This Week in Geocaching”. With each article I hope to highlight my personal geocaching treks and comment on anything that I find of interest that’s going on in the world of geocaching (i.e. geocaching related websites, forum posts, blogs, podcasts, etc.).

Garmin Responds

A few weeks ago I finally updated my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx to version 3.1 and was sorry that I did. The biggest problem that I had with the update was that it took much longer to acquire a satellite lock with 3.1 as compared to 3.0. Not long after I got an email notice of a new update. I rushed to install it, hoping that it would fix this problem. Thankfully version 3.2 gets a lock a much quicker than 3.1.

However there is one thing about the 3.2 update that drives me nuts, the Quit button on the compass page. When a geocache is selected as a waypoint and the compass page is selected, I can’t use the Quit key to go back to the previous page. The Quit key seems to be mapped to select the Found button on this screen. However, if a non-geocache waypoint is selected the Quit key will go back to the previous page.

Feeling very frustrated I fired off an email to Garmin. They quickly responded that they would look into it and try to duplicate the issue. Yesterday I received the following response:

With regards to the Quit button issue, I have duplicated this issue, and this will be annotated for our software engineers. I am hoping the new release to corrrect this will be out with in the next three weeks.

Outstanding! They were able to reproduce the error. Now to wait three weeks to see if gets included in the next update. However, today I received an email titled “[GPSMAP60CSx-updates] New software available for GPSMAP 60CSx”. What? Could it be? I quickly opened the message and much to my surprise I saw the following:

Changes made from version 3.20 to 3.30:
* Fix potential shutdown when searching UK extended postal codes.
* Ensure that all UK extended postal code search results are shown.
* Enable the Quit button function on the geocache compass page.

Wow! How awesome is this. I rushed to install the update and now I’m no longer frustrated. The Quit key works just like it should.

Keymaker’s 5K Event

The Keymaker’s 5K Event (GC10XTV) was held this past Saturday to honer geocacher Keymaker getting his 5000th find. It was really nice to put some faces to the names that I have seen on all the logs around here. The turn out and food was really good. I really enjoyed meeting other cachers and talking about geocaching. Visit the cache page to read the logs and view some pictures that I posted from the event.

Someone must have alerted the press because a guy showed up from the local newspaper, the Times Daily. Read the article online here: Geocachers use GPS units to find hidden treasure.

My 200th Find

After attending Keymaker’s 5K Event I took the kids out to find a few caches. I tried to make it so that the event would have been my 200th find, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. So I decided to try for another cache that has really frustrated me, The New Bridge (GCK3MP) , which was placed by Keymaker.

I’ve been to the this cache several times before. Each time I thought I knew where to look or where it was, but I kept coming up empty while others were logging finds. I also tried to make this my 100th find, but not luck. This time however, I found it, making it #200. My other attempts were all made during the evening and this time it was much earlier in the day, and it made a big difference. The funny this is that I had even told my wife on several occasions where/how I thought the cache was hidden, and I turned out to be right! I’m not going to say too much about it here, I don’t want to give it away, so you will have to find it yourself or contact the cache owner for the details.

BlazerBoy

It’s been almost a year since I started geocaching. One the main reasons I started geocaching was to get outdoors and spend more time with my two boys. We have found a lot of caches together, some with mom, and others I’ve found by myself. My oldest son, Tyler (12), asked if he could get his own Geocaching.com username so he could keep track of the caches that he has actually found. I told him it was a great idea and after much thought and consideration he decided to go with the geocaching name “BlazerBoy“. I’m am very honored that he wanted to use part of my name in his. I’m looking forward to a lot more geocaching and fun with him.

Just to note, mom has a geocaching name too, it’s “FabricMom“. Unfortunately her work schedule usually conflicts with our geocaching plans, so as of now she doesn’t log finds with her geocaching name. Maybe now that BlazerBoy is keeping track of finds she will too.

TFTC

One of my goals with this series of articles is to help keep me in the caching spirit and to remind me how much fun is involved with geocaching. I always appreciate comments and suggestions, so feel free to leave them here or send me an email. Have a great week and happy caching!