HartClimbs

Double post (text deleted). Apparently this forum does not allow posts to be deleted.

Sitting in this weekend with my laptop armed with my new Topo Mapping software, Watcher, Plucker, GPX2HTML, and Geobabel (isn't technology wonderful!) - I was planning some future outings in and around Cheesequake Park when I realized I was missing one of the most important items in a garden state cacher's arsenal. No, not a valid NJ insurance card. Nope, not a Humvee (I think they're only good for getting back and forth to the mall anyway). A canoe I've got already (although I'll pass on dragging it down to Cheesquake). I realized from reading the logs that a pair of waders would be handy. BassoonPilot had mentioned picking some up at KMart in his log on GC2F59 so I headed on down to the closest Big-K and lo-and-behold - hip waders for $23! Yes, $23! (and that's for the pair - not $23 a boot!). They were closeouts but they had a decent number left. They're insulated and the boots seem relatively sturdy (hey, what can you expect for $23). I tried them out in a local park (see the picture) and they're watertight. Figured I'd pass along the tip to anyone in the area. I went hiking this morning but didn't bother cache-hunting - just too wet to be enjoyable digging in the snow! Now I just need to find a day to spend down in Cheesequake! (anyone interested in a team effort?)

I'd second TeamEckitt's sentiments exactly. With pocketqueries, GPX2HTML, and Plucker - I've loaded info on the closest 500 caches to my home - have them sorted several different ways (as someone had already mentioned the reflocations file - I just wanted to add that GPX2HTML supports multiple lines in that file - with an index built for each location entered) so you can have a "distance from home" and "distance from work" sort easily. I'm on a dial-up line most of the time and using Plucker alone (without the pocketqueries and GPX2HTML took several hours to download and parse the information). With the info locally - it only takes a few seconds for GPX2HTML to do it's thing and Plucker takes a minute or two. All set - and nothing to print! The only recommendation I'd add is to ensure you have a good solid (and even better watertight) case for your palm. Good luck.

"It's like deja vu - all over again!"

For the feedback (both in the forums and via email). I found MapSource Topo online at Walmart.com for $83, but ended up heading out and buying it locally for a few bucks more (so I could experiment with it tonight!). Looks like it'll be very useful...... (although I see why folks buy MULTIPLE maps - one for Topo and another for finding addresses). I'd looked at R&R as well - but according to Garmin, it's not compatible with the Rino 120. Maybe I'll get out digging in the snow tomorrow for some caches!

I've been using the Delorme NJ Atlas (highly recommended - especially for only $20, it provides roads, topo, and lat/lon info) to help plan geocaching hunts. I'm looking at picking up some Garmin mapping software (I have a Garmin Rino so the only maps I can download are Garmin) but am torn between buying the Topo or Metro versions of the maps (or Roads & Rec - which I think will work but isn't officially supported on the Rino). Any suggestions? The printed atlas has been a huge help but I've grown tired to using yellow "stickies" for planning and would like to be able to view a map of the area (on my laptop as well as the gps) with the geocaches displayed. I'm also not looking to drop $200 buying multiple software packages! Any suggestions or comments welcome. Which package is going to give me the biggest bang for the buck geocaching?

I saw a great one the other day in Jersey City. It was very official looking (similar to the "oversand permit" stickers common on SUV's in this area). "Terrorist Hunting Permit #91102" The thing looked so official - I did a double take.

I've used a couple of these containers - they work great. I paint the lids camouflage and line the jar with the "stash note" so anyone who finds it can see it's a geocache immediately. The only problem I've had is they don't hold paint too well (I think the plastic's flexible and the paint not-so, so it tends to flake off over time). Any painting tips are welcome! Good size too - not too small to get a hand into!

... I changed the GPX unit to "GARMIN XXX - all SYMBOLS" and it worked fine. It's probably just that EASYGPS doesn't recognize the comment capability of the Rino 120. I've noticed (since spending time experimenting with this product) that it's fairly tempermental and doesn't provide easily used diagnostics (at least to the end user). I've also seen where it stops parsing a .gpx file but doesn't give any indication of an error (other than there's not the complete set of waypoints displayed). I really like the interface and the usability of the tool - but I'd recommend including some additional error messages. Something like "unexpected error found before end of .gpx file" would be a handy addition. Anyway - figured I'd pass along the info if anyone else with a Rino has a similar issue.

