Pocket Queries By State

[+Fathergoose]

It seems the best way to run Pocket Queries is by state and then by date. For Colorado I have:

 

2000-April 25 2003

2003 April 26-may 2004

2004-June-Feb 23 2005

2005 Feb 24-Aug 4

2005 Aug 5 Dec 31

 

What are the best PQ dates for other states?

 

Or is there a better way?

[+GeoBrowns]

Not really sure I understand the question. All I know is I don't cache in the entire state at once so I only do queries for one area, for instance from my zipcode outward 20-25 miles, starting from 2000 to present and limiting to Traditionals usually and selecting Active, I do Not Own, Not On My Ignore List. That gives me 500 in a 15 miles radius because I live in the cache saturated SF Bay Area of well over 7000 caches.

[+Markwell]

I think the question is that if you were to do a pocket query by state, how you would divide up the dates to capture all of them in as few queries as possible.

 

Right now, Illinois has 3,499 caches. I would need 7 pocket queries to capture them all. But in two or three days when there's an additional 15-20 caches, I'd need 8. Older ones will be archived, newer ones will come up.

 

Since about every 3 months or so, I have to adjust the dates of four pocket queries just to get the approximately 1900 caches just in the Chicago area, I can't see how the state would be any more stable...

[+Lil Devil]

Every once in a while I see this and I can't help but wonder...

 

The OP has found just over 500 caches in the last 3 1/2 years. Why would he need to download all 2,500 caches in his state?

 

By contrast I've found just over 3,000 caches in about the same amount of time and I only download 2 PQs at a time just before I go out caching, and often continue using those PQs for up to a week before I bother getting another PQ or two. The 2 PQs I get are usually 10 times more caches than I need, but since there isn't a "PQ on a route" available yet, I have to get the extra data

 

I just don't understand why people seem to think they need to download thousands of caches all over their state, just to find a handful a week

[+Jamie Z]

LD,

 

I'm not the OP, but I think I have some idea of why someone might want a wide swath of caches.

 

When I travel, I rarely have a preplanned route. Sometimes I don't even have a very specific destination.

 

Example, I recently went to Europe. To get to Europe, I flew out of New York, but I spent about ten days riding my motorcycle from Memphis to New York, a trip that could otherwise be made in a day, maybe two. Before I left, I had only a slim idea of how I would get there.

 

I downloaded as many caches I could, but not knowing where I'd be, it's hard to download just one or two pocket queries to cover the area. I ended up finding about 15 caches during the entire trip, but I know that if I'd had access to more cache data, I would have been able to get many more.

 

Second example. When I returned from Europe and came home, a trip back to Memphis where I again had almost no prior thought to my route. This time I don't think I found any caches, simply because I had no data. If I'd been able to download an entire state (or states) I would have guaranteed that I would travel in an area where I had cache data.

 

When I finally made it home and learned that I wouldn't be able to start employment for a few weeks, I took off to ride to "Texas." Why quotes? Because I only knew Texas was my destination, but had no specific goal. I just wanted to go around the state. How many caches did I find? Zero. I attempted to create some pocket queries, but it was pointless. The state is so large and not knowing where I'd end up, I was afraid I'd spend several hours gathering data which I would never use.

 

When I rode my bicycle from Memphis to L.A., I used 13 pocket queries to gather as much data as I possibly could along my route. I pared it down even further by roughly outlining a route in Streets and Trips and filtering for caches along that route. From over 4000 caches in my initial pocket queries, to filtering to a couple hundred, I ended up having the opportunity to search for only about a dozen. Too often I strayed just a little outside my route and away from the caches I'd pre-selected.

 

If one were able to get a Pocket Query (or queries) for one entire state, I could have carried enough data with me in these examples to assure that I could have a chance to look for caches and find interesting places. As it is, I found the task too unlikely to produce results to be worth the effort.

 

I'm not asking for state-wide pocket queries. I'm only offering one perspective of why they would be useful.

 

Jamie

[+Lil Devil]

Thanks Jamie, those are some good examples which I have also experienced. I've also done some long trips, one of them from California to Texas and back. One thing I found useful, is to limit my PQs to terrain 1.5 and less, and difficulty 2 and less, and no multis and puzzles. I don't typically want to stop in the middle of a long drive to do a real long hike, or spend a lot of time on a difficult hide or complex multi. I want the boring rest-stop caches, or some other relatively easy ones just a bit off the road. Just enough to stretch my legs without spending a lot of time. Those limits greatly expand the area that a PQ will cover. Yeah I might miss some truly great ones, but if I do my research, and look at some local's Bookmark Lists, I can get GPX files just for them.

[+Fathergoose]

Jamie Z said it very well. I travel the western US regularly, both personally and professionally. By having the entire state I am able do route planning very easily. While I may not always be able to get as many caches in as I would like, I appreciate having the option of knowing what caches are available wherever I may be.

[+jimmyreno]

I just don't understand why people seem to think they need to download thousands of caches all over their state, just to find a handful a week

Hi

A couple of weeks ago amazon had ms streets & trips on sale for $23 so I bot a copy. Cities vary greatly as to how many caches they have and even more so, in some cities there are great cache clusters in parks.

