Locating Caches on Vacation

[+Steve'sSister]

I am brand new at this- having gotten my GPS yesterday and completed 4 near where I live in Maine. I am planning a trip to Boston, but in general don't understand how to make searching there easier. I know I can see the general area on the map, but how do I limit myself. Should I get the coordinates of my hotel (and how do I that??) and enter them as a new home point? Then what? Can I search for caches with 5 miles of that? How do I do that? ANy help would be appreciated. This question goes for any searches outside my immediate area. Thanks

Steve'sSister

[+sbell111]

The simple answer to almost every question, it seems, is pocket queries.

 

You can use pocket queries to find caches along the route to your destination and you can use them to find caches in the area you will be staying in. You can taylor your PQs to eliminate the kinds of caches that you don't like. You can also download the cache info to your GPSr and PDA.

 

Pocket Queries are good.

 

Steve

Edited August 10, 2006 by sbell111

[+Steve'sSister]

The simple answer to almost every question, it seems, is pocket queries.

 

You can use pocket queries to find caches along the route to your destination and you can use them to find caches in the area you will be staying in. You can taylor your PQs to eliminate the kinds of caches that you don't like. You can also download the cache info to your GPSr and PDA.

 

Pocket Queries are good.

 

Steve

Thanks for your quick response. I know about pocket Queries, and see them in my future, but for now I am a simple person using paper and just a simple gps. I want to go online ahead of time and print out some caches, but like I said, don't know how get how to find the coordinattes to start with. I just went to some map sites but don't see the option.

[+Steve'sSister]

The simple answer to almost every question, it seems, is pocket queries.

 

You can use pocket queries to find caches along the route to your destination and you can use them to find caches in the area you will be staying in. You can taylor your PQs to eliminate the kinds of caches that you don't like. You can also download the cache info to your GPSr and PDA.

 

Pocket Queries are good.

 

Steve

Thanks for your quick response. I know about pocket Queries, and see them in my future, but for now I am a simple person using paper and just a simple gps. I want to go online ahead of time and print out some caches, but like I said, don't know how get how to find the coordinattes to start with. I just went to some map sites but don't see the option.

On 2nd look- I guess I didn't know what pocket queries were! I will try to figure that out now.Thanks

[+Team Dubbin]

On 2nd look- I guess I didn't know what pocket queries were! I will try to figure that out now.Thanks

 

Pocket queries will allow you to load the caches into software such as GSAK and also allow you to put all the cache info on a palm device with cachmate on it. You must be a premium member to run queries.

[+sbell111]

Thanks for your quick response. I know about pocket Queries, and see them in my future, but for now I am a simple person using paper and just a simple gps. I want to go online ahead of time and print out some caches, but like I said, don't know how get how to find the coordinattes to start with. I just went to some map sites but don't see the option.

It's great that PQs let you shove the info into a PDA, but they are really much more useful than that. Being able to upload a ton of caches to your GPSr in a minute, rather than typing them all in individually.

 

When you get your .GPX file, you can dump them into GSAK and sort them further. Deleting those that you won't like (or that have a bunch of DNFs and might be missing). From GSAK, you can also open the online cache pages or (if you are using a laptop on the road), open up an off-line cache page (which has the cache description, hint, and last five logs).

[+GreyingJay]

I am brand new at this- having gotten my GPS yesterday and completed 4 near where I live in Maine. I am planning a trip to Boston, but in general don't understand how to make searching there easier. I know I can see the general area on the map, but how do I limit myself. Should I get the coordinates of my hotel (and how do I that??) and enter them as a new home point? Then what? Can I search for caches with 5 miles of that? How do I do that? ANy help would be appreciated. This question goes for any searches outside my immediate area. Thanks

Steve'sSister

 

You can search for caches by nearest zip/postal code. That's probably the best way to find caches near your hotel.

[+briansnat]

The best way is to find out the Zipcode for where you are staying and run a pocket query from that location. You can then load the waypoints directly into your GPS (with most models).

 

Another option is to use Google Earth and the geocaching kml. You can key in the address of your hotel and Google Earth will show you the location of very cache in the area. You can click on the cache icon to see the cache page. Neat stuff!

[+WeightMan]

You can also use Google Earth. Put in the address of the hotel and then use the coordinates at the bottom of the screen to get the coords for the hotel. Base your PQ on those coords. I set up a database in GSAK for each destination so they don't clutter up my home database. I can then select those caches I want to do and send them to the GPSr and the PDA. Since you are not yet paperless, you can still get to the cache page from GSAK and print out the page.

 

Edit to note that I forgot about using the KML. That will get you the caches near the hotel as well and works nicely. Thanks to briansnat for the reminder.

Edited August 10, 2006 by WeightMan

[+Steve'sSister]

The best way is to find out the Zipcode for where you are staying and run a pocket query from that location. You can then load the waypoints directly into your GPS (with most models).

