Last night Team DeLorme met up with a group of geocachers for a cache run in Salt Lake City.

We started out at the Salt Lake City Travel Bug where we met the cache owner, Lefty624. He was very helpful and allowed us to hold a little meet and greet at his location. We were joined by cachers from the Utah Association of Geocachers as well as some cachers who were attending the Outdoor Retailer Show. We found five caches in all with most of them being pretty challenging micro and nano caches. Geooogle, a local cacher, showed of some exceptional geosense and helped with several of the difficult micros. Thanks to Firennice for sharing his local knowledge of Utah geocaching as well as helping to keep us out of the hot sun! Thanks also goes to Cache Advance for sharing more about using Textmarks for geocaching, check out her post for a cool way to share that you’ve found the cache. Congratulations to Cach-U-Nuts for winning the Eartha 3D geocoin!

Here are some photos from the event. Thank you to all that attended, it was a lot of fun to get out and geocache while visiting Utah!

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

John Huston visited the DeLorme booth today to share stories, pictures, and waypoints from the historic trip that he and Tyler Fish completed during their Victorinox North Pole ‘09expedition. The two polar explorers became the first Americans to ski unsupported to the North Pole on April 25th of 2009… and they did it with the help of their DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 GPS devices! You can check out their blog to read more about the trip. Here are two of my favorite entries… the first covers a very scary event where John fell through the ice and spent some time in arctic waters.

http://www.forwardexpeditions.com/226-day-47-an-eventful-day-4-17.html

The second is titled “The Long Road Home” and shows a photo of the PN-40 on Tyler’s journal with an entry that simply states “The North Pole. Tired, proud… smart, safe. Here… we are here now.”  

http://www.forwardexpeditions.com/263-the-long-road-home-5-21.html

John brought his PN-40 with him to the booth and we were able to download the waypoints and take a couple of pictures. Check out the DeLorme patch on John’s expedition fleece, very exciting!

The Topo USA map below doesn’t show much detail for the North Pole but John was very happy with the device, especially when they started tracking their rate of drift at the end of the trip. The current was moving the ice so quickly they ended up deciding to ski without breaks for the end of the trip just to make sure they made it to the pole in time for their return shuttle!

We really appreciate John taking the time out of his busy schedule to stop by the DeLorme booth and share their experience with the Earthmate GPS. Check out their site for lots of great details about the trip.

Keep an eye out for the August edition of Backpacker magazine where DeLorme has a two page ad on the inside cover congratulating John and Tyler on their amazing accomplishment. I was lucky enough to get John to sign my copy. We have a few other signed magazines at the DeLorme booth at Outdoor Retailer if you stop by…

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

We had a great day at Pineview Reservoir during Outdoor Retailer’s 2009 Open Air Demo day. Lots of people stopped by to check out our new products.

We spoke with retailers and product reviewers at the tent and I got some time to talk shop with a few of the other GPS manufacturers. I took the Geomate Jr for a test drive, nice concept and it’s always good to see new products out there. The rock in the photo is a geocache container, first time I’ve seen one of those… very creative!

I found some time to check out all of the paddle sport products and gear manufacturers, one of my favorite parts of the Outdoor Retailer show. It’s like being a kid in a candy factory, so much gear and so little time. I’m just hoping we see some PN-40s with Navionics charts out there on those sea kayaks once they hit the retail stores!

I had a nice conversation about the PN-Series devices with the people from Trailspace.com, check out their blog post for the writeup and other good info from the Open Air Demo. One of the guys from Geocaching.com visited with us for a while and shared some great feedback from the people at Groundspeak and from their forum. We even had a few geocachers stop by to let us know that they will be attending Wednesday’s cache run in Salt Lake City. Cache Advance stopped to visit with her dog Eve!

I’m going to dig out one of the last Eartha 3D coins to give away on Wednesday so try to make it, could be one of your last chances! Don’t worry though, everyone will get an Eartha 2D coin and I’ll have some Team DeLorme coins if you’re looking to trade. Should be a lot of fun!

