A long geocaching journey - how to prepare?

[+tr1976]

Hi all,

 

I am asking for your advice on how to prepare for looong road trips where the route is not completely

known before leaving home.

 

Let's take an example:

 

Mission: Drive through 10 states or countries during two weeks in 2008 and find caches along the route.

Gear: Magellan eXplorist 600 handheld GPSr, a laptop PC, a 3G/GPRS phone, possibly another car GPSr (TomTom or similar). Buying more gear is not a problem if it helps a lot.

Problem: How to get the cache coordinates and descriptions in the most convenient way from gc.com to the GPSr devices?

 

Options that I know, but none of them is perfect:

 

1. Try to hand pick caches well before leaving on the road and load/print them to go (problem: hard work)

2. Try to figure out how to cover as many as possible via pocket queries (problem: 500 limit)

3. Try to think of possible route options, and create route queries for them (the same 500 problem)

4. Look cache pages on-line with the phone or with laptop+phone (problems: manual work to enter coords to GPSr, difficult to stop every now and then - the accompanying non-geocachers will complain)

 

It would be so easy if one could do a pocket query for e.g. the whole USA and Canada, but I guess that is not

possible. So what's the second best option?

 

Thanks & best regards,

tr1976

[+StarBrand]

Good News!!

 

As many as 5 times a day you can find some wi-fi access and calculate a new route and download a PQ of up to 500 caches within a few minutes. Use your laptop to tranfer to the GPS and off you go with stop times of no more than 15 minutes (average). Your data will not be stale and you will not waste time on caches that no onger exist. Since you will be stopping anyway to find the caches - i am certain the passengers can use the brief break to stretch thier legs and whatnot.

[+DavidMac]

I don't know of any methods of grabbing large amounts of cache data that haven't already been mentioned, but it helps to limit your pocket queries to caches under 2.5 difficulty/terrain. If you're on the road, chances are that you're looking for quick caches anyway (no long hikes, etc), so you may as well filter them out.

 

A week or so before I go on a long trip, I set up PQ's (sometimes 20 or more) to cover most of the areas I think I'll be visiting, and let them sit. Then, once a day or so while I'm on the road, when I know where I want to head next I find a wifi hotspot and download the 3-5 queries (which I already set up) to cover the area I'll be driving through. I load them into GSAK, export the whole thing to Mapsource, and delete the caches that are way off the route or are already behind me. That keeps the data as fresh as possible.

 

If you don't want to stop to find internet access, your best bet is to set up all the queries the week before, and download 5 per day to populate a GSAK database. In 8 days, you can get 40 queries, with potentially up to 20,000 cache descriptions (assuming no overlap).

 

edited to add: I usually use circular queries in remote areas, and route PQ's in urban areas. It's been my experience that when you're on the road and get to a major city, you either drive right through, stop for the night in the immediate vicinity of an interstate, or spend a little time downtown (where the attractions/historical sites are). As an example, if I'm driving through St. Louis on I-70, I might want to stop to see the Arch (and grab a cache there, of course), but there's no need to download the 4,000 suburban caches miles from the interstate.

Edited April 17, 2007 by DavidMac

[+sbell111]

• As others have suggested, refine your PQs to only those caches that you are actually interested in finding while on the road. This will help you reduce the total number of PQs that you will need.
  
• Even though you don't have your exact route settled, you probably know some of the locations that you want to spend some time. You can do PQs for these areas beforehand so you don't have to worry about getting the data once you are on the road.
  
• Take advantage of the 'Caches along a route' feature. I've found that most routes that I want to take are already built. It only takes me a minute to find the public route and request a PQ for it. You could easily do this using free wifi during an early morning or late evening break.
  

[+tr1976]

I don't know of any methods of grabbing large amounts of cache data that haven't already been mentioned, but it helps to limit your pocket queries to caches under 2.5 difficulty/terrain. If you're on the road, chances are that you're looking for quick caches anyway (no long hikes, etc), so you may as well filter them out.

 

A week or so before I go on a long trip, I set up PQ's (sometimes 20 or more) to cover most of the areas I think I'll be visiting, and let them sit. Then, once a day or so while I'm on the road, when I know where I want to head next I find a wifi hotspot and download the 3-5 queries (which I already set up) to cover the area I'll be driving through. I load them into GSAK, export the whole thing to Mapsource, and delete the caches that are way off the route or are already behind me. That keeps the data as fresh as possible.

 

If you don't want to stop to find internet access, your best bet is to set up all the queries the week before, and download 5 per day to populate a GSAK database. In 8 days, you can get 40 queries, with potentially up to 20,000 cache descriptions (assuming no overlap).

