geocaching with a touch pro

[tom6433]

my wife and i decided to give geocahing a try yesterday, so i loaded up GCz, found a cache and set off on our journey. i noticed a couple of issues.

the maps button within GCz loads google maps, which is fine, however google maps requires a data connection in order to load the maps. this did not work well for me. so i ditched google maps and gave garmin a shot. garmin actually worked quite well. the way i ended up using it would be to input the coordinates and instead of hitting the Go! button to have it give me directions i hit map at teh bottom. it would pull up a map of me (the car icon) and a dot in the center of the screen (point). clicking on an icon at the top that looked similar to a ^ would tell me for far and wich direction i needed to go in order to reach those coordinates. the issue i had there was i constantly had to reload the map so it would tell me how far i had to go. it would move our location (blue car) on the map but it would not recalculate the distance/direction. in the end we found all 3 in teh multi-cache, but it could have been a lot easier if we had proper software.

i ended up loading the map on the TP to get an inital bearing and distance and then pulling out a compass and following it for a clip or two, reload the map, pull out compass, repeat, repeat.

my question is, is there any better geocaching software out there for the TP? i really do not want to go out and buy another GPS device when i already have one for the car and the TP. i think this could be a good thread, so please post your ideas and/or experiences with what you have tried.

[Mylt1]

why do you have an issue with google maps, do you not have data on your line? im using GCZ's program and love it.

[tom6433]

Originally Posted by Mylt1

why do you have an issue with google maps, do you not have data on your line? im using GCZ's program and love it.

there weren't any towers where i was yesterday, meaning no data available. i knew i should have clarified in the first post. it would work if data was not an issue, but data is not always available. we are going back to the smoky mountains this year for vacation and i am sure there isn't cell coverage throughout the park, so i am trying to plan ahead.

[tom6433]

i know there has to be more than 2 ppl that geocache with TP's. come on, through in your $.02.

[rsbrown69]

I use GCz and love it, but all of my hunting so far has been in locations with cell service so no help with out of service areas.

[35mm]

If I am going somewhere with no cell coverage I download waypoints to my phone and use BeeLine GPS.

[brian smith]

I just went out with my family and my TP yesterday and had a great time. I also use GCz and did not have good Sprint Service where we were Caching. Fortunately I had the force roaming .cab installed, so I switched it to roaming and away we went. Worked great. For some reason I keep getting Lat and Lon confused, but I think that is a mental hardware issue and not a Software issue, lol.

[sheureka]

I use Back Country Navigator - http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/. Here's a page about using it for geocaching - http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/content/view/19/41/. Enjoy! - sheureka

[DaPeeps]

Check out Geoscout...it will connect and interface with your account at www.geocaching.com...you can import caches from the site and get info directly from the site...invaluable.....really...an absolute must.

Richesse GPS is also pretty useful for Geocaching.

Google Maps is valuable for two reasons 1 - Being able to see the satellite view is INVALUABLE when comparing where you are to where the cache is. Also, if youre caching with others...the ladditude option is nice to have.

I also use TomTom sometimes when driving to a cache.

The ultimate setup is using a program called Franson GPSGate with a laptop..it will let you connect your phone to the laptop, and tether it for internet access while using it as a GPS device at the same time. Doing this, you can use any Windows GPS program to cache...even google earth. You can create lists of caches from geocaching.com, and import them into Google Earth, then the phones GPS will direct you to each cache....OMFG its awesome.

[fsubartender]

I know the program is kind of old..but try the program Smache.

http://www.cyancanyon.com/software/smache/