Caches along a route

I have been following a certain thread in GC.com for quite sometime now concerning having caches along a route being a new perk for GC.com members and they almost have all the bugs worked out and are ready to publish it very soon. I think this will be a great addition for those going on a trip and want to know about caches all along the route that they will be taking. Unfortunately for me it will be hard to use as I am on dialup and using Google Earth just takes too darn long to download but for those who are on high speed it will be a godsend. Here is the info that they have come up with and I am hoping that someone in here can test it out and see how it works for them.












We're still bug testing, but Raine is close to perfecting caches along a route. We already tested it with a small group and worked through most of the possible bugs and UI issues.

This is a short instruction on how you can create a route and generate a pocket query against it. Some points first:

1. This works anywhere in the world as long as you have a proper KML or GPX of routes/tracks.
2. We do not generate the routes themselves, but rely on outside tools like Mapsource and Google Earth to generate them.
3. However, we do plan to allow people to eventually click on a map to generate a route on the fly. I believe most will go the Google Earth route, however.
4. It only works with GPX 1.1 - not 1.0.

Here's the link:
http://www.geocaching.com/my/userroutes.aspx

1. Download/Install Google Earth (if you haven't already)
2. Click on the Directions tab in the upper left-hand corner of the page
3. Enter your start and end locations and click the button to generate your directions.
4. Scroll up the results with turns to the root (should have the start/end location)
5. Right click and choose "Save as"
6. Save as type (*.kml) and not (*kmz) which is the default.
7. Visit the geocaching link above.
8. Choose the tab "Upload GPX / KML"
9. Click Browse and find the file you saved from Google Earth
10. Click upload and after a short time it will show you the route in the window.
11. Check the box next to the name of your route and select the button "save selected routes." You can also click on preview to see it in the small map or double click on the route name to edit it before saving.
12. From here you can either click on the name to add more info, make it public, etc. Or you can create a pocket query with the "Create pocket query" link.
13. You should be able to follow the PQ creation process as it is similar to how it works using a point of origin.

We're looking for feedback, so have at it!



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Jeremy Irish
Groundspeak - The Language of Location ™

Wow! Great new feature. It worked great for me. That sure beats getting a bunch of PQ's and then having to filter them with GSAK.

I think maybe the next step to take if this does work as well as it is ,is to make a bookmark list of the routes and then everyone can use them. Thanks Slate for trying it out and I hope more of us here in Geomaine who generate a route will make them available to others as well.

I've wished for this for a LONG time. I've done a lot of route planning - did some for the trip we're on now - but it takes a lot of time and work.

Hope this will make it easier! :D :D

Great Feature --- Thanks Haffy!!

I did it with a bunch of PQs when I took my trip to Nebraska and back. I loaded a bazillion waypoints into my Mapsource and then deleted the one too far from the interstate by hand. Took over a week and I still missed some. I did get at least one in every state along the way though.

Wow! Thanks for sharing!! This will be very handy! Where would we upload the routes? Although I don't know if it would be necessary since they are so easy to generate.

I think what they are hoping is anyone who has a route established would be willing to share them with the rest of us.

I too have dial up and Google Earth takes forever. RobT showed me something like this that he did with GSAK and a pocket query, but Laughing Terry and Jereny Irish mentioned mapsource. I have that but I thought that pocket queries didn't load into mapsource. We'll need to have another event when this comes out so you all can explain it to me. This is one of the reasons I originally became a member.

Yes you can load your PQ's from GSAK into Mapsource. Just click on File at the top left and hit export and then Mapsource file from there you can generate the file at the bottom of that page and you should have all the PQ's that you chose from GSAK now in your Mapsource file. Hope that helped.

My husband is going to get me the DeLorme Street Atlas, if that's the one I wanted. That's the one RobT showed me and it has more roads than my TOPO. Thanks Mr Haffy:o

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FuddsGirls

My husband is going to get me the DeLorme Street Atlas, if that's the one I wanted. That's the one RobT showed me and it has more roads than my TOPO. Thanks Mr Haffy:o

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Street Atlas is very good to plan a caching trip. We usually print maps of the areas we cache in, so we can plan the best use of our time. And on a longer trip, we plot routes and then use GSAK to filter the caches along the route.

Not sure why - even with the expandable memory of the new Garmin GPSr's - that we're limited to 1,000 caches.

(Now I HOPE somebody will tell me I'm wrong and you CAN put more than 1,000 waypoints on the Garmin! LOL!) :D :D

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Originally Posted by WhereRWe?

Not sure why - even with the expandable memory of the new Garmin GPSr's - that we're limited to 1,000 caches.

(Now I HOPE somebody will tell me I'm wrong and you CAN put more than 1,000 waypoints on the Garmin! LOL!) :D :D

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With your 60csx you actually can have as many waypoints as you have space to save on your mircoSD card. You just have to upload your geocaches with Garmin point of interest (POI) loader. (see link below). I just got my new 60csx yesterday, so I haven't tried this new feature yet. There are topics about this in the GC.com forums, so if you do a search you can probably find step by step directions there.

http://www.garmin.com/products/poiloader/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slate

With your 60csx you actually can have as many waypoints as you have space to save on your mircoSD card. You just have to upload your geocaches with Garmin point of interest (POI) loader. (see link below). I just got my new 60csx yesterday, so I haven't tried this new feature yet. There are topics about this in the GC.com forums, so if you do a search you can probably find step by step directions there.

http://www.garmin.com/products/poiloader/

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Well, we are EXTREMELY pleased with our 60csx. We have not lost a signal yet.