See you then,
Chip Noble
DeLorme

We had a long day today… setting up the booth took quite a while but we’re excited to have a new design this year. I took a few pictures during setup to show off the new Serious Tools theme. I’ll grab more photos on Tuesday during the show but for now here’s a before and after…

When we finished the booth setup we left Salt Lake and returned to Park City for our geocaching event. Turnout was a little low but we had a great time anyway. Three of us made our way through Park City on a micro-cache run completing our goal and setting a new record for Team DeLorme with 10 caches found in one day! I know they don’t have a pin for those kind of stats but we were pretty pleased with our accomplishment. Here’s a map showing the caches and track log from our trip. We used aerial imagery the most, it really helped us navigate the paths and buildings around Park City.

Our favorite cache was a Web Cam cache, I actually called a co-worker back in Maine to have him look at a particular cache with a website for a camera. He described what he was seeing on the website and we figured out how to get infront of the lense! It was even better when our friend was able to control the camera and follow us as we walked around the area! Thanks for all your help with the web cam cache Mike!

A few more photos from today…

We’re off to Outdoor Retailer’s Open Air Demo now, drop by the tent if your attending the show!

Thanks,
Chip Noble
DeLorme

We are going to be in Utah for the Outdoor Retailer trade show and we were wondering if anyone wanted to join Team DeLorme for a little geocaching! We’re going to be caching in Park City on Sunday, July 19th and Salt Lake City on Wednesday, July 22nd.

Sunday’s cache run will start at  Park City American Dragon at 7PM and run down to the Par-King cache. Round trip we’re looking at about a 6 mile walk. I’m hoping that we’ll find the 10 caches in the area and set a new record for finds in one day for Team DeLorme… I know it’s not that impressive for some of you but it’s a start for us!

Wednesday’s cache run will start at the Salt Lake City Travel Bug Hotel at 6PM and go in the direction of the Temple Square cache. There seems to be a lot of puzzle caches in the area, something I’m not very good at, but we’ll see how we do. The walk is only half a mile from the Salt Palace to the Temple Square so plan on about an hour of geocaching. We’ll play it by ear from there.

We will have Earthmate PN-40s available for people to try out. We’ll also be giving away Eartha 2D geocoins and trading Team DeLorme coins with anyone that would like to join us. Look for the guy wearing the blue SERIOUS TOOL t-shirt with the orange GPS around his neck and introduce yourself! Actually, since we’ll be doing a fair bit of travel each day, please send me an e-mail, chip.noble@delorme.com, if you are planning to join us. I’ll confirm all of these times and location to make sure that no one misses the excitement.

I hope you’ll be able to make it, we’re looking forward to spending some time geocaching in and around all the gear talk we’ll be doing at the trade show. Come by to check out the Earthmate, bring your own device, show off your cache statistics, tell us what features you like in a geocaching GPS and spend some time telling geocaching stories with Team DeLorme.

See you then!

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

Edit: The show was recorded and posted online. Visit geocachingpodcast.info for more information and to listen.

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Tomorrow evening at 9:30 I’ll be talking with the folks from Geocaching Podcast. We’ll be talking about the PN-Series devices and taking calls from listeners.

To listen to the podcast live, join the text chat, or to call in (via telephone or internet) to ask questions, visit geocachingpodcast.info. The phones and chat are open at 9:15 PM Eastern and the show begins at 9:30. The show is also recorded and is usually available for download the following day.

I might even have a few Eartha 2D geocoins to give out if anyone feels like calling in to chat. I hope you can make it!

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

I spent last week camping at Sebago Lake State Park and decided to celebrate the 4th of July with a little moonlight paddle on the Songo River. I left from the Songo Lock (pic 1, pic 2) with three friends in two canoes at around 10:30 PM and enjoyed a peaceful trip to the sand bar on the group camping side of the state park where we were staying.

Knowing that we would be paddling in the dark, I took the time to create a track in Topo USA that I would be able to follow with my PN-40. I was very pleased to see how useful the aerial imagery was in planning my route. The river has changed course in a few places since I was a boy so it was very helpful to see the shortcuts.

I was also very excited to see the Navionics Hot Maps lake chart data in action. The chart data for the Songo River was very helpful in showing us the deep sections of the river. Even though we were paddling canoes, it was still reassuring to know we were in the channel given the strong current and the fact that we were paddling at night! In a rare moment of clear thinking I passed on capturing screenshots while I was navigating the canoe but I have since gone back and captured shots showing some areas where the imagery and lake charts were most helpful.

This next screenshot shows the high detail aerial imagery that is available from the Maine GIS site. I loaded this map on the PN using XMap… an upgrade to Topo USA that is available direct from DeLorme.

