Well, I was beginning to think that the fates were conspiring against me. Right after my Geomate jr. review unit arrived, I took it outside and it guided me to a couple urban geocaches within walking distance of my house — but these I had found before. A true test, I figured, should involve at least one cache I had never found or tried to find before. But this would involve a car trip out of the city, and every time I planned a day for it, something would happen: a meeting I couldn’t skip would get scheduled for that day, a torrential downpour would occur, things like that. As you can see from one of the photos below, one time I decided to hell with the rain and went out anyway, improvising a rain cover for the unit. Another time, I stubbed my middle toe — how does anyone stub their middle toe? — so bad it swelled up to twice its size and turned the most amazing shades of purple and red. Finally, I got to take the Geomate jr. out for some real caching. The quick and dirty verdict? I love this little guy.

If you haven’t heard about this unit, and you’re too lazy to follow the link above to the post I made when it first hit the market last May, let me briefly summarize. It is designed to be a dedicated, inexpensive GPS handheld unit for geocaching. It has geocaching data from Geocaching.com — Geomate’s maker, Apishere, has partnered with company behind the site — preinstalled. Its interface is designed to be easy and simple to use right out of the box. So simple that even an adult can use it; a child will have no problem figuring out how to use this little unit inside of five minutes. If it doesn’t look or sound intuitive to you, as always read the manual first.

It really is that simple. The Geomate jr. has a grand total of two buttons — three if you include the power button on top of the unit. Beyond that, there is the left (the larger) button and the right (the smaller) button, or, as I’ve come to think of them, the page button (the right one) and the arrow button (the left button, with a big arrow on it). The Apishere folks sent me a hardcopy of the downloadable, 24-page manual for the Geomate jr., but I never bothered to read it, as I didn’t have to. All I needed to know I found in the little quick-start guide (which you can also find online at the Geomate jr. site), which is about the size of a business card with several fold-out pages. In other words, it easily fits in your pocket.

When you fire the Geomate jr. up, the initial display indicates that the unit is looking for satellites (“GPS SEARCH”); if it can’t see any after a moment or too, it helpfully instructs you to “FIND CLEAR SKY.” The SiRFstarIII unit on board had no trouble finding a lock after a minute or two with a cold start, and the firmware on board is so simple, boot time is nil; it instantly turns on and off. Once it gets a lock, the Geomate jr. main display shows you the direction to the closest cache, the “find” and terrain difficulty levels (1-5, as rated on Geocaching.com), the GPS satellite lock status, the distance to the cache, and the size of the cache (again, using Geocaching.com standards).

The page button scrolls through the different pages, so to speak, and the arrow button scrolls the different sections of each page. In addition to the default screen, there is a geocache code page, a compass and position page, and the list of found geocaches (Geomate jr. lets you mark a cache as “found” once you find it; a smiley face then appears when you scroll to that cache on the geocaching screen, in addition to the usual data). By scrolling through the different sections, you can scroll through the list of caches by distance (in feet or miles) or by the cache’s code (say, if you’ve looked up ahead of time a specific one you want to hunt for), your current heading, latitude and longitude (using the WGS‐84 coordinate system and expressed in decimal minutes), and the current no. of satellites the unit is tracking (and the no. actually being used). You can also scroll through your found list, for when you next log onto Geoaching.com and want to update your profile (that is if you want to; using Geocaching.com is completely optional, although heartily recommended).

On the default screen, referred to in the quick-step guide as the geocaching page, you can use the arrow or big button to scroll through nearby geocaches. You can also use the Geomate jr. for basic navigation by setting a “home” position — say, a trailhead, or the location of your car, by holding down both buttons. By pressing down and holding the arrow button, it will set whatever coordinates you’ve designated previously as your home location as your destination, showing you the direction and distance to it from your current location. You could also use the device’s electronic compass, coordinate display and a topo map to get around in old-school fashion.