 

edited to add: I usually use circular queries in remote areas, and route PQ's in urban areas. It's been my experience that when you're on the road and get to a major city, you either drive right through, stop for the night in the immediate vicinity of an interstate, or spend a little time downtown (where the attractions/historical sites are). As an example, if I'm driving through St. Louis on I-70, I might want to stop to see the Arch (and grab a cache there, of course), but there's no need to download the 4,000 suburban caches miles from the interstate.

 

Thanks! Good working methods... Luckily I have started to plan well ahead, so I can try things and

tune up the PQs and all the devices, and learn from the best well ahead

 

BTW, I assume GPRS data connections work in GSM cell networks in US & Canada, so that would extend

the area where I can be on-line with my laptop from the WLAN hotspots only. The download rate is not as

great but we're talking in a ten minute scale anyway.

 

However, while washing the dishes, I came up with the thought, that why wouldn't GC.com offer the premium

members pre-run PQs of each state/country? That would ease up the load on the database server as

people would do most of the filtering on their own PCs. Maybe I'll set a separate thread on that.

[+tr1976]

• As others have suggested, refine your PQs to only those caches that you are actually interested in finding while on the road. This will help you reduce the total number of PQs that you will need.
  
• Even though you don't have your exact route settled, you probably know some of the locations that you want to spend some time. You can do PQs for these areas beforehand so you don't have to worry about getting the data once you are on the road.
  
• Take advantage of the 'Caches along a route' feature. I've found that most routes that I want to take are already built. It only takes me a minute to find the public route and request a PQ for it. You could easily do this using free wifi during an early morning or late evening break.
  

 

All of you are mentioning free wifi.. Is there a site with coordinates to free hotspots?

 

BR,

tr1976

[+tr1976]

I don't know of any methods of grabbing large amounts of cache data that haven't already been mentioned, but it helps to limit your pocket queries to caches under 2.5 difficulty/terrain. If you're on the road, chances are that you're looking for quick caches anyway (no long hikes, etc), so you may as well filter them out.

 

A week or so before I go on a long trip, I set up PQ's (sometimes 20 or more) to cover most of the areas I think I'll be visiting, and let them sit. Then, once a day or so while I'm on the road, when I know where I want to head next I find a wifi hotspot and download the 3-5 queries (which I already set up) to cover the area I'll be driving through. I load them into GSAK, export the whole thing to Mapsource, and delete the caches that are way off the route or are already behind me. That keeps the data as fresh as possible.

 

If you don't want to stop to find internet access, your best bet is to set up all the queries the week before, and download 5 per day to populate a GSAK database. In 8 days, you can get 40 queries, with potentially up to 20,000 cache descriptions (assuming no overlap).

 

edited to add: I usually use circular queries in remote areas, and route PQ's in urban areas. It's been my experience that when you're on the road and get to a major city, you either drive right through, stop for the night in the immediate vicinity of an interstate, or spend a little time downtown (where the attractions/historical sites are). As an example, if I'm driving through St. Louis on I-70, I might want to stop to see the Arch (and grab a cache there, of course), but there's no need to download the 4,000 suburban caches miles from the interstate.

 

Thanks! Good working methods... Luckily I have started to plan well ahead, so I can try things and

tune up the PQs and all the devices, and learn from the best well ahead

 

BTW, I assume GPRS data connections work in GSM cell networks in US & Canada, so that would extend

the area where I can be on-line with my laptop from the WLAN hotspots only. The download rate is not as

great but we're talking in a ten minute scale anyway.

 

However, while washing the dishes, I came up with the thought, that why wouldn't GC.com offer the premium

members pre-run PQs of each state/country? That would ease up the load on the database server as

people would do most of the filtering on their own PCs. Maybe I'll set a separate thread on that.

 

Cheers,

tr1976

[+sbell111]

I don't use a GPSr like yours, so I'm not sure if there is a limit to the amount of caches that you can load to it. If there is, you can keep files of caches on your laptop for each part of the trip and squirt them to your GPSr as you need them.

 

I would also consider buying an inexpensive palm pda to dump your data to.

[+tr1976]

I added a new topic to forums regarding pre-run PQs. If there was just state.zip and country.zip which could be downloaded to the laptop then the problems would be gone...

[+sbell111]

I added a new topic to forums regarding pre-run PQs. If there was just state.zip and country.zip which could be downloaded to the laptop then the problems would be gone...

Jeremy has made his thoughts on this pretty clear. I don't see it happening.

[+Miragee]

When I went on a couple of trips to Colorado, I was surprised where I found free WiFi. Little coffee shops in small cities, like Salida, CO, had WiFi, as did a second-hand store on lonely Hwy. 17.

 

I also found that Days Inn motels had good WiFi I could access from their parking lots.