I'll have to try this - we've had to stop several times to dump the caches in the GPSr and load new ones. :confused: :confused:

Ah... Maybe not such a good idea. It doesn't same them as "waypoints" as a GSAK export file would, but as "attractions" - mixed in with the other stuff. This is a good idea - maybe Garmin can tweak it (or someone can tell me a better way to work this...) :D

Glad to hear you are pleased with your 60csx. The improved reception is one of the main reasons we decided to upgrade, since we had a chance to sell our old 60c to a friend. It is amazing to see the difference in reception between the two units under difficult conditions.

It looks like you can create subcategories under the custom POI category. You could put all your geocaches in subcategory. I still haven't had time to try the POI loader yet, but there is lots of helpful info in this post:
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=122497&hl=loader

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhereRWe?

Ah... Maybe not such a good idea. It doesn't same them as "waypoints" as a GSAK export file would, but as "attractions" - mixed in with the other stuff. This is a good idea - maybe Garmin can tweak it (or someone can tell me a better way to work this...) :D

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I take this back! Now that I've had a chance to work with it, the Garmin POI loader is great. Instead of listing caches in the "waypoint" category, they're listed separately under "Geocaches" (Duh!) and you can do anything with them that you did with them in the waypoint category. I loaded over 2000 caches today, and it worked perfectly.

Thanks, Slate! :D :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slate

Glad to hear you are pleased with your 60csx. The improved reception is one of the main reasons we decided to upgrade, since we had a chance to sell our old 60c to a friend. It is amazing to see the difference in reception between the two units under difficult conditions.

It looks like you can create subcategories under the custom POI category. You could put all your geocaches in subcategory. I still haven't had time to try the POI loader yet, but there is lots of helpful info in this post:
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=122497&hl=loader

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See what I said, above. The caches show up under "all poi's", but also in Geocaches. Works great! :D :D

And as I've said - we haven't lost a signal outside sicne we're hade the 60csx. We're also able to use it many times indoors. :D :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhereRWe?

I loaded over 2000 caches today, and it worked perfectly.

Thanks, Slate! :D :D

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You are quite ambitious. :eek: I was pleased to have uploaded maybe 30 within a 15 mile range but there are always more to add and I sometimes need the print out since I don't use GSAK yet:o

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FuddsGirls

You are quite ambitious. :eek: I was pleased to have uploaded maybe 30 within a 15 mile range but there are always more to add and I sometimes need the print out since I don't use GSAK yet:o

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Ambitious? No - we're currently in Tennessee! There's a cache in every lamp post! Thousands of them! :p :p (And we're not even planning on going to "Cacheville"!)

If you use a PDA or have mapping software on your computer (Delorme Street Atlas or Topo USA, for example), you need GSAK. Really! It's worth the SMALL cost. :D :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhereRWe?

If you use a PDA or have mapping software on your computer (Delorme Street Atlas or Topo USA, for example), you need GSAK. Really! It's worth the SMALL cost. :D :D

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So I've been told and shown now. I'll break down and get it when I get the street atlas. Someone needs to tell newbies when they join about GSAK:rolleyes:

We try to be as helpful as we can!!!!:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhereRWe?

I take this back! Now that I've had a chance to work with it, the Garmin POI loader is great. Instead of listing caches in the "waypoint" category, they're listed separately under "Geocaches" (Duh!) and you can do anything with them that you did with them in the waypoint category. I loaded over 2000 caches today, and it worked perfectly.

Thanks, Slate! :D :D

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Glad you got this to work. I guess I know who to ask questions now if I have any problems.:) I can't wait to try out the POI loader, it looks a great new tool. I have a lot of waypoints that I use rarely, but I don't want to delete or mess around with transferring them on to and out of the GPS. It will be great to move them to custom POIs and keep all 1000 waypoints open for when I want to dump a lot of geocaches into my unit quickly. It will be great too, when we are traveling and want to store a few thousand caches on our GPS. Just another reason to love our new 60csx.:D

It looks like Gc.com has added a new feature to their website. I went to my account and saw a place called caches along a route. I thought I would share that:)

deja vu

Didn't we just have this discussion?
http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum...ead.php?t=1413

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slate

deja vu

Didn't we just have this discussion?
http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum...ead.php?t=1413

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Whatta yah mean?

I guess when you get to be my age the memory comes and goes. Any way it's still cool:D

This is a great feature that GC.com has been working on for quite some time now and it has finally come to fruition. The only problem that I have is being on dial-up I can't really use Google Earth very well. I am looking forward to all those who live and travel in Maine to add their favorite routes to the list so we all can use them. Yet another great feature that you can get for being a premium member of GC.com

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Haffy

This is a great feature that GC.com has been working on for quite some time now and it has finally come to fruition. The only problem that I have is being on dial-up I can't really use Google Earth very well. I am looking forward to all those who live and travel in Maine to add their favorite routes to the list so we all can use them. Yet another great feature that you can get for being a premium member of GC.com

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I notice one good thing - you can upload your routes to GC.com for others to use. For example, if you plot the caches within 1/2 mile of I95 from Kittery to Houlton and upload it, it will be available for others.

I've downloaded a .gpx of the Route from Baltimore to Kittery, but haven't had a chance to look at it yet. I did note that it contained only 65 caches... :confused: :confused:

The keyword thing works pretty well too. I made one for Auburn to Burlington VT.