The last picture shows my Earthmate PN-40 SE on the floor of the canoe. Keep in mind that because the Navionics SD card is locked all other maps need to be stored on the internal memory. This is why I use the SE model with 8 GB of internal memory for all of my maps and aerial imagery.

Remember to install the latest 2.6 Navionics firmware update on your Earthmate PN-40 if you are looking to use the Navionics lake or marine chart SD cards. If you haven’t purchased a PN-40 yet, give the SE model some consideration. These devices sold out when the PN-40 first released but have been brought back for a limited time with the Navionics release. Having the larger internal memory available will give you more flexibility when you have to swap your map SD card out for your Navionics card.

Let me know if you have any questions about how I set the device up with aerial imagery and Navionics Hot Maps for the Songo River and if you are ever staying at Sebago Lake State Park be sure to take a trip to the Songo Lock and paddle the Songo River, it’s a great adventure… day or night!

Chip Noble
DeLorme

I’m headed out for the Trek Across Maine in a few hours, and I just wanted to make a quick blog entry to show everyone the route and let you know that I bought a new gadget to go along with my Earthmate PN-40 GPS… I’ll be SPOT Casting my way from Sunday River in Bethel to Steamboat Landing in Belfast! The ride is a 3-day, 180 mile trek to raise money for the Maine Lung Association to help them with their fight against lung disease. This is our fifth year riding as a team. We’ve been making the Trek maps for much longer than that and are proud to be Gold Level sponsors of the event. We’ll be giving away two PN-40s with bike mounts along with all the data for the ride so that two people can join Team DeLorme in knowing exactly how far it is to the next rest stop! Learn more about the Trek and Team DeLorme.

I’ve created a few posts in the past with information about how our Earthmate PN-Series devices provide turn-by-turn directions, making them great navigation aids on long bike rides. I’ve also shared posts about the athletic data options in our Topo USA product. Here’s a screenshot from our Sunday River Training Ride that took place two weeks ago. You’ll see in the graph that my heart rate hit 196 while I was trying to stay ahead of one of the other riders… I’m submitting the profile to the Tour because I think this climb would be Beyond Category! It sure felt like it anyway…

So keep your eye out for Team DeLorme if you live between Bethel and Belfast… if you’re further away than that you can see our trek play out on our SPOT Adventures page where I’ll be SPOT Casting my location throughout the weekend. There will be an update every 10 minutes… pretty cool stuff.

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

This weekend, June 5-7, Team DeLorme is teaming up with Outside magazine to bring geocaching to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO.

Thousands of people will descend on Vail for three days of sports, music, art, and fun. DeLorme will be in Gear Town all weekend demonstrating and selling the Earthmate PN-40 to all comers. On Saturday, June 6, we’ll be running a geocaching event where you can win great prizes from DeLorme and Outside, including one of three Earthmate PN-40 GPS devices!

DeLorme and Outside are hosting the geocaching event from 10am until 4pm. We will have PN-40s to lend out that are preloaded with the special Teva Mountain Games caches that we’ll be placing in various spots around the games’ many different venues.

Come on out to Vail for a fun weekend of mountain sports and music, go geocaching, win prizes, and try out the Earthmate PN-40! See you there!

-Brian

I created a short video of the Cache Register widget for those that couldn’t make it to Bell Buckle, Tennessee to see the demo at GeoWoodstock VII. Check it out here or by clicking on the screen shot below…

A few answers to good questions that have come up since I created the video…

-The widget is cross platform, it will work on your Mac as well as your PC!
-Cache Register will work with all of our PN-Series devices.
-The widget will cost $9.95 and will be downloadable from our website.
-You will need a premium membership if you want to make Pocket Queries on Geocaching.com’s site.
The ability to load 500 geocaches at a time is well worth it and you get all the hints!
-You will be able to load GPX files with your custom filters from GSAK.
-Cache Register is scheduled to release on our website this week! Edit: Released!

Edited to add: -Cache Register will also transfer the Additional Waypoints for geocaches with the associated cache name as a prefix to help you keep track of waypoint and geocaches!

Let us know if you have any questions about the new Geocaching widget. We’re very excited to hear what everyone has to say once they’ve had a chance to try it out!

Thanks,
Chip Noble
Team DeLorme