Wet Pancake Touring Club

Here's one reason, it's needed for a challenge cache. There is a challenge cache in my area that says you have to have discovered 1000 trackables in order to log. So, inflate the count, and log the cache. And for others, its all about the numbers. (Like that matters to me, I'm becoming more selective in the caches I even attempt.) Skye.

I would also like to mention that there is now a GeoTour section in the forum. It is located at: Groundspeak Forums > General Geocaching Discussions > Geocache Types and Additional GPS Based Gameplay > GeoTours & Reward Geotrails Rock Chalk maintains a list of all GeoTours and some other geotrails with awards in a pinned entry. Or, follow this link

It seems that special tool can be broken into two categories. Tools that are required to 'open', or 'retrieve' the cache, and tools that are required to get to the cache. String, pliers, magnet, etc. are in the former category, while kayak, climbing gear, scuba equipment, etc. are in the latter. Tool to open the cache should have a difficulty rating appropriate to how difficult it is to figure out what tool is required. Tools required to get to the cache make it a D5 cache, because, as pointed out earlier, they require special skills and/or expensive equipment. Skye.

On the other hand, check out the string of DNF's on this cache. (Actually, there has never been a find on this one.) One guy has logged over 90 of them. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4MZ8P_do-you-like-gardening Difficulty 5, and the CO has checked on it several times. Skye.

To me, it's not the date that a user last accessed the website that is important. What is geocaching.com? It is a listing service. At the heart there is a database. For me, the key is the date a person last updated the database. And, maybe it is multiple dates. Date of last log, last geocache creation, last maintenance flag reset, last forum post, etc. How they did this (website, app, API, mind meld, ESP, etc.) is not important. And, how long is subjective. For me, my geocaching for the next couple of months may be light. I'm working on my 365 calendar, and have Jan-July covered. (And, I'm getting pickier about which caches I even attempt.) If I look at a person's stats, this may become more apparent. All of your finds are June through September, maybe you are a teacher and really can't get out during the school year, or you live at a really high elevation in Colorado. So, I'm not really in favor of categorizing people based on a date range. Just show me the date, and let me possibly evaluate other criteria. Thanks, Skye.

Taking a completely different tack, you could consider getting with your local tourist bureau, and/or historical society, and/or town council, and/or business group, and consider putting together a GeoTour. See the GeoTour page for some info. This is a bit more involved, but I have seen it open up possibilities for cache placement. In addition, a GeoTour does generate a lot of attention. Groundspeak has also put together a "GeoTours & GeoTrails Forum" category. Skye.

Thanks for the update on the GeoTour. I have started this tour, and have been to 12 State Parks. I only have 10 stamps, one was missing the stamp (since replaced), and the other one was a puzzle cache that we didn't figure out (the mosquito's were ravenous). Getting all 103 is impressive, that is a lot of traveling. Skye.

I have heard of caches that do contain multiple containers in side of a larger one, and you have to find the one that contains the logbook. I have also seen a 'wheel of fortune' type cache where there were a lot of film pots attached around the edge, and you had to find the one that contained the log. As for taking a mini-container, and placing it nearby, I don't think that would work out well, as lots of others have pointed out. Personally, I would just log the find, and not both with the mini-containers. Skye.

You should check out GPS Visualizer, at gpsvisualizer.com. I also found a youtube video ( ) where a guy walks through converting an Excel spreadsheet to a GPX file. I have never used this, but it appears more robust than gpsbabel. Skye.

Not with geocaching.com... However, what you are describing is known as the 'Traveling Salesman Problem'. There are a couple of web sites that will compute a fastest route based on lat/long. Here is one of them. http://www.gebweb.net/optimap/ While not terribly automated, you could enter the lat/long for each geocache, and let the site solve the problem. I have never used this web site before, so I don't really know how good it is. I am sure that there are lots of others methods, again, with varying levels of automation. The traveling salesman problem is computationally intense. There is a macro available for GSAK, however it is limited to 23 caches. Hope this help, Skye.

