Find Caches Along A Road! Easily!

[+Team Trailgoon]

Well, maybe I'm late to the party, but I've finally figured out how to locate all the caches along a road trip route!

 

This might seem like a lot of steps, but really, it only takes me about 30 minutes for a 200 mile trip.

 

1) First, I run a bunch of pocket queries until I have complete coverage of the route. I'll have 10M caches, but I'll have 'em all. It helps to keep a large supply of .gpx files on hand.

 

2) I then trace the route with National Geographic TOPO! software and run the GPS route tool. Then let the s/w place a cache every mile along the route. I need to parce the trip into 50mi segments first. Garmin and other s/w will probably work for this, but I own TOPO! so that's what I used.

 

3) I then open the route 'Export Wizard' in TOPO! and create a comma delimited text file and past it into MSWord.

 

4) Next, convert the file to a table in MSWord (Ctl A, Alt A, V, X).

 

5) Next, delete all columns except the two containg lat and long data.

 

6) Ctl. A, Ctl C (copy the data)

 

8) Open a GSAK database with the 10,000,000 waypoints and create a 'Filter'.

 

7) Paste the waypoint data from word into the arc/polygon section of the filter (below the # text). Set any other limits on the filter, such as 'available', terrain <2, etc.

 

8) Continue to cut and paste until the entire route is in the filter.

 

9) Save and run the filter with an appropriate distance set, about 2km.

 

I NOW HAVE A FILE WITH EVERY CACHE WITHIN A MILE OF MY INTENDED TRIP!

 

 

I'd love to hear of a cleaner way to do this, but for now, this works GREAT!

-Greg

The Trailgoon

Los Angeles, CA

[+Ambrosia]

I really don't know what I'm talking about, cause my husband does all of this. But can't you put your query into mapsource, and then very quickly manually delete any caches outside of those roads that you won't be using during the trip? And then maybe you would be able to put several pocket queries at a time into your gps, thus making a personalized trip?

 

[+Kit Fox]

Here was the original way to do it.

 

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/marklent60544...ching/route.htm

[+Team Trailgoon]

Is Mapsource free or do I need to buy it? Your way sounds pretty easy. The things I like about my way are I already own TOPO! and GSAK, and I can keep the max distance any cache is from the road very small without having to work too hard. I'm sure this is something that could easily be done in Garmin Streets and Maps, but I've never used that s/w either.

-g

[+robert]

You can also use Google Earth to add the caches along the route to a bookmark, then download the PQ from that.

 

[+Pez Tonto]

It took me a while to work this out, but it does work great. I use MS S&T, but I think you can use any mapping software to create a route. The key is then pulling your route into GSAK and using it to filter your caches.

 

If you've got routes that you take regularly -- visiting the in-laws or whatever, you can create the route once, keep it on hand, and use it over and over again to filter updated queries.

[+Miragee]

I use a modified method gleaned from suggestions in this thread.

 

It will work with any mapping software, but I have the Mapsource maps because those are what I installed to my GPSr.

 

I create a bunch of PQs spaced along my route and put those into GSAK. Then I filter those to 1.5/1.5 rated caches within .25 of the Route. I Copy those waypoints over to a new database in GSAK named "Road Trip."

 

Then I go back and create "bubbles" where I think I will be stopping and might have time to find some caches that are a distance away from the highway. I might set my filter for these to be Difficulty 5/Terrain 3.5 fifteen or so miles from a Center Point along the route.

 

I Copy each of the "Bubbles" into the "Road Trip" database.

 

After doing this along the route, I Export them to my maps to see what it looks like to make sure I have done it correctly.

 

This reduces the number of waypoints I initially put in my GSPr, but I can keep all the other waypoints in my Palm and my laptop in case my plans change.

[+headybrew]

Is Mapsource free or do I need to buy it? ...

 

Well, MapSource is a free download from the garmin web site, but it's not much good without the maps themselves, which are not free...

 

MapSource is intended to be a waypoint manager, and a map upload/download manager for use with garmin GPS units. It works in cooperation with Nroute, which is their product for live mapping while driving in your car.

 

Both are excellent products, but unfortunately Garmin likes to keep certain things proprietary, so they aren't much use if you don't have a garmin GPS unit.

 

I use MapSource in conjunction with Google Earth. The combination ROCKS! Though there certainly could be some room for improvement.

 

Google Earth is a free download, if you don't know about it already. It's a must have that will really blow your mind with 3D satelite images of the entire planet, (and talk of Mars too someday.)

 

I don't even know what GSAK is. But I've heard so much about it, I guess I'll have to check it out soon. All I know is that it is a waypoint manager with features specifically for geocaching/terracaching. Sounds cool. Maybe I'll down load it tonight.

 

Another essential piece of software is GPS Babble. I use it to convert Google earth KML files to GPX files. It converts all sorts of files to all sorts of other files.

[+Miragee]

GPSBabel works "under the hood" of GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), which has a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you figure it out, you'll never go back . . .

 

Because I have such a slow dialup connection (24K) to the Internet, I don't get to use Google Earth.

 

I do all my cache filtering with GSAK and then visualize the waypoints on my Mapsource maps.

[+Ambrosia]

Is Mapsource free or do I need to buy it? Your way sounds pretty easy. The things I like about my way are I already own TOPO! and GSAK, and I can keep the max distance any cache is from the road very small without having to work too hard. I'm sure this is something that could easily be done in Garmin Streets and Maps, but I've never used that s/w either.

-g

I wish that I could help you more, but I used up all of my brain capacity with what I already told you.

[+Jhwk]

10,000,000 waypoints in GSAK. Nothing like giving your software a good workout.

[+wandererrob]

GPSBabel works "under the hood" of GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), which has a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you figure it out, you'll never go back . . .

 

Because I have such a slow dialup connection (24K) to the Internet, I don't get to use Google Earth.

 

I do all my cache filtering with GSAK and then visualize the waypoints on my Mapsource maps.

 

Agreed, and you can filter caches along a route by entering waypoints along a "line" in GSAK. I do love this program

[Mushtang]

Well, maybe I'm late to the party, but I've finally figured out how to locate all the caches along a road trip route!

 

 

Very similar to the way I've been doing it for years. Good job! I use MapSource, and have a Garmin, so getting a file of the path to import into GSAK is a lot easier and quicker.

 

BTW, I know what Ambrosia is hinting at with manually deleting waypoints using MapSource. However, the way you're doing it will also allow you to output the filtered cache pages to your PDA. If you use MapSource to manually delete them, you'll be able to have the waypoints along the route, but won't be able to filter the pages from a PDA.

 

This might not be a big deal if you don't mind having the pages for caches you won't visit. And it doesn't seem like a big deal to me.