two left feet

Must have missed that check box. Went back and created a list and found it this time. Just moved the check from lite to full. Easy enough. Thanks for the tip! Rick

Well live and learn. Had never been there before. Thanks VERY MUCH for this helpful tip!

Robert; there are still a few of us old timers out here doing it on a laptop with a copilot. Just this week I put together a 345 mile track to get caches along a trail to pick up 13 counties in my state. It is just so good to be able to zoom back and get a big picture and then plan an attack. Also I am able to overlay a .kml file with the county lines so I can see them clearly as we drive. See my test page here; County lines and cache finds We cache in remote areas where having the Topo maps help make sense of which approach to take. Granted that for auto travel to a destination I use a Nuvi and for casual caching I use an iPad. However I still find uses for Babel, GSAK and Delorme Topo. But indeed the laptop and software are going but not quite dead yet. BTW; thanks for all your work that makes Geocaching fun for a lot of us! Not to mention .kml, .gpx and other conversions.

I run Street Atlas and Topo on my laptop Win 7 and have for years. You can import an entire .gpx pocket query directly into a draw layer. But it is much more functional to run through GSAK and export all the HTML parts onto the hard drive and then export the waypoints as a .txt for import to Street Atlas. You can then click on a push pin and pull up all the cache info offline. Sadly by 2015 when the last update to SA happened it was already out of date and bugs were no longer being fixed so you would be running with less than accurate information. The other downside is that SA is extremely powerful and has lots of options which means you have a long learning curve. On top of that Garmin DELETED years of support on Delorme's forum so all the past wisdom and help is gone forever. Thanks a lot Garmin!!! On the other hand, I have retired my laptop and moved to Cachly running on an iPad. I can run entirely offline with maps and pocket query and use a bluetooth GPS to provide position information to the iPad. As soon as Cashly ports to Android I will be ditching the iPad and moving to Android tablets. So the need for laptop navigation is slowly becoming extinct. If you just need map and navigation without any Geocaching support I run Mapfactor Navigator free version. Pretty basic OSM maps with basic routing and no .gpx or .kml support. But it is on a laptop. You may need to be good at GPS setup to get a USB puck to work with it. It may be out there but I don't know of a current Windoze based laptop program with offline maps and good support of Geocaching.

Spent some time with the app this past week just to get familiar with it. No problems just normal learning curve. Several things I found that might be useful. Also likely to have been posted elsewhere but I will go ahead anyway. First is that making a list on the phone appears to hit some limitations of the Ground Speak API mainly that the caches are "lite" and without descriptions. My workaround for this was to make my offline list and then immediately do an update to the caches in the list. This seems to pull down the rest of the information and store it for offline use. But I think my best option was to create a Pocket Query on my laptop and then download the PQ on the phone. Then all the information is complete and no need to update. I also experimented with getting the .gpx file out of the PQ and putting it out on Dropbox pull it into the phone that way. Works really well. This feature I think is really powerful and lets me move the .gpx between all my devices since I have Windows, IOS, and Android. My favorite feature is the offline maps since we seem to end up in places with no cell coverage. We cached today entirely offline with no problem. I used an iPad for navigation on the bigger screen to get us to each cache area and then switched over to iPhone to hunt each cache. I actually took 3 iPhones, 2 were model 4 and 1 was an SE. The 4 is a bit under powered and updating the map could take a second or so. Not a show stopper but not nearly as quick as the SE. Love having the dots showing the last five found status with green for finds and red for DNF. Great quick way to check that without having to go to the logs. My wife and I cache together and I had her using the iPhone and I carried my DeLorme PN40 GPS. While the iPhone did a good job overall, it is hard to beat a dedicated GPS for accuracy. Don't think I will be giving up carrying the DeLorme any time soon. Where the iPhone beats the Delorme to bits is having a really good offline map and all the cache information at your finger tips. The Delorme can hold the entire PQ but scrolling through the information is not as slick as the iPhone and the larger screen is much easier to read. Bottom line for me is that I would have no problem at all caching with just my iPhone and this app. Also wanted to mention that we are using the iPad with an external bluetooth GPS. I use a Garmin GLO unit which is very accurate. We leave the GPS on the dash powered on the entire time so there is no delay waiting for the GPS to lock on after being powered down. The GPS also works with my Android tablet and Windows laptop. Just wanted to post our experience with the app after our first time out using it.