 

Another option is to use Google Earth and the geocaching kml. You can key in the address of your hotel and Google Earth will show you the location of very cache in the area. You can click on the cache icon to see the cache page. Neat stuff!

Thanks! I went to GoogleEarth, but don't know what you mean by the "geocaching kml" or where to click to see caches- cache icon??

[+IGJoe]

I also like to paper cache and for me the easiest thing to do is get the zipcode of your hotel and search for caches based on that. Keep in mind though it searches from the center of the zipcode which may be several miles from your hotel.

 

Setting the co-ords of the hotel as your home co-ords would be better but could be a real hassle. One way to do it would be to put the co-ords of a nearby cache into googlemaps then adjust those coords until its over the general area of the hotel. Kind of a brute force technique but it gets it done.

[+Markwell]

Thanks! I went to GoogleEarth, but don't know what you mean by the "geocaching kml" or where to click to see caches- cache icon??

 

You can go to your My cache page and download the KML file here:

 

Then open Google Earth and go to File Open, make sure to change the "Type" to KML.

 

More details can be found here.

[namiboy]

The best way is to find out the Zipcode for where you are staying and run a pocket query from that location. You can then load the waypoints directly into your GPS (with most models).

 

Another option is to use Google Earth and the geocaching kml. You can key in the address of your hotel and Google Earth will show you the location of very cache in the area. You can click on the cache icon to see the cache page. Neat stuff!

 

i just downloaded google earth, version 4 i believe, and i dont see anything on there about geocaching, can you help?

[+WeightMan]

The best way is to find out the Zipcode for where you are staying and run a pocket query from that location. You can then load the waypoints directly into your GPS (with most models).

 

Another option is to use Google Earth and the geocaching kml. You can key in the address of your hotel and Google Earth will show you the location of very cache in the area. You can click on the cache icon to see the cache page. Neat stuff!

 

i just downloaded google earth, version 4 i believe, and i dont see anything on there about geocaching, can you help?

 

You have to download the Geocaching.kml file from geocaching.com. See the post above yours for the details.

[+smilingsteeles]

Google Earth is such an awesome program. I'm not a premium member (YET) so I don't do or understand pocket queries and find Google Earth to be very helpful.

[+Wild Thing 73]

I am brand new at this- having gotten my GPS yesterday and completed 4 near where I live in Maine. I am planning a trip to Boston, but in general don't understand how to make searching there easier. I know I can see the general area on the map, but how do I limit myself. Should I get the coordinates of my hotel (and how do I that??) and enter them as a new home point? Then what? Can I search for caches with 5 miles of that? How do I do that? ANy help would be appreciated. This question goes for any searches outside my immediate area. Thanks

Steve'sSister

Google Earth with *.KML

[+sbell111]

Thanks for your quick response. I know about pocket Queries, and see them in my future, but for now I am a simple person using paper and just a simple gps. I want to go online ahead of time and print out some caches, but like I said, don't know how get how to find the coordinattes to start with. I just went to some map sites but don't see the option.

Honestly, I do it the old fashioned way. I simply map the hotel's address using Streets & Trips, MapPoint, MapQuest, Google Maps, or whatever way I feel like. Then I pull up the caches in that zip code and find one close to the hotel. That's where I center my search. It only takes a few minutes and isn't that difficult.

[+dakboy]

If you look up the address in Google Maps (don't even need Google Earth or the geocaching kml), and click "Link to this page", usually you'll get the coordinates right in the URL. If you don't, zoom in one notch (make sure the hotel is in the center) and try again. Should work there. I did it about a half-dozen times this weekend.

 

I'm going on vacation myself in about a week and my plan is to load up as many caches & benchmarks as I think are reasonable into my GPS, and print out the pages to take with me. I'd like to find a way to condense each cache's web page into a space small enough that I can fit 4 onto a sheet of paper.

[+Boot Group]

I'm leaving tomorrow for vacation and I did it the old fashioned way. I just looked up the zip code of the hotel where I'm staying and then checked out the various caches within 10 miles or so. I picked some that looked fun, scenic, and easy (since the kids are coming).

 

I also checked out the zip codes of the other places I knew I was going to visit on "day trips" from the hotel, and picked a few caches in those areas.

Edited August 14, 2006 by Boot Group

[+Trucker Lee]

Try this. Get the zip for the hotel, and enter it in a search. Look in the top right corner, and hit the "map it" button when you get your results. Fill in the "identify" below the map, locate your hotel on that map, and click there. Scroll down, the nearby caches have now been put in order by distance from your location. Write the identities down by the direction they are, so that you can go a different direction each day and make best use of your time. Now, the hard part, got to do your homework.

 

I like to open a notepad, and copy/paste the information I need for each cache. Space down a couple, and do the next one. When you are done, print.

 

Of course, a premium membership is still coming for me, and that will eliminate a lot of work.