+gmattie Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Is there an easy way to distinguish the tyoe of cache being listed on the site. I am just beginning with geocaching, and I wanted an excuse to take my family on several day-hike on the weekends now that fall weather is coming. Is there a way to sort this within the listings? Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 The caches have a rating for difficulty as well as for terrain. A long hike would probably have a terrain rating of '3' or '4'. A terrain rating of '5' means you need special equipment such as scuba gear, or climbing ropes, or a boat, or a ladder. If you become a Premium Member, you can run Pocket Queries and base your search on caches with specific ratings. GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) is a very, very useful program that can be used to sort your database/databases by difficulty and terrain. Quote Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 There's other *free* software programs which, working with GPX files, will also sort or label caches according to difficulty and terrain. I use Watcher and Spinner. There's also a "cache attribute" for "Significant Hike." When you open a cache page, look for the hiker icon at the top right where the attributes are displayed. And, in the future, attributes will be searchable and/or you can order a pocket query for caches that have a particular attribute. The low-tech, non-premium member solution is to look at the map. If it's an urban map with lots of geocaches in the area, you're not likely to have a serious hike. If the map is green and has no roads on it, you may have found yourself a winning hike. Quote Link to comment
+Chuy! Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Go to this webpage and select Austin, Tx. Under the column, D/T, are numbers in paranthesis. The first # is the dificulty level - the higher the number the more dificulty to find. The second # is the terrain rating -the higher the number, the more challenging of a hike. You will need to go into the webpage to find out more particulars. Good luck. Quote Link to comment
+Team Snoopy Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 If you are curious about specific caches and if they are short or long, I'd email the owner. I have done that on a couple occasions asking whether it was suitible for kids, or whether it was super long. They didn't seem to have any problems answering my curosity, and I really appreciated it especially since I would have been driving quite a ways to their cache and wanted to be prepared. Quote Link to comment
+Waterboy Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 I would suggest you go to the regional forum and ask the question “What caches are good hiking caches near _______”. You might even suggest the mileage you would like to hike. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Terrain is a good indicator, but not a perfect one. I've seen some people rate caches 4 stars that have no business being rated 4 stars. Another way to find out is to check the maps on the cache page. One look at the topo map could tell you if a long hike is involved. Finally, if you don't find one cache that is a long hike, you might be able to make a long hike by stringing together a few caches in an area. Quote Link to comment
+gmattie Posted September 3, 2005 Author Share Posted September 3, 2005 Thanks everyone - this really helps. Looks like I want to be a premium member. Once I get into it a little more maybe I'll look into getting the softwa5re. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment
Tahosa and Sons Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 Come to CO, and I'll show you several hikes. Quote Link to comment
+Super_Nate Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 A lot of times the description will be more detailed for a hike cache! They are more likely to include hike mileage for a tougher cache! Quote Link to comment
+hukilaulau Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 Thanks everyone - this really helps. Looks like I want to be a premium member. Once I get into it a little more maybe I'll look into getting the softwa5re. Thanks again! Try Google Earth for free! Just plug in the coords of a likely looking cache and you will see exactly where it is. You can see if it's in the woods and if there are trails to it. You can see how far it is from anything. That's just the beginning, but that's plenty to start with! Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.