majormajor42

Yeah, back when I had the time to go on 12 - 18 miles day hikes through Harriman Park here in NY, I would track as well. I would then upload my tracks to openstreetmap at the end of the day and add the trails to the map, which is cool since they are now also on the gc.com map. I would have spare batteries with me for my droid since the GPS would be cooking all day long. with my new iPhone, while I have not yet been on all day hikes (not since becoming a father) I find the battery life is much better. Plus, I wouldn't necessarily be using this "proximity feature" while hiking. When I hike, I am hyper-aware of the caches around me. It is one of the reasons I got into hiking years back. No, I'm more referring to day trips with the family nowadays. I'm in and out of the car. We drove upstate for apple picking, and stopped for dinner on the way back. I get home and now I see there were a couple caches nearby that I didn't know about. My mind was on apples, not hiking/caching so I didn't think to check. Battery life probably would not have been an issue in this case since we were only out of the car (with its charger) for three hours.

Thanks! I tried searching for a previous mention. Even used the word "proximity". Good find. Probably didn't take you much effort either. Your google-foo is better than mine. It was a good discussion. Things have advanced since 2011, perhaps even with respect to the demands of this proposed proximity feature. I will say that one thing I noticed when switching from my Droid Samsung S3 to an iPhone 6, the battery conservation got a lot better. On the S3 I had to go in and disable the GPS all the time when I didn't need it to avoid the battery being run down. The iPhone seems to not have this issue. I rarely turn off the location services. I even leave apps open in the background such as Waze or Google Maps and it knows not to keep hunting for signals when I'm not on the move. I hope this improved battery management (I can't say if it is better on the 6 than previous versions), would help enable this type of new proximity feature. So that was 2011, and now it is 2015. If it took another four years to make it work, I would be okay with that.

considered which forum long and hard. Not specific to iphone or droid. There is no general "app" page that I see. Which do you suggest? So, turn it off. Ideally it would be manageable with filters and what not, for "distance from" or "favorite rating" to get to the caches you would want to be notified about. Uhh, after 8 years I am not in the habit and that's the thing.

Coming up on my eight year anniversary of caching. I've never been that ambitious of a cacher (not about the numbers, right?) and have less than 500 caches found. I'm gonna guess that most folks that consider themselves to still be cachers after as many years have far more finds than me. I had paid for the android app and had full membership on and off over the years. Not currently. And when I recently switched to iphone (my job required me to) I never paid for the app on the iphone and get by with the "lite" version and the website. So like I say, I'm not a cache hound. It isn't on my mind that often. But what I do find is that when I go on a day trip somewhere, I often look at the caches I could have gotten when I return home. I forget to think about it when I am out there in some new area. I think it would be cool, and it shouldn't be that hard with the technology these days, to have a way of an app on my phone notifying me when I happen to be close to a cache that I have not yet found. This, I think, would get me to cache more often. I would pay for this feature too. I'm not technically inclined enough to know how much data, and battery power this would really use. Some people may not be comfortable with The Frog knowing where they are at all times (if the app is open I guess). I know that I get a notification when I am close to the cache I am looking for. Yeah, so how much more code and GC server power would it take to be notified that I am close to a cache that I am not looking for?

My SG3 GPS was great for about 5 months. It started to get fuzzy around Thanksgiving. It now won't work at all which is unfortunate since I also enjoy using Waze when driving. Trying different reboots and apps. no luck. I still have my Garmin handheld, which is flawless so I'm not out of complete luck when caching. My old Motorola Droid X wasn't perfect. Sometimes needed a restart to get the GPS narrowed in but it would get there. This SG3 is lost.

Lots of people will be out around NYC taking photos of Enterprise getting piggy-backed on a 747 into NYC tomorrow. I'll be on top of the building I work at in Queens. Wish I was at some of the locations of great caches up and down the Hudson. It should be visible from Sandy Hook up to Hook Mountain, all along the Palisades and across the river. Since it is flying up from DC, there may be opportunities to see it but it isn't clear what flight path they are taking. Departure from Dulles at 9:30 and flying around NYC 10:30-11:30.

My name is Majormajor42 and it has been 28 hours since my last geocache. But seriously, awesome OP. A few years back I heard a proud mother say of her son on his wedding day that he "has a love for life". I think geocaching, getting out and exploring nature and our world, is a large part of my pratice of loving life. And yes, I too may enjoy a pint or glass of whiskey at the end of a 20 mile hike while logging in at the computer. Ahh, the comforts of home.

N 42 19.205, W 71 57.008 which is a little west of Worchester, which is strange because I have not done much caching in northern New England but quite a bit in southern New England around Cape Cod. My home is southern New York. My prior centroid, last run before a trip to India, was in southern CT near Groton. How is centroid calculated? I only did two in India I think but since it is 7000 miles away, is it "weighted" more? India is to the south on the map yet by way of the Great Circle, the most direct route to India is north toward Greenland. Do Centroid determinations use a flat map or great circle method of calculating? Maybe once I become more familiar with GSAK I will just take the centroid from my more recent finds to see how that pushed my overall centoid as others have done here.

