Finding General Area Cache

[SeekYeFirst]

I left the house today with the coordinates in my GPS for 4 caches. Our territory has been expanding farther away from home now. Following the GPS to find something 14 miles away is tricky and sometimes aggrivating since roads don't always lead where you want them to! So what should I have done? How do I get closer using a road map, so I don't have to watch that little arrow? Thanks for the help! I love this game, but I don't want to waste gas, as expensive as it is these days, going in circles!

SeekYeFirst <><

[+New England n00b]

I left the house today with the coordinates in my GPS for 4 caches. Our territory has been expanding farther away from home now. Following the GPS to find something 14 miles away is tricky and sometimes aggrivating since roads don't always lead where you want them to! So what should I have done? How do I get closer using a road map, so I don't have to watch that little arrow? Thanks for the help! I love this game, but I don't want to waste gas, as expensive as it is these days, going in circles!

SeekYeFirst <><

Well, if you go to the cache pages, sometimes the hider will provideparking coordinates. Enter those as well as the waypoint coordinate. If they don't, but tell you what park it is in, you could check maps online or with teh town conservation commission (if it is under their jurisdiction). I dunno what GPS you have, but if you have a mapping GPS with teh basemaps only, you might consider spending teh money for more detailed maps.

[SeekYeFirst]

I left the house today with the coordinates in my GPS for 4 caches. Our territory has been expanding farther away from home now. Following the GPS to find something 14 miles away is tricky and sometimes aggrivating since roads don't always lead where you want them to! So what should I have done? How do I get closer using a road map, so I don't have to watch that little arrow? Thanks for the help! I love this game, but I don't want to waste gas, as expensive as it is these days, going in circles!

SeekYeFirst <><

Well, if you go to the cache pages, sometimes the hider will provideparking coordinates. Enter those as well as the waypoint coordinate. If they don't, but tell you what park it is in, you could check maps online or with teh town conservation commission (if it is under their jurisdiction). I dunno what GPS you have, but if you have a mapping GPS with teh basemaps only, you might consider spending teh money for more detailed maps.

 

I was talking about finding the parking lot or the general vacinity, as in city...area...that sort of thing. I have a GArmin $80 GPS. Very basic. I don't think it has a map with streets and the sort on it.

 

SeekYeFirst <><

[+New England n00b]

I left the house today with the coordinates in my GPS for 4 caches. Our territory has been expanding farther away from home now. Following the GPS to find something 14 miles away is tricky and sometimes aggrivating since roads don't always lead where you want them to! So what should I have done? How do I get closer using a road map, so I don't have to watch that little arrow? Thanks for the help! I love this game, but I don't want to waste gas, as expensive as it is these days, going in circles!

SeekYeFirst <><

Well, if you go to the cache pages, sometimes the hider will provideparking coordinates. Enter those as well as the waypoint coordinate. If they don't, but tell you what park it is in, you could check maps online or with teh town conservation commission (if it is under their jurisdiction). I dunno what GPS you have, but if you have a mapping GPS with teh basemaps only, you might consider spending teh money for more detailed maps.

 

I was talking about finding the parking lot or the general vacinity, as in city...area...that sort of thing. I have a GArmin $80 GPS. Very basic. I don't think it has a map with streets and the sort on it.

 

SeekYeFirst <><

Ahhhhh.... There is a way to use mapquest.com with coordinates, but I never did figure out how to do that. If someone can tell you how, you could print out a mapquest map that should make things considerably easier.

 

EDIT: stupid laptop keyboard

Edited April 16, 2006 by New England n00b

[+Isonzo Karst]

Right on every cache page are links for many different maps, all with the cache coordinates indicated on them. Just for basic driving directions to get you near, look at MapQuest. With the time in driving nad the cost of gas, it's well worth spending a few minutes zooming in and out on the Mapquest map to get a set of driving directions for yourself. It still won't tell you which side of the block the park entry is, or that you're going to be on the wrong side of the creek (ravine or whatever). But at least it will get you close enough to chase that arrow.

[+Team Neos]

When you get the cache page open, click on the cache map on the bottom right.

After it loads, you can zoon in on it to get street names. Use the best view to plan your route.

 

Try looking at the other maps as well. You might like one better than another.

 

Also, you can enter coords on google maps (the regular ones, not the kind you have to download the whole program for). I like those, because once the map loads, you can click and scoot it around to look for a better view. I use it on "hybrid" often, even though I have mapping software now.

 

You might also try terraserver

The topo map on there shows some street names, and often shows parking lots (the info there can be years old though, just beware).

 

To search map quest by lat & long

[+PaRacers]

I use an inexpensive GPS (without maps) by using Google Earth. It's free software that you can use to map out what caches you want to find and where they are. You can download a .KML file from www.geocaching.com that puts all the caches right on the Google Earth map and you can click on each one to get details. It's very cool and VERY necessary to do your mapping if your GPS can't.

[SeekYeFirst]

I use an inexpensive GPS (without maps) by using Google Earth. It's free software that you can use to map out what caches you want to find and where they are. You can download a .KML file from www.geocaching.com that puts all the caches right on the Google Earth map and you can click on each one to get details. It's very cool and VERY necessary to do your mapping if your GPS can't.

This sounds like a nifty idea, though I'm not quite sure I understand exactly what you mean or how to go about it. I don't know what a .kml file is!

[SeekYeFirst]

When you get the cache page open, click on the cache map on the bottom right.

After it loads, you can zoon in on it to get street names. Use the best view to plan your route.

 

Try looking at the other maps as well. You might like one better than another.

 

Also, you can enter coords on google maps (the regular ones, not the kind you have to download the whole program for). I like those, because once the map loads, you can click and scoot it around to look for a better view. I use it on "hybrid" often, even though I have mapping software now.

 

You might also try terraserver

The topo map on there shows some street names, and often shows parking lots (the info there can be years old though, just beware).

 

To search map quest by lat & long

Hey! I tried that and it works great! Now if I only had ink in my printer! But I know the area I'm going to tomorrow so I can write down the directions! Thanks! Happy Easter! <><

[+Adrenalynn]

Another vote for google earth.

 

For pulling maps in mapquest by coords:

 

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp

[+Henki]

Also, you can enter coords on google maps (the regular ones, not the kind you have to download the whole program for). I like those, because once the map loads, you can click and scoot it around to look for a better view.

 

I agree; Google Maps is great!

[+wuvablepebbles]

So what should I have done? How do I get closer using a road map, so I don't have to watch that little arrow

 

On the cache page on geocaching.com you will see an option that says google maps. Now when you click on that you get a road map to area... now for parking lots i do the following...

 

Once on the google map you will see something called HYBRID in the upper right hand corner...click HYBRID. This will combine the roadmap with a satillite image of that location. You can then zoom in and out and pan around. This way you can find parking and even see alot of the trails to the cache with this.

 

I love doing this to scope out a trail specially if i'm bringing a toddler along! (too bad I didn't spot that I had to cross a beaver dam yesterday though LOL) Have fun with this feature... going this way you don't even have to enter the locations into google earth. they already integrated it into the maps for you!

Edited April 16, 2006 by wuvablepebbles

[+limp and saw mill]

Great ideas here.....