http://www.cach.ly/support/index.php?/topic/243-offline-data-causing-crash/ There are limitations based on the device memory. The developer continues to optimize processing to allow for larger GPX files. You can have multiple GPX files copied and accessible so that's a reasonable option vs 1 large combined file. Should be perfect. Generally I break my routes up with Pocket Query at 500 caches each. Partly for my DeLorme handheld GPS. 500 is a workable size for its memory. I still prefer to use a dedicated GPS in addition to my iPhone. I downloaded and installed the app on my iPhone and iPad. Made an offline list on one, exported to Dropbox then imported on the other. Worked perfect. Got my offline map figured out (took a couple of tries) but now everything seems to be functioning. BTW I use a Garmin GLO bluetooth GPS with my iPad which has no GPS. I think I am going to like this app a lot. Next I will do a PQ on my laptop and use Dropbox to move it to the iPhone and iPad. Thanks for the reply and link!

Went to the web page and the forum for the product. Looks great and I like the idea of using dropbox to port files, which I already use on all my Apple devices. We still use a laptop with software and GPS because importing Pocket Queries, using GSAK, and displaying on offline map was something we did on trips. Caches along a route is how we plan our trips. If I understand correctly .gpx files can be imported into Cachly, so I should still be able to use GC.com or GSAK to create the Pocket Query and then send the .gpx file to be imported for Cachly. Are there limitations on the size or number of caches imported as .gpx?

Essentially what you are doing is the same as the link to allow loading unsafe scripts. The link draws a red line through the HTTPS to indicate it is no longer a secure connection. You are correct that this also gets the map to appear. So we have a couple of workarounds but the issue still needs to be corrected. Wish I had known this a couple weeks ago. Just got back from a 2,000 mile road trip and doing caches all along it.

Using Chrome from my personal laptop at home. When trying to create a route the map is blank. A Shield looking icon appears next to the star used to bookmark a site shows up and says: "This page is trying to load scripts from unauthenticated sources". Below the text is a link that says: "Load unsafe scripts". Clicking this link allows the map to run. There is an additional link in the drop down from the shield icon that says "learn more". Clicking it takes you here; https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1342714 Hope this helps.

Checked with another engineer and he said the website is doing the redirect and it cannot be circumvented by how the url is typed.

With all three browsers manually typing in http://www.geocaching.com results in a connection with https:// Mostly I use bookmarks / favorites and the url inlcudes https://.

I can't get the routes to work right either. I have 2 laptops and 3 PC's. All on Win 7. I use IE 11, Firefox and Chrome. On my work PC IE will work but not FF or Chrome. Not having any issues with Googlemaps or GE. To the OP; if you build the route in Google and export to .kml you can import that into GC.com and it will work. It is just the building of the routes that is broken. You can even call up past routes that you have created. Edit; Poked around some and found that FF reported that some unencrypted information was being blocked. I checked the option to allow unencrypted information and the Create/Edit a Route started working. I will have another look at Chrome in a bit. Edit 2; in Chrome I found a message that the site was trying to download scripts from unauthenticated sources. Checked the option to allow unsafe sources and it started working in Chrome as well. Looks like GC.com needs to find and encrypt this data.

I have used the online maps at ridewithgps.com. Works much like Google Maps but has some nice features like "avoid highways" which I prefer when caching a route. It won't try to take the shortest / quickest route but will follow the best non-Interstate route. You can export direct to .kml so there are no conversions or corrections to do. They also have multiple map views like; topo, terrain, satellite view, etc which is useful for laying out a cache route. They have paid upgraded services but the free version is fine for doing caches along a route. Hopefully this is just a workaround until they fix the GC.com website.

I had a similar issue using ridewithgps.com which can make routes and export to .gpx and .kml. I switched from .gpx to .kml and it uploaded OK. Tried it in Google Maps with export to .kml and it worked for me also. Have not tried it but just a thought; try opening the file in a text editor and then copy just the text. Open another file and paste just the text in and see if that cleans it up. However that assumes the issue is something in the file and not an error with the upload function on GC.com using .gpx. Not sure how much effort is worthwhile since there are workarounds but a good hex editor will display everything in the file including the control codes. Another possibility is to run the .gpx through GPSbabel and convert to .kml. For now I am just using Google Maps with .kml which seems to work fine.

