(These instructions will work with the Garmin Colorado, but there are other options for that as well, see : http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/Geocaching)
- Become a premium member at Geocaching.com. For $30 a year, you get Pocket Queries (and many other features : http://www.geocaching.com/subscribe/)
- Setup pocket queries for the areas you will be geocaching. Log in to geocaching.com, on the left click on My Account, then on the right select "Build Pocket Queries". A pocket query is a way to 'search' for geocaches, and it will return a list of geocaches inside of a .gpx file. This file can be automatically emailed to you.
- Geocaching software. I use GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). Download it at gsak.net. What is the purpose of the extra software? It provides a local storage and management of all the geocaches you are interested in. Plus GSAK will check your email and retrieve all the 'pocket query' emails coming from geocaching.org and automatically add/update the geocaches returned. (This also means that geocaches that you find will be automatically marked locally as well). So at this point, you have daily/weekly emails coming from Geocaching.com, and GSAK will update from them. So now you just need to get them into your gps.
- Waypoints or POIS? On the 60 Csx, there 2 ways to store the geocaches. They can be treated as normal waypoints, or custom pois (points of interest). The 60CSx is limited to 1000 waypoints (sounds like a lot, but geocaches add up fast - especially if you are on a road trip). The only limit to 'custom pois' is space available on your SD memory card - great!
To load custom pois, Garmin provides a POI loader program. Now all we have to do is tell GSAK to export our geocaches, and use the Garmin POI Loader to send them to the GPS.
Here is a 'macro' to add to GSAK, which will do exactly what we want. http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=3172&st=0&#entry32637
The best part about this, is it also uses custom icons, so the icons on the gps look like the icons on Geocaching.com's 2D map. - Export-Import Run the export, then run Garmins POI Loader. Go to the map view on your gps, and voila - Geocaches!
- The Geocache Lifecyle OK, once you have your software set up, and geocaches on your GPS, it's time to actually go find one. Here are the steps I use.
- Go find geocaches and sign the log books.
- When I get home, I log into Geocaching.com and go to the geocaches that I found using the 2D map. I then sign each geocache with the "Log your visit" option. This marks the geocache as found in your account. The next time your pocket queries are emailed to you, these geocaches will be marked as found (a different icon)
- I have my pocket queries set to email me every Thursday.
- Every Friday I run GSAK, have it check my email, and export the geocaches to garmin pois. Then I run the Garmin POI Loader to update the geocaches in my GPS. Now all found Geocaches show up as such on the GPS.
- There may be other ways to handle the logging of geocaches (I would be interested to hear in what other people do). This is working fine for me. The part I like, is that I can now edit/add/remove pocket queries and it is all handled automatically by GSAK.