Four I can think of that should be doable with the snow (although the drive/parking parts may be a challenge) are: Once Mighty Keychain Cache should be findable unless we get several more feet of snow. EverGlades should also be findable even with the recent snows. Lame Roadside Cache #1 may still be findable. Magoo's Missing Money #2 would still be findable. I'll keep an eye on this thread as I'd like to get out hiking in the snow again this weekend and geocaching's a good an excuse as any!

...and I hope you had a nice vacation. I'm using a Rino 120 (latest s/w rev level). Strange that it appears to work with my Windows 98 machine. I tried deleting and re-adding the GPS (on the Win2K machine), but no dice. Also, I tried downloading the ExpertGPS beta - but it appears to work the same way (at least on the laptop). I'm sure it's something I have set wrong that's causing this - I'm just coming up empty on finding the root cause!

One benefit of a snowy day is that it gives me a little time to experiment. I tried EasyGPS on my Windows 98 system - works like a champ. Comments field populated as expected from my .gpx files. (the files come in without a tag and it's populated when EasyGPS opens the file. So - I know it's something different on the Win2K laptop that I normally use. I'll spend some time comparing registry entries - but this "trial and error" method's probably not most productive. Got to be a setting on my PC that's stopping this comment field from being populated. Argh!!!

I use GPX2HTML and Plucker on my palm and it works great. It makes it very easy to have the details at hand when heading out. I'd also recommend dropping the $30 to support the site. I did it before I realized just how valuable the pocketqueries were (in GPX format of course). Pay the $30 - support the site, and when you get the .gpx files - check out GPX2HTML and Plucker. Makes life simple. With the snow putting a crimp in geocaching in the Northeast USA today - I'm hoping to take a few minutes and check out ClayJar's Watcher to see how that works as well. I'm pretty new at this - but GPX2HTML and Plucker are strong recommendations (and Watcher appears worth a look as well). Good luck! p.s. Get a good case for your palm if you're going to take it into the woods!

...and hopefully I'll find what I'm doing wrong. I checked - the .gpx files sent from pocketquery don't have the tags - so I know it's not a case of "empty" tag fields being sent. I open the .gpx files with EasyGPS - but the comment field remains blank. Save and reopen the file - still blank. It's got to be some wierd setting on my PC that got snafu'd. I even downloaded the new beta version of ExpertGPS and the behavior is the same. I checked the registry entries (I'm using Win2K) for Topografix but didn't see anything obvious. Hope I can get this working again - it's a really useful feature. Any and all ideas welcome. [This message was edited by HartClimbs on February 16, 2003 at 07:15 PM.]

I hid two new caches yesterday but was holding off posting them until the snow (to obliterate any tracks and such we'd left hiding the cache). I figure this way - it'll take BassoonPilot a few seconds longer to find the new caches!

quote:Originally posted by BrianSnat:There is no such thing as "leave no trace". We all leave a trace as we pass, matter how careful we are. Deer, bear and beaver, et. al. also leave their traces. >snip< I've seen deer scat and bear scat - but I'm hoping I don't run into any "geo scat" out there while hunting caches!

TB travel "plans" would be nice to have (although I'm so happy with GPX2HTML and PocketQueries I feel slighty guilty asking for anything more!)

Would it be possible to add "Last Query Runtime" to the PocketQuery page? It's difficult when you're setting up the queries to know if they've run (and returned no rows) or haven't run yet. I figure the information's already being stored (since we can only run the queries once per day) but it would be handy to have it as a displayable field. This way - if I see the query was run this morning but I didn't receive any email output, I'd at least know my query returned no rows - rather than it just not having run yet. I'd also second the TB idea above. I picked up two TB's yesterday but didn't move them along until I got home and could check their specific travel instructions. It'd be handy if this was something that could be included somehow in the pocketqueries. - Hart

quote:Originally posted by BrianSnat:I'd like to replace his GC3, because that was a particularly unique geocache. It was the only of its type in NJ as far as I know. After reading the notes above - I was curious where the cache was. Checking the coordinates, I'm now *really* disappointed. I'd been climbing in that area and thought of hiding a cache there come spring. Now I see that park already contains several caches already.....drat! Having hiked there many times, I'd imagine this was a cool spot to have hid a cache. Guess I'll have to place one on rappel to put a Terrain5 in the area.....