I can't find the export to kml option on Google maps anymore, have they removed it and if so, is there another way to get a kml route from Google Maps in a format that can be uploaded to Groundspeak so as to create a route for a pocket query along a route? Open Google Maps and log in (need Google account) to My Maps Create New Map Select Draw line, then in drop down select add driving route driving route Draw your route and save it. Give it a name. Select the three vertical dots at the top and choose "Export to KML" and then "Entire Map". Click "Download". You will get a .kml/.kmz file in your download folder If you get a .kmz you can rename it .zip and extract all just like any .zip folder Go to Geocaching.com and upload the .kml and use it as your route / create pocket query. I have done this many times and have no issues with it.

Open Google Maps and log in (need Google account) to My Maps Create New Map Select Draw line, then in drop down select add driving route driving route Draw your route and save it. Give it a name. Select the three vertical dots at the top and choose "Export to KML" and then "Entire Map". Click "Download". You will get a .kml/.kmz file in your download folder If you get a .kmz you can rename it .zip and extract all just like any .zip folder Go to Geocaching.com and upload the .kml and use it as your route / create pocket query. I have done this many times and have no issues with it.

never mind

Finally found this tread. Thought I was doing something wrong. I use Delorme Topo and doing a route is really easy and .gpx is the default export. So creating a route, making a .gpx file, and uploading it was very quick. Tried for a couple of hours and went back and found some old route files I had made and tried them as well. NO LUCK! Can't get a .gpx file to upload at all. I was not aware of the recent changes since I have my standard PQ on a weekly schedule, I don't hang out on the web site very much. Has anyone from Groundspeak responded to this issue??

Here is what my map looked like for my route from Tulsa to Chicago: Link to picture It ran fine and the caches were correct. Note that the milage was 633 miles which would be correct to Chicago but not to the North Atlantic. It appears that it gets lost and jumps East or West. Other than that the shape of the route looks correct.

There appears to be a bug in the map display ONLY. I have had the same issue but have just been busy with other things and have not reported it. It does NOT affect the caches on the route. I have uploaded several .gpx routes that I built and they all ran fine and I got the results I wanted. But, when I ran them the map showed my final point somewhere way off, like in the middle of the Atlantic. Since I build my routes in Delorme software I have the ability to go back and verify that my points are all appropriate and along the route I want. Then when I upload the .gpx to GC.com and create the pocket querry I get all my caches correctly even when the map is messed up. I would say "don't worry about it". It does not affect the function just the display of the map. It does appear to be a bug that needs to be fixed, but not a critical one. You are not crazy, but maybe this bug is making you that way! :-) We are leaving Thursday for a trip and I have done about 5 or 6 routes this week and they all worked fine except for the map.

Problem may have been fixed. I just tested 5 downloads to my GPS and all 5 were accurate and matched the cache page exactly.

I too live in a large production environment in a major hospital IT department. If we screw up something someone can get hurt or die. This is just a hobby and you can't justify the same software standards that a major corporation uses. I prefer to think of this as one HUGH beta test. :-) So far nothing done on this web site has stopped me from the primary objective: Go find caches. Until a software bug prevents me from finding caches I will just report any bugs I see and keep on truckin'. It is not the website features that bring me enjoyment, it is the caching. My $.02 worth. OK, more like $.035.

Mine worked fine first time on a GPS60. Went back and looked and my coordinates are off by only .001 but that could be a rounding issue since the cache was .499 and my GPS said .500.

I guess we are easy to please. Like the look and the functions. Maps are great!! Quick looks tells you what part of town it is in. Tried out the GPS download and it worked great with my GPS60. I am sure some of the issues relate to how people use this site. Personally we seldom read a cache page on-line, maybe to go back and look at something or to view a newly placed cache. Mostly we are pulling up pages from GSAK and Delorme on our laptop. So the page formating is not much of an issue. One thing we do like is the cache size, difficulty and terrain on a single line that is easy to find. So thumbs up for: Maps GPS download Ratings near the top and easy to find. Coordinate translation. Very nice job.

Yes, it appears that Garmin was the first to do a web browser interface. Cool thing is that it works well and is very easy. Just tried it on my GPS60. I think the FTF hounds will like this one. You can pull up a new cache, load it to your GPS and be out the door in about 60 secs. Come to think of it, that was a new listing that I just downloaded from. GOTTA GO.