Afraid not. It went missing in Europe last year. Geo-Sk8 owner has something else similar but I think it is in PA

You have a windows phone? Most of us have iphone or Android. Not sure if they will eventually be made free too.

I also like having a Q&A threads for people to ask their specific OSM questions. A tutorial is a good place to start though. It is a great community tie in. Geocachers are for the most part already savvy with moving gpx files around.

Done it: done it on a train too:

Before this feature was developed, what was the old way to dip? I think it was you had to drop and then grab it again? It's been a while so I could be wrong. your idea of making it slightly harder may work. Of course, if you had a persistent cacher, that might make for twice as many entries and in this case 30 pages of logs??? May I suspect that your request to keep the TB within 40 miles of Portland encourages dipping? Just a theory. Did you write to the cacher to ask them to lighten up on the dipping? Or post a note in the logs? Or request no dipping in the description/mission? Just some other options if TPTB don't answer your request here. If this thread is the first communication that gets back to that cacher, it might not be that congenial. Personally, I'm not a fan of dipping either. I normally don't do it. I've done it recently only because I brought some TBs to India, tried my best to find homes for them over there (relatively few caches in India) so dipped them all in a small one just because I made the effort. But someone who is dipping in caches ever 500 feet on a power trail might have a different philosophy about things, that's just part of the game. Too bad you haven't gotten any purple pictures yet...

I have brought my Oregon GPSr (and the HCX before that) on airplanes before. Never had any problems at security (I see on the boards here that some countries like Cuba don't allow them, not that I am going to Cuba). I've turned it on discretely while in the air. My Oregon only seems to work when near a window. Impressed with how well the one in the video is working seemingly not near a window. I turned on tracking once while we were doing laps in a holding pattern. I was very impressed with how precise the airplane's path was on the second lap it almost went straight over the same path as the first lap. I've only done it a couple times. got my kicks. But don't do it anymore being that I never asked permission. I love those entertainment systems in the seat backs that show the plane's position. If the seat next to me is empty I keep that one on the map while I watch movies and look out the window.

Look at the cache pages of some of the caches you intend on doing, that way you can use google translate to interpret the descriptions and logs if necessary. With only a few dozen finds, have you cached far from home yet, even in the states? I love caching when travelling but it does take different preparation. Do you geocache with a GPSr or a smartphone. The smartphone may or may not work in the countries you are visiting, or may be very expensive to use. PQs can be very useful when travelling. Now that we have the favorite rankings, didn't always, use them to find the best of each place you are visiting. Some may very well be worth going out of your way to get. As you may already know, geocaching, especially when on vacation, may be at it's best when it brings you to a place that isn't on the tourist map that some local placed a cache at to bring folks like us to. One of the best beaches I've ever visited was found this way. Like favorite rankings, bookmark lists can also bring you to recommended caches if you find the right list. If you are using a GPSr, do you have maps of the areas you are going? I download OSM maps to my garmin when travelling. Helps with more than just geocaching, like finding the closest metro stations.

Give it time... the tree will win. If that location is close to home, you should go back and take a picture on the same day every year from the same spot. Would make a nice movie in about 20 or more years.

wow! Next time I DNF, my excuse will be it must have been eaten by a tree.

I think the geocaching gc app is at it's best when you are away from home. "I'm here in a strange places, let's find some caches" The live map is really good. They use a google map and you can switch to the google satellite too (which you can tell from other threads are greatly missed on the gc.com website). I like how it gives you the last five logs, and if you want to see more, just hit the "more" button and they load up. My garmin gps only gives me the last five. This is also far easier than trying to use the gc.com website on my phone and scrolling down to look at old logs. I usually find caches to find by using the map and scrolling around it. Hit the pin, see a small pop-up about the cache, and hit that to get all the info. You can also use advanced search as a mini pq-like function. Search for cache type, size, terrain, difficulty. And then, with recent upgrades, you can pull your PQs right to the app as well. while most of my PQs are location based, for loading gpx files to my garmin for travelling or backwoods hiking, PQs on this app can be useful for looking at my PQs such as 'caches with trackables', "10th anniversary caches" those that will be soon celebrating 10 years in the field, "recommended at night", "winter caches". My garmin can only hold so many cache/gpx files so doing this on the fly on my phone is an advantage. I used to use WAP on my old phone, so this app is a world of difference. Before I got my droid, I used an app or two on my wife's gps enabled balckberry. I forget the name of those apps but they were a little cumbersome looking back from where we are now with the ease of use of this gc app. I also have c:geo on my phone. I used to use it about as often as the gc app but have since used it less due to them loosing their live map search functions and with additional gc app upgrades that have improved it. As far as I know, only the gc app will let you scroll the map 10 miles down the road and let you search what geocaches are in that location. I also used to have problems logging in from the field with cgeo. Once they got the gc app on the droid, I've been able to log in easily with no errors that I recall. It is just a matter of cell network strength. I still look at c:geo since it has osm maps that can be set as a default. Where a cache pin on a google map might be in the middle of a park, on OSM it might show up on a trail in that park. With all the map moves that gc has made lately, I hope they add OSM/OSMCycle to the gc app BUT please don't take away the goggle satellite option. Make OSM the default and maybe that will reduce google map usage to only when one needs it (a plea to TPTB). Fortunatley, for me, and this might not be true for everybody, $10 is not a lot for me and seems forth it for what I am getting. I figure I already rationalize the fact that I am paying the extra $30 a month for my unlimited data plan on my verizon droid cell phone. A one time $10 is a drop in the bucket.