 

By downloading several thousand caches & dumping them into S&T, I can pan the map and see all of this much, much more easily than the maps here at GC.com.

 

ms S&T isn't really designed for cachers, but it's easier than GC maps.

 

Getting lots of ideas for spring trips looking at these maps, I can get last minute changes just before I go.

[Hugh Jazz]

Another possibility is to sign up for some 3G cellular data service. Then no matter where you go (more or less) you'll have access to the gc.com site and can just plug in your current coordinates and see what's available.

[+DocDiTTo]

Another possibility is to sign up for some 3G cellular data service.  Then no matter where you go (more or less) you'll have access to the gc.com site and can just plug in your current coordinates and see what's available.

 

$$$

 

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Every once in a while I see this and I can't help but wonder...

 

The OP has found just over 500 caches in the last 3 1/2 years. Why would he need to download all 2,500 caches in his state?

 

By contrast I've found just over 3,000 caches in about the same amount of time and I only download 2 PQs at a time just before I go out caching, and often continue using those PQs for up to a week before I bother getting another PQ or two. The 2 PQs I get are usually 10 times more caches than I need, but since there isn't a "PQ on a route" available yet, I have to get the extra data

 

I just don't understand why people seem to think they need to download thousands of caches all over their state, just to find a handful a week

I bought MS S&T a year or so ago. I don't plan on visiting the Northeast until 2008 and I'll probably upgrade my software before then, but they didn't have a version at the store that only had the areas I knew I'd be in.

 

Same thing with PQ's. by having the whole state downloaded, I don't have to spend a bunch of time setting up PQ's for where I plan to visit that particular week. I can download the whole state and use GSAK to filter when I figure out where I'm going.

[+Right Wing Wacko]

I'm going caching tomorrow. To be honest, I don't know where I'm going yet. I'll find out when I get there.

[+Zzyzx Road]

Thanks for the discussion!

I was also wondering how...We go to northern Cal several times a year, camping, and also to the coast or Disneyland. I don't know the zips, and can't just take all the caches out there - some I read about were actually dirt-bike trails...

I want to be abel to download all caches of type onto my map at home, then pick a route and show all caches along the way.

Is this just a complicated procedue? Or is it right in front of me? Or is it one of those variables depending on GPS and software types?

[+Markwell]

There's a lengthy discussion about Caches Along A Route over in the Geocaching.com Website forum, and I give my solution here.

[+Fathergoose]

The original intent of the topic was for those that chose to do PQ’s for an entire state, could post how they did it. That way others could benefit from what has already been done. Somehow it has turned into a discussion of the virtues of doing so.

[+Rich the Bushwhacker]

Living in a tiny state has it's benefits. I get all 305 or so from RI in one query if I want to. When filtered to remove finds, puzzles and my ignore list, I'm down to 125 left.

[Hugh Jazz]

Another possibility is to sign up for some 3G cellular data service.  Then no matter where you go (more or less) you'll have access to the gc.com site and can just plug in your current coordinates and see what's available.

 

$$$

 

What's your time worth? Time you spend futzing around trying to get all the caches in the state downloaded? Keeping that list fresh? You could just pick up your 3G phone and put in your current coords and be done with it.

 

People often balk at the expense of something until they figure out how much time they spend doing it the hard way.

 

Remember, you can always make more money but you can't make more time!

 

[+Lil Devil]

When filtered to remove finds, puzzles and my ignore list, I'm down to 125 left.

What are you waiting for? I'd have all those found in 2-3 days

[+Zzyzx Road]

There's a lengthy discussion about Caches Along A Route over in the Geocaching.com Website forum, and I give my solution here.

Thank you for that explanation! I have figured out how to do that I guess. It is just time consuming...and I am a bit lazy when it comes to my internet (S...l...ow ..d.. ia..l.. up...).

Your description is easy to understand!

 

Oh yeah...

Haben Sie eine gluckliches Neue Jahre!

(I hope that was correct...it's been a few years)

[+Markwell]

OK - I did a quick look at each state from the advanced seek page, pulled up each state and found its CURRENT number of caches (as of the last 30 minutes or so). I then grouped them by number of caches and mapped them.

 

 

California has over 24,000 non-archived caches. That would take 48 pocket queries, and at 5 per day, totaling 500 x 7 days, you STILL couldn't get them all in a week. It would take 10 days of separate queries.

 

Texas isn't much better with 10,555 right now. That's still five days worth of pocket queries.

 

And by the time you got it right, you'd be out of date.

 

Which is the point many of us are making.

 

Pocket queries aren't designed to give you an offline database of all caches. They're designed to give you a snapshot to use as a guideline. The main database is right here, online, always updated.

 

Since the number of caches in any given "date placed" range is flexible due to archiving, unarchiving and new caches, whatever someone places as their date ranges for an efficient grab of the state will most likely be out of date within a couple of weeks.

 

My points:

*Many states are too large to be able to efficiently grab all of the caches in pocket queries

*Keep in mind that offline data goes stale

*Posting your successful date range for grabbing your state, while fun, won't work in a couple of weeks or a month, unless no one ever archives caches in your area.