Anyone have any experience with EasyGPS and comments. When I was using .LOC files downloaded from webpages manually - EasyGPS was populating the "Comments" column with a "shortened" cache name (which was very handy). Now I've switched to pocket queries (with .GPX files) and the comments are gone. I checked the EasyGPS website and it says that the comment column is autopopulated by EasyGPS, but it doesn't appear to be working for me. It was a handy feature - so I thought I'd post a quick question to see if anyone had any insight as to the problem? I'm running EasyGPS V1.2.2 and my GPS definitely supports the "Comments" field. As I said, it was working before....and then it was gone. I haven't posted a ? to TopoGrafix yet since I suspect it's something I'm doing wrong - and not a bug in their code. Any and all suggestions or solutions welcome! Thanks, HartClimbs [This message was edited by HartClimbs on February 14, 2003 at 06:04 PM.]

quote:Originally posted by BrianSnat:If a park closes, I think it's a good idea to post the hours on the cache page..... Now as far as disabling caches because of snow, forget that! .... I agree with BrianSnat and others. If you're hiding the cache and want others to avoid problems - it's helpful to add a note if there's specific hours for the location or the cache is in a busy locale (so the seeker can maybe pick a less conspicuous time to find the cache). As for the snow - I went out today and guess what.... I couldn't find some caches due to the snow cover. I did look out the window and saw the snow outside when I left the house (and I would have been very disappointed if those hiders disabled their caches just cause they thought it was "too hard" with the snow!). That's all part of the fun and the cache hider "owes" me nothing. If I don't like the way the caches are hidden (or the way info's provided) - I just won't search for that individual's caches in the future. As for hunting in unfamiliar locales - it's probably a good idea to do some research beforehand. Maybe we need to update our caches each day to note "It's now night and this cache difficulty has been modified to reflect the lack of light!". [This message was edited by HartClimbs on February 14, 2003 at 05:01 PM.]

I'd think an easy solution is to ask hiders to more accurately rate the terrain. Then, people could just seek terrain 4's and 5's and be able to enjoy a good strenuous jaunt. (and could bypass any drive and dumps) Personally, I'd prefer a tough terrain with an easy find at the end (I don't want to end up at the end of a terrain 4.5 hunting for a 35mm film cannister!). I think the easy caches are good for people who cache with children or may have other limits to their mobility, but I'd hope any cache brings the finder to a park or area he/she wouldn't have seen otherwise. Just my 2 cents - I was actually thinking of archiving the first cache I put out as it's really an easy find, but figured I'd leave it for kids or first-timers (as noted in the description). Also, since I'd enjoyed finding other people's caches - I wanted to contribute something back to the caching group by placing a few! One thing I've been surprised at is that even little-known parks and state forests I thought were "perfect" for caches have already had caches placed in them so I'll have to get really creative - this game is really pervasive! I'm just hoping I end up finding that the terrain 4/5 caches are rated legitimately. - HartClimbs p.s. I've only found about 14 of Brian's 38 caches (but I hope to find more soon!)

GPX2HTML is phenomenal. I'd never gotten to even try MobiPocket, but I just installed GPX2HTML, integrated into my existing Plucker setup and it looks perfect. No more sitting for two hours while Plucker reads and devours the website pages - using this on my pocketquery results is much, much, much faster. Anyway - just wanted to post a (public) thank you. I especially like the option to include an index w/ distance from any point specified (in the advanced options). With this and Plucker - I'll never print cache pages again! Two brilliant innovations.... While I was happy to support the site before, I'm thrilled now that I see the benefit of the pocketqueries! I just load the nearest 500 caches into my Palm - and I'm off and running....Thanks again!!!! - HartClimbs

This is probably a silly question - but is there an easy way to modify (in bulk) the symbols in a .loc or .gpx file? I have built pocketqueries for "found" and "notfound" caches and I've been manually editing the waypoints in EasyGPS to change the symbols appropriately (using the "Geocache Found" and "Geocache" symbols). Not being familiar with these formats - I figured I'd post a quick question here. Can anyone suggest a quick way (or existing utility) to do the deed? p.s. I downloaded and configured GPX2HTML and replaced my old Plucker setup and it's absolutely BRILLIANT! Using the pocketqueries is much faster than having Plucker retrieve all the webpages. Kudo's to the developers of both! Now all I need is a few days of snowmelt and I'm armed to the teeth for finding more caches!

...well, I finally took a few minutes to setup a PayPal account and send in my $30 (after all - I've certainly gotten a good value in fun from this site!). Now - after getting Plucker all setup - I realize I have to pay attention to those MobiPocket postings and figure out how to best get that setup. I was pretty happy with using Plucker to get the cache pages - I'm guessing I can use MobiPocket to do the same thing. Anyway - I was just happy to support the site!