Unless one is caching on mountains in a regional area, wouldn't almost all experienced centroids be below sea level? Anyone know of an online centroid calculator that accepts my "My Finds PQ" and calculates it for me? I can't load programs up on my work computer and kinda wanna know my centroid now:P . I think the old Itsnotaboutthenumbers site used to do it. I tried http://www.mygeocachingprofile.com/ but centroid is not one of the stats it gives you. Well, according to my old stats run on gsak from home, my Centroid is in the Thames river in CT, right off the Nuke Sub base. Not a good place for a cache.

My 2 cents. An option to better inform future cachers about access if it is not archived, in addition to parking coords, the DNF comments (there was something similar last June), and more adamant warnings in the cache description...Make additions to the OSM map in this area. Like I say, only my 2 cent suggestion. I would add the parking coords to the map myself but not being from the area, and like others have said above, only a local can know for sure if that is in fact a legal place to park. Then, once that is done, some of the trails can be added in this area to the map. The description says that there is a footpath leading by the cache. Does it lead to/from the proper "parking" spot? Ideally, the footpath on the map would extend past the cache and not lead right to it. OSM can be a useful tool, especially for caches where bushwacking straight to the cache is not the most efficient path, or maybe even a dangerous path. In some cases a CO might want discovering the best path to a cache to be part of the challenge but in cases like these, have trails on a map to follow might be helpful/prudent. I'm hoping GC adds OSM to the mobile apps (without necessarily taking any other maps away). Some other geo apps have them. Good for those caching on the fly. Of course some people out there will only be armed with a basic GPS and coords. People played the game like that for years (for better or worse).

What about looking on the OSM map itself? I'm doing my best to add hiking trails to the map in the areas that I hike/geocache. It is great to look at a new cache in the woods on the site, open the map and then see that it is just a few feet off a trail on the map. Saves the guess work on where to park, what trail to take, and will there be bushwacking necessary. Alas, these trails are only on the map in places where people add them to the map.

Thank you for the replies Brian, Doug, and Dakboy about my little slightly off-topic concern. The comments were reassuring. It's a special feeling seeing a cache in the middle of the woods on a map/satellite and then zooming in on the OSM and seeing a series of trails zig zagging their way right up to the cache. for me, just as geocaching gives a little purpose to getting off the sofa and outside into the woods, so does tracking for the purpose of OSM editting. And there is still so much parkland within an hours drive of me that is unmapped (and unfound caches for me too). Since I seem to be the most active trail editor in my area, it also makes for a simple way to see where I have hiked and not with just a glance at the map

You know, I hear good things about JOSM. I've been doing OSM edits here and there for several years now. I tried it once and you are right about the initial steep learning curve. But the main reason I don't use JOSM is that I can't install the program to my computer at work. So Potlatch remains the one I use most often. I agree with what you are saying about what shows up on the map and what does not. Things like surface type will only show up on a special map that someone might have created to show those type of features. I don't bike that often but it might be good to know, as Sky King was pointing out, what type of surface a bike trail is before you get there. Does the cycle map show it? Maybe there is another custom bike map that only shows certain surface types. AFAIK, the two quickest ways of finding out a surface type is to zoom way in on the trail and hit the data overlay box and click that 'way'. The other way is to hit the edit tab in potlatch and see what it is. When adding hiking trails to OSM I often times put the trail blaze color in the title of the trail. I think there may be tag for putting color but what good is that really if you are in the woods and want to verify you are where you think you are. Once again, that trail blaze color tag might be good info on a new custom hiking map designed for that purpose. But for now, on the maps that we are using for the most part, that info will only display if I put it in the title. Sometimes, trail blaze color will be the only title info I have. In small parks, the trail might not have a proper name. But in other cases, a trail might have a name and a blaze. I might title it "Willow Trail - white" or something like that. But this brings up another issue. How do I know that the name of the trail is "Willow Trail"? Was there a sign in the woods that pointed this out to me, great. But if the only way I know that the trail has that name is by reading a copyrighted map that I bought, then I am hesitant to put that info on OSM. I have sought guidance about this from the OSM community in the past and received mixed advice. I also support my local trail conferences that spend resources on publishing their maps and encourage other local avid hikers to purchase those maps or support the conference. But I also want to put the trails that I hike and track/trace on the OSM map. Now that geocaching and OSM are so intertwined, maybe I'll get some input from someone here who I know works closely with the local TC.

I think the official geocaching app is generally a great app, especially for a beginner. If you stick with this new hobby, it will be worth the cost. till then, sure, go with the free ones.

From the cache description view, try either of the following: Navigate to Geocache > Map > Menu > Add Waypoint Navigate to Geocache > Compass > Menu > Destination > Add Waypoint... cool, I didn't know about that either. Thanks!