I had stumbled across the GeoTours page a couple of years ago, and started watching it. Unfortunately, nothing really close by. Then I had an opportunity. I would be driving up from the San Francisco Bay Area to my home in Northern Idaho. I didn't have any real time restrictions, so I decided to try out the (at the time, only two) Eugene Cascades and Coast GeoTours. I will be honest, my motivation was the free GeoCoins for completing the GeoTours. The GeoTours are created and maintained by Travel Lane County, whose mission is to increase overnight stays in Lane County. There are now four GeoTours available, and I have completed all four. They are: - McKenzie River - Florence (Coast) - Oakridge/Westfir - Territorial Highway I got into Eugene in the afternoon (April, 2013), and started on the Florence edition. I was a bit disappointed at the beginning, as the first two GeoCaches were located at local businesses. But, I decided to press on, and find a few more. There is a large distance between the second and third cache in the series, and when I got to the third and fourth caches, I was hooked! Caches in forests, near covered bridges, near waterfalls. And all of the caches were regular sized, with lots of swag and a few travelers. There were still a few caches located at businesses, but the majority were out in the wild. I got into Florence around 9:00 PM, and managed to find a room for the night. Next day, I went up and down the coast and found a majority of the caches. Lighthouses, beaches, parks, all regular sized caches, well placed and maintained. I also want to say, that when the cache was located at a business, you never had to go inside, and the cache was available 24x7. This is true for all editions. I made it back to Eugene that same day, and collected my GeoCoin for finding at least 24 of the 36 caches. As there was still daylight, I headed out on the McKenzie River edition. Just like the Florence edition, a few are located at businesses, but the majority are in really nice parks, the national forest, along the river, and other locations. When it got too dark, back to Eugene for the night. The next morning, rainy and overcast. I headed back up the McKenzie River, collecting more caches, until I got turned back by snow. Yes, on the McKenzie River edition, the latter ones might not be available in winter. I was able to get enough however, to qualify for the GeoCoin. In order to qualify for the GeoCoins, you must fill our a 'passport'. They use the password method, in side each cache is a password. You have to write down the password on the passport, and turn in the passport to get the GeoCoin. Of course, you have to give them your name, address and e-mail address on the passport. So, that put me on their e-mail distribution list. This is how I was notified of their additions of the Oakridge/Westfir and Territorial Highway editions. In May, 2014, I had a business trip in the S.F. Bay Area, and at the end of that, my wife joined me, and we GeoCached our way back home. We made sure to stop and do the new GeoTours. We approached the Oakridge/Westfir by starting at the last cache, and working our way into Eugene. An early start, we found a couple of caches. We got turned back by snow on a couple of roads that had not yet been cleared. If I had a 4-WD vehicle, I might have been able to make it, but with my Mini Cooper, there was no way. Although I did find an interesting back way into one of the caches, and have a picture of the car in knee high grass on a barely used forest service road. We found most of the caches for this edition, then started on the Territorial Highway edition. We headed to Cottage Grove, and stayed at the Village Green. I mention this because there is a mystery cache located in the gardens at the hotel. We spent the night, and started out to complete the Territorial Highway edition. This is a long loop trip around Eugene. (Begin tangent: One of the geocaching.com newsletters highlighted a cache that was located at an old airmail directional signal. Before radar and air traffic controller, beacons were placed every 10 miles or so on airmail routed. The included a concrete arrow that pointed to the next beacon. Across the road from the Village Green, you can still see one of these arrows. End tangent.) Like the rest of the GeoTours, this was a mix between caches located 'in the wild', and some located at businesses. However, if you are also interested in wine tasting, this is the GeoTour to follow. There are at least 4 wineries along the way. If you are interested in wine tasting, check out what days and hours they are open. All of the winery caches were located outside any gates, and are available 24x7. One of the caches on this edition is located in front of a nursery. Inside the cache are coupons good for a free package of seeds. We finished this edition, and went back to the hotel. The following morning, we stopped by the Adventure Center, turned in our passports, and collected our coins. As for the GeoCoins, they are unique. They are made my local artisans. The coins for the McKenzie River and Florence editions are a pair of interlocking jig saw pieces, that form an outline of Lane County. The Oakridge/Westfir coin is a wooden coin, that has a place for the glass bead that is the Territorial Highway coin. I will try and post pictures of all of the coins when I get the chance. All in all, for my first experience, these four GeoTours have set the standard. Every cache was a regular sized cache. They are well maintained. While caches will go missing, this group would replace them quickly. All of the caches are definitely kid-friendly. If others have done any of these GeoTours, please share your experience. For me, I am hooked, and am planning now planning vacations around some other GeoTours. Thanks, Skye.

The new advanced search in beta has the ability to filter on update coords and/or has personal note. When I solve a mystery, I add corrected coords to the cache. This makes it easy for me. When I solve a mystery, I update the coords. So, this capability appears to be coming. Skye.

I use the Download this GeoTour feature all the time. This is how I find the caches without the GeoTour attribute. I would download every GeoTour into a special GeoTour database in GSAK, and then filter on the caches that did not have the GeoTour attribute set. I should also mention that I use the GeoTour attribute when setting up my GPSr units. I have three GPSr units that support a limited number of caches, and two that support unlimited. So, on my limited units, I place caches that I am most interested in, my so called 'high value targets'. GeoTour caches are part of my definition of 'high value caches'. Also, speaking of downloading the Tours, I believe most of the GeoTour GPX files are version 1.0. These means that I need to refresh the cache in GSAK to get the attributes, and other 1.01 features. I would like to see all GeoTour GPX files upgraded to 1.01. Thanks, Skye.