Beware Muggles! The Game is Afoot, and So Am I

So, the interface is simple and fairly idiot proof, but how does it do out in the bush? I’m happy to report it works as advertised; in fact it is a joy to use for caching. As I mentioned above, when I first took it out, I decided to see if it could locate the caches not far from my home.  I live in an urban area, and have already found these (or at least their locations; there’s a couple microcaches I’ve never been able to find, even though I know their coordinates, but such is the nature of ‘caching). It directed me to these with now problems. Granted there is one cache out in a nearby park that is halfway down a steep hill leading down to a creek and under heavy tree cover. Both times I went out to it with the Geomate jr., it consistently sent me to a spot 10 to 15 feet off from the actual cache location. This isn’t uncommon for the best of GPS units however, under these conditions.

By way of comparison, I brought along my own handheld the second time (you know you’re a geek when you’re traipsing ’bout the woods with not one but two GPS units). My own unit has the same SiRF receiver, as well as firmware to improve the location accuracy, and even it was off about as much as the Geomate jr. In fact, I first found this cache with this same handheld when it was literally spot on, but this was in winter time, when the trees were bare and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky — unlike this stormy, cloudy day in the middle of summer. So there you go.

In all, I went to five different caches, and with the exception noted above, it was spot on. In fact, I found I enjoyed caching with this little unit better than my own handheld, simply because that is what the Geomate jr. was specifically designed to do. Navigate to a cache location, poke around and find it, sign the log in the cache, note it as found on the Geomate jr. with the press of a button, and then proceed to the next cache with the press of another button. Ready to head back to the trailhead? Press and hold a button, and then start walking in the direction the unit indicates. It doesn’t get any more simple than that, when it comes to handheld-aided navigation. Almost brilliant in its simplicity, really.

I should mention, in case you are new to GPS handhelds, electronic compasses and the like, that you have to be moving for the direction/heading indicator to work, by the way. I know some of the latest, high-end handhelds use firmware to get around this, but the Geomate jr. works just like most of its other brethren in this respect. If you’re used to using GPS handhelds, you will, of course, be used to this.

What’s Not to Love?

There are really no serious drawbacks to this unit. Sure, you might wish for a larger screen, a rechargeable lithium ion battery, or perhaps a body that’s rated to the IPX7 (water resistant) standard (note the phone cam shot off to your left). But I imagine these things would add to the cost.

At just $69.95, it’s cheaper than the simplest Garmin eTrex handhelds (assuming we’re talking about a new unit) that I’ve ever come across (you might find a used/refurbished Garmin eTrex for around the same price). And keeping it simple and low cost is kind of the whole point of the Geomate jr. As co-inventor Warren Hewerdine told me back in May:

You can’t just walk into REI and say, ‘I’d like to buy geocaching.’ … The way we want to (remedy) that is to make geocaching a lot more accessible to kids and families. … It doesn’t really matter where they are, they can switch it on and go.

And you don’t have to spend big bucks to get Jr. his own Geomate jr.

One more thing I’ll mention is the formfactor. As you can see from the photos, it’s small and lightweight; it is the same size as clamshell mobile phone when folded, and weighs less than all but the lightest (and most expensive) phones. It also — and I cannot emphasize how awesome I think this is — it has a gear loop on the bottom of the unit. I’ve preached this gospel for years. You can use a lanyard and wear the Geomate jr. around your neck, or you can clip it to the shoulder strap of your backpack, glancing down at it when you need to. Finally. I can only hope that other handheld manufacturers pick up on this design and it becomes a defacto standard — a gear loop on top of the unit is better than nothing, but not nearly as functional as one on the bottom.

Now, let’s say you’re an avid geocacher, and you’re thinking, “Well gee, Jeff, that’s great and all, but I’ve already logged all the caches in my area, except for the very latest ones, is the Geomate jr. going to have those?” Well, probably not. But the Geomate jr. has a microSD flash memory card slot on the side for future updates. I don’t believe the company has released an update yet, but then the Geomate only hit stores in May. You may be thinking that it would be nice if it had a USB interface for upgrading and I agree; if there is anything close to a drawback here, it is this — not a deal breaker, to be sure, but I can’t imagine it would have added to the cost to put in a USB port instead of a flash memory card slot. But then, I’m not a electrical engineer.

