Team Spike

The guide will have two main parts. How to go caching when you have physical limitations, and how to plan and hide caches suitable for people with physical limitations. It will be published online in various places as a PDF, free for everyone to download and use. On the handicaching.com forums there is a complete outline of the chapters. Groover

Geocaching Today online magazine has published an article about the Handicaching web site. You can read it here: http://www.geocachingtoday.com/MagArchives/handicache1.htm It describes the problems people face and why the site was created. Also, Lynn has written an article on her handicap geocaching experiences, which you can read on the Handicaching web site at: http://www.handicaching.com/articles.php Groover

Ok, I just read your post a little more carefully and I understand now what the problem is. A style would be regarded as an obstruction, and if you look under route obstructions, the one that is the best fit is number 5 - climbing/crawling required. If you think that this choice seems a little severe for one style (which I don't think it is BTW) then on the next page you can enter the comment: "Climbing is only required for one style" Then a handicapped person can decided if they can do that. Basically, if in doubt, pick the closest items from the list and then add some comments on the next page. If we tried to add in all possible obstructions the list would be huge and put people off from bothering, so we went with the approach of giving general examples and let people choose the best match. Groover

Hi, We designed the system so you don't have to be disabled to rate caches. Simply choose the item from each list that matches your cache the closest. Then a handicapped person can look through the description for each item that you choose and see if they can do it. If you still are unsure, send me an Email through this site or through the contact link (top right) on the handicaching site and I'll be happy to walk you through it. Groover

Well, not really an answer but a suggestion from a geocaching viewpoint when doing puzzle caches. So far I've only hidden one cache that required trig to solve and this is what I did. 1. I first found a cache location and got my measured coords of it. 2. I then created a puzzle and solved it myself (I assumed no information other than what I would give to people on the cache page). 3. I would only hide the cache if it could be solved so that you get out the exact coords I measured. Therefore the error when the puzzle is solved is exactly the same as my GPS measurement error. If it was not possible to get out the same coords then I wouldn't have hidden it. Simple as that. Regarding RK's problem - I think it all depends on what accuracy you need (is 40ft good enough or do you need 0.1cm accuracy?), how far away the other known points being used are are, and what elevation those points are at relative to the point you are trying to locate. Groover

Mostly I pick and choose interesting caches. There are a lot of urban caches near me but I just don't have the urge to go and find them right now. Much more interesting to go to an interesting location or solve a puzzle cache. The more you put into a cache find the more you will get out. Groover

http://www.handicaching.com - provides a service to the geocaching community, rate caches, etc. and http://www.britishideas.com/geocaching - personal site, records cache visits, etc. Groover

Although not quite the same rating idea, you can use http://www.handicaching.com to rate caches you've visited using the familiar difficulty and terrain ratings, which are then averaged to create a single terrain and difficulty rating for a cache. If your idea of a great cache is a "5" for terrain, for example, then this will help you identify which of those caches really are considered a "5" by a group of people. Groover

The problem is that we do not have the ability to crawl the geocaching.com web site for coords of caches. Without that information we cannot give local search results or distances. We could add this feature, but unfortunately geocaching.com does not appear to support such crawlers and periodically changes their html, which results in breaking them. Instead we decided to offer a utility called HandiGPX - which you can download from the site on the Find a Rating page. This will add in the handicap ratings to your GPX file. This allows you to combine handicap ratings with the great pocket queries search feature. Groover

A website dedicated to improving the accessibility of Geocaching to those of us who are less physically able is now available. http://www.handicaching.com The basic idea is that you rate caches you own and have visited and handicapped users then use these ratings to see if that can attempt that cache. The rating consists of five simple choices and you are done. You can also rate for the usual difficulty and terrain. When more than one person rates a cache, the average ratings are shown. The site contains a full description of what it is about and why it exists, so if you have a few minutes, please take a look. Groover

That is why the system is designed like it is. You don't need to assess it's accessibility. Instead you rate a cache on various aspects. A handicapped person can then look at your rating and compare it against their abilities to see if they can do it. There is a section of the site where a handicapped person can find their "maximum" rating - i.e. the hardest cache they can do. All they need to do that is check that the number on a cache's rating are at or below their own. They can have several "maximum" ratings depending on the different phases in their handicap that they go through. It is impossible to rate a cache as handicap accessible, because handicaps vary so wildly that what is accessible for one person is not for another. The mistake I see so often is that handicap accessible refers only to people in wheelchairs, which is not true. Groover

