Wednesday, July 13, 2011 Lethbridge

6:40 am

The temperature is +15 C, with a high predicted of +24 C.

From the Environment Canada website: Today Increasing cloudiness. 40 percent chance of showers this morning. Showers beginning near noon. Risk of a thunderstorm. Wind becoming northwest 20 km/h this afternoon. High 24. UV index 3 or moderate. Tonight Cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers early this evening and risk of a thunderstorm. Clearing this evening. Wind northwest 20 km/h becoming light this evening. Low 11. Normals Max: 26°C Min: 11°C.

7:00 PM Geocaching

I drove into Calgary this morning to purchase my new handheld GPS receiver, a Garmin Montana 600. Needless to day there is more to this than just another little toy.

I also had to buy 2 maps for the unit (both maps are also viewable, I think, on the Mac). One map was Garmin's flagship for traffic routing on roads (called North America City Navigator). I bought the DVD which will then download onto my Mac and also onto the Montana. The second map is a Backroads BC and Alberta combo which provides contour lines and trails and is primarily intended for off-road (hiking) use. This came as a microSD card amd techie placed it in the unit for me. I am hoping to use this for a number of caches that are located away from the highways. We shall see. I purchased the Lifetime update card for the City Navigator card which gives me 4 updates a year for the life of the unit or the user, whichever comes first.

I then need an automotive suction cup mount and vehicle charger for use in a vehicle.

I received a free geocaching Travel Bug and supplemented that with a green bison tube which I plan to place in a green spruce tree.

Finally I bought a small case to hold the Montana 600 on my belt when I am traipsing through the woods.

At them moment I am charging the Lithium-ion battery in the Montana unit. Tomorrow I will begin playing with the various features.