There is one significant feature that I do sorta miss, and that is a battery meter. But I’m really nitpicking here; it does have a low-battery indicator, which comes on after the two AAA batteries that power the unit get low on juice. Personally, I’d like to see that meter all the time. In any event, you should always carry extra batteries with you out in unfamiliar brush (along with a real compass and a real map).

The only other thing I can nitpick is that I imagine some users might want to use meters and kilometers instead of the luddite English system we Yanks use (and that no one else does anymore, not even the English use the English system), or for that matter, some other coordinate system. I imagine this could easily be done in firmware — perhaps with future expansion packs will provide this option, or we’ll see it on future models — Apishere does say that future expansion packs will cover other countries. But for most U.S. users and beginners, I don’t see this being an issue at all, and even most experienced users in the U.S. are going to be familiar and comfortable with WSG-84 and decimal minutes, not to mention feet and miles.

So, in summary, I’ll say it again. I love this little guy; I wish I didn’t have to send it back, and may pick up one of my own. I don’t need one, per se, but it would be nice to keep in the car for casual day hikes, when I just want to get some bearings on the trailhead, just in case, or day trips out to nearby state parks to go geocaching. If I lose it or it gets stolen, well, I’m not out a lot of money — my own handheld would cost significantly more to replace, and I’d never dream of leaving it in the car 24-7.

If you’re looking for a cheap handheld for the kids, one for yourself, or if you want to get them — or yourself or your adult friends — involved in geocaching, getting them a Geomate jr. is a great, inexpensive place to start. Check out Geocaching.com if you’re a noob (i.e., muggle) to find out all you need to know about geocaching, or Apisphere’s Geomate jr. site to find out more about the unit. You can also purchase the Geomate jr. there, or at REI stores, as well as REI’s online store. You’ll also note over there that note that REI users like the Geomate jr. too; only one out-and-out negative review out of 11 online reviews at the time of this posting (and as that reviewer notes, REI is great about returns).

Update/Correction!

Okay, I’ve been in touch with the Geomate peeps, and it seems what I thought was a microSD flash card slot is actually the port for the forthcoming update kit (we know what happens when we assume). With the kit, which will plug into the Geomate jr. and then connect to a PC via an included cable, users will be able to connect the unit to Mygeomate.com. Once connected they can upgrade the onboard cache database to the latest one available (including caches that have been placed as recently as 24 hours ago), or load complete cache databases for other areas of the world (and update these as needed), according to Apishere’s Hewerdine.

Once you get the update kit, there will reportedly be no other ongoing service charges, subscription fees, or limits on the number or frequencies of updates. And I’ve been told I can hang onto the Geomate jr. review unit for the time being as long as I agreed to review the update kit when it comes out (apparently soon); naturally I agreed.

You’ll also note there is an excellent question about multi-caches from a reader below (we called them “multicaches,” but I looked up the spelling — that’s what we journalists do — and of course it wasn’t in the dictionary. But it was on Geocaching.com, and it uses “multi-cache;” since that is the authority, we’ll stick with the hyphen). I’ve posed that question to the Geomate folks; when I hear back I’ll update this post yet again.

If you’re a muggle or a noob geocacher, multi-caches are just what the sound like. The initial coordinates lead you to the first cache, which has typically has hints/clues to find the next cache (which may not be an actual, physical cache, per se) and so on, until you get to the final cache, where often you will find a traditional cache, with log book and treasures to share. There are different variations of course, and sometimes you need to input coordinates into your handheld to get to a subsequent clue/cache or the final cache — so you can see how that would be tricky with the Geomate jr.

On the other hand, multi-caches are typically for the experienced geocacher — I admit, the only one I’ve tackled stumped me pretty quickly, although I shall try again (that’s the beauty of caching; you can always go back). So perhaps the database loaded on the Geomate jr. sorts these out, figuring that most users are going to be relatively new cachers. In any event, I’ll wait for Mr. Hewerdine to get back to me on that one. I’ll also ask if there is a projected data as to when the update kits will be available.

Incidentally, you can find a list of cache types at Geocaching.com, of course.

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And never let it be said I don’t go above and beyond the call; I even got injured in the line of duty on this one:

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