A group of people who were involved with the site are currently working on a guide to hiding more accessible caches. If you want to get involved with this effort, please visit the relevent section of the handicaching.com discussion forum and join in! Groover

Hi, a couple of things I would like to point out regarding the site. You can also rate the caches you have visited, not just your own. This will help increase the number of ratings in the system. Even if a cache isn't handicap accessible (under any definition of the term) still rate it. It is just as useful to someone to know which caches they definately can't do as which caches they definately can do. If you link to ratings on cache pages and in cache logs, the site will become visible to people who don't read the forums. Thanks for your support and comments. Groover

This is what I do/did for my PocketPC, step by step. Become a premium member Setup a pocket query for your local area When you get the file copy it to your PocketPC Use the free and excellent GPXSonar to view the caches Use the free EasyGPS to upload the waypoints to your GPS Also you can: Buy Microsoft Streets and Trips (usually comes with a rebate giving a final price of around $13) Copy a map of your local area to your PocketPC In GPXSonar export the caches as Streets and Trips waypoints. Off you go! You now have cache listings along with a map of where they are and all the waypoints in your GPS. All modern PocketPCs should be able to handle all of this. You can copy the GPX file and maps to a memory card if needed. I create pocket queries of 400 waypoints because my GPS can hold only 500. That leaves 100 for any waypoints I want to mark while I am out and about. Groover

Handicap Guideline Generator: www.britishideas.com/geocaching/handicap.php Groover

Problem solved. I bought S+T 2004 and dumped the 2002 version. Thanks for a great application! Groover

GeoFool - Thanks for the reply. I am sure there are some caches in the map area, and both the map and pushpins have the same name and are in My Documents. I guess that this is a compatibility issue between PPC2003 and S+T2002. I think I will buy S+T2004 at some point. Thanks! Groover

Really wanted the S+T pushpin feature, so installed the new version. Can't seem to get it to work, just like I couldn't get the same feature to work in GPXView. I exported my caches to tucson.psp in My Documents. I created a map of Tucson, called tucson.mps and sync'ed it to My Documents. Open the map. No pushpins. Go to Tools -> Pushpins... and they are in there but all unchecked. Each one I try to check I get: "The selected Pushpin is outside the visible map region...." I'm using S+T 2002 and PPC 2003. Any ideas? BTW I'm getting this for caches that I know are in Tucson.... Groover

I would prefer you spend your time adding features to help more disabled geocachers get into Geocaching and enjoy it rather than something like this, which a lot of people do anyway. Groover

Having a disabled wife, I come across this weird attitude all the time. In general it seems to me that people don't want to know or care, until the day they or a loved one becomes disabled...... Groover

I agree totally! Groover

I am writing in support of rldill and what he is trying to do, having tried something similar myself in the past and also ran into resistance... Groover

I have a 2215 (same as the 2210 model) and I love it. I have just finally figured out how to get GPXSonar and Mapopolis working on my GPX files and it is great! Regarding the SD card problems, I looked long and hard at the Dell Axims, and followed the discussion forums on the Dell website for nearly a year after the release. In the end, after seeing all the problems (also including SD cards) people were having I decided an iPAQ would give me a much less problems - HP/Compaq have been doing this kind of thing for a lot longer than Dell. Groover

More info: I copied my gpx file to my Pocket PC and can open it fine in GPXSonar. I used GPS Babel to convert the gpx file to pocket streets pushpins. I copied that to my Pocket PC. In Pocket Streets I can choose pushpins from the menu, but when I try to check any pushpin, it says the pushpin is not within the map area. Sigh. Has anyone run into this problem? Am I doing something stupid? Groover

Thanks RK! I go back to try it again, and this time I see that if I choose Pushpins... from the menu I can check which ones to show. However, every one that I try to check gives the message: "The selected pushpin is outside the visible map region...". However, this appears for caches I know for certain are within the map (i.e. ones I have hidden - so I should know where they are ). Any ideas? Groover