I have done the four GeoTours put up by Lane County. The first couple that they put out were all regular sized (in fact, all the containers were identical), traditional caches. They used a password located in the lid of each container. The last two GeoTours they put up included some Mystery and Multi-caches. Still, all of the containers were regular sized. The GeoTour was designed to bring tourists to the area. The placement of the caches was roughly 1/4 placed at local businesses, and the remainder at other points of interest. For a really dedicated cacher, each tour might be do-able in a single day. (For me, about a day and a half per tour.) Each of their GeoTours has a them. One was on the coast, two more followed a river valley, and the last one was a loop trip following an old territorial highway. I have also started the Washington State Parks GeoTour. This one uses stamps, and you must stamp a passport. The caches were placed in cooperation between a large number of cachers. They were different sizes, and included a couple of puzzle caches. Of the two, I prefer the password approach. With the stamps, I found a couple of caches where the stamp was missing. Can't claim the find with the stamp, so this meant a return trip. As I am traveling several hundred miles to do this Tour, returning is not an easy option. As for the size, if you go the Tour route, I think every cache should be big enough for swag and travelers. As mentioned in another post, a Tour gets worldwide exposure. Encourage swag and travelers from far away. It also helps in making the cache kid-friendly. As for your question on how long, I think any Tour or Trail should be at least a couple of hours, and probably no more than three or four days. Think about what you are highlighting, and who your target group of cachers are. For a nature preserve, I see this as a targeting families with children. So, a half day trip would probably be your target. The HIGHKING Tour targets hard-core hikers or backpackers. I believe it is something like 65 km long, and for most, takes around three days. Likewise, on your question of difficulty or terrain. who are your targeting. For families, stay away from high terrain (except maybe if your Tour/Trail requires a boat for transportation). For others, maybe this is exactly who you are targeting. High terrain values if most of the caches require rock climbing, for example. IMO, your trail should have a theme. Bring me to an area in your preserve, and explain what is going on here. If the preserve has signs, bring me to the signs, consider using a two stage multi to make me read the signs. The final location would be based on info on the sign. The real cache would be a short distance away, in a more secluded area, to reduce the possibility of muggles. Hopefully my ramblings make sense. If I can clarify anything for you, don't hesitate to ask. Skye.

For me, Other for a nano could be a container within a container. We have a couple in our area that stick nano containers within another (usually something cheap that is not waterproof). Skye.

I have two suggestions related to GeoTours. Both of these suggestions are designed to make it easier to be notified of new GeoTours. First, I would love to see a date created column added to the web page and to your spreadsheet. This will help me find new GeoTours worldwide. Second, I have and will travel a fair distance for a good GeoTour. So, I created a pocket query that reports new caches with the GeoTour attribute set. This pocket query covers most of the US and Canada. The problem is, not all caches in the GeoTours have this attribute set. (Talk to Katie, I have sent her a couple of lists of caches that do not have the GeoTour attribute set.) So, I would suggest that Groundspeak put a process in place to make sure that caches in a GeoTour have the GeoTour attribute set. By the way, my first experience with GeoTours was in Lane County, OR. They did a great job. I have done all four of their GeoTours. I am hoping that others are just as good, and am in the planning stages of doing at least two more this year. Thanks, Skye.

In addition to what cezanne said, I think there is another factor to consider, and that is the availability of web page translation plug-ins. If I ever do get to make the trips I would like to Iceland and Norway, I will be looking for caches that take me to interesting areas. I would first look for favorite points, and wouldn't let a foreign language stop me. If the computer based translation failed, I might contact a local CO that did post caches in my language, and ask for help. Skye.

I asked Garmin support, the Epix will do paperless geocaching. It support GPX files, but not GGX. Skye.

My gut feel is that Google Earth is trying to compete with ArcGISOnline, which is free. Skye.

I asked Garmin Support, and here is their answer on paperless geocaching support on the Garmin Epix. "Thank you for contacting Garmin International. The Garmin Epix will support paperless geocaching. At this time it will be with a GPX format."

So, what are your preparations. Mine include holy water, a silver mirror, and a wooden stake. :-) Sorry, I couldn't help myself. In all seriousness, I also support a church/cemetery attribute. While the so called "Church Micro" series is located in the UK, we have lots of less organized church related geocaches in my area. We have several geocachers that place cemetery caches in all of the little cemeteries throughout Northern Idaho. I happen to find these caches to be some of the better ones in the area. A couple of them have some semi-famous people buried in them, along with well-known settler names. On the flip side, I could see others that would want to avoid church and/or cemetery caches for a variety of personal reasons. On the other hand, this assumes that the CO takes the time to mark the correct attributes. Well, that is a topic for another discussion. Thanks, Skye.

While moving caches are no longer allowed, there are a few still in existence. So, a discrete caches count would still be useful. Bookmark list of moving caches It would be nice if you could get a count of the number of finds for a cache, or something similar, so you can easily find duplicate postings. As it is, I have to use third party tools to get this info. Skye.

Worked for me too. Thanks!

I went to add a Location to my profile, and when I hit submit, it gave me an error on my Username - Must be between 2 and 20 characters. Sorry, my username is a tad more than 20 characters.

My situation is that I live 100 miles away from where I work. So, I have a home that I spend the weekends at, and an apartment near where I work. I know of quite a few people here at the office that do that. Students at a university are another example where people may have multiple locations they are constantly commuting between. (I happen to fit both categories.) Multiple locations would make selection for PQ's and the like easier and quicker. One of the questions that would need to be addressed is, what to do about the statistics? My opinion is that this should be implemented as a home location and alternates, and leave any distance based statistics to be from the home location.