[+sbell111]

• As others have suggested, refine your PQs to only those caches that you are actually interested in finding while on the road. This will help you reduce the total number of PQs that you will need.
  
• Even though you don't have your exact route settled, you probably know some of the locations that you want to spend some time. You can do PQs for these areas beforehand so you don't have to worry about getting the data once you are on the road.
  
• Take advantage of the 'Caches along a route' feature. I've found that most routes that I want to take are already built. It only takes me a minute to find the public route and request a PQ for it. You could easily do this using free wifi during an early morning or late evening break.
  

 

All of you are mentioning free wifi.. Is there a site with coordinates to free hotspots?

 

BR,

tr1976

Here's one.

 

I'm sure that a google search would pull up several more.

[+tr1976]

I added a new topic to forums regarding pre-run PQs. If there was just state.zip and country.zip which could be downloaded to the laptop then the problems would be gone...

Jeremy has made his thoughts on this pretty clear. I don't see it happening.

 

Do you have a link to the topic with the reasoning?

 

Thanks,

 

tr1976

[+TrailGators]

• As others have suggested, refine your PQs to only those caches that you are actually interested in finding while on the road. This will help you reduce the total number of PQs that you will need.
  
• Even though you don't have your exact route settled, you probably know some of the locations that you want to spend some time. You can do PQs for these areas beforehand so you don't have to worry about getting the data once you are on the road.
  
• Take advantage of the 'Caches along a route' feature. I've found that most routes that I want to take are already built. It only takes me a minute to find the public route and request a PQ for it. You could easily do this using free wifi during an early morning or late evening break.
  

 

All of you are mentioning free wifi.. Is there a site with coordinates to free hotspots?

 

BR,

tr1976

Here's one.

 

I'm sure that a google search would pull up several more.

You can stay in hotels that have free Internet/wifi. That's what I usually do.

[+sbell111]

I added a new topic to forums regarding pre-run PQs. If there was just state.zip and country.zip which could be downloaded to the laptop then the problems would be gone...

Jeremy has made his thoughts on this pretty clear. I don't see it happening.

Do you have a link to the topic with the reasoning?

 

Thanks,

 

tr1976

Here's a few:

link

 

link

[+SgtSue]

This summer we are going on a vacation and will do some caching along with sightseeing. If we were going on a caching vacation I would do things differently.

 

Note: All PQs are loaded into GSAK. PQs include Traditional (lesser difficulty and terrain), Virtuals, and Events. They do not include puzzels, multis, and other types of caches.

 

1. I have a "base" route that I know I will be traveling and created several PQs using the Caches along a Route feature.

2. Used GSAK to filter by types and then imported into S&T with different icons representing different types of caches.

3. Checked the map to see which are close to but with easy accessible from the road.

4. Then created a Bookmark list for those I think I will have easy access (mostly welcome centers and rest stops)

 

Then ran several reqular PQs for areas I think I want to visit.

1. Some of the caches I found within these PQs raised an area up in the "Maybe visit” list

2. Eliminated other caches for whatever reasons.

3. Added ones I determined "Hope to do" to the Bookmark list.

 

Week or so before leaving

1. PQ from the Bookmark list to verify they are still available.

2. Run the other PQs ajusted to search for new caches since I last ran the PQs

 

When it is time to go I will refresh all PQs then load

1. Bookmarked list into my Garmin StreetPilot as Favorites from GSAK

2. "Maybes" into the StreetPilot as waypoints using Garmin’s POI loader (they show up different).

3. Bookmarked in my Magellan 500

4. Separate “Maybes into States then regions of states

5. Create folders for each State on Magellan 500

6. Load regional files into appropriate State folder

7. Send all to PDA

8. Bring a notebook to log reminders until I can get on line.

 

While on the road if I have time I will check for new caches in the area I find myself and refresh data if possible.

 

Wow, I'm tired just writing all this. Lot of work? Yep, sure is. Worth it? I'll let you know in September

[+sbell111]

8. Bring a notebook to log reminders until I can get on line.

Awesome plan.

 

Have you considfered trying out a database program on your pda to keep track of your cache hunts? I use Cache Log Book and it works great for this.

[+tr1976]

This summer we are going on a vacation and will do some caching along with sightseeing. If we were going on a caching vacation I would do things differently.

 

Note: All PQs are loaded into GSAK. PQs include Traditional (lesser difficulty and terrain), Virtuals, and Events. They do not include puzzels, multis, and other types of caches.

 

1. I have a "base" route that I know I will be traveling and created several PQs using the Caches along a Route feature.

2. Used GSAK to filter by types and then imported into S&T with different icons representing different types of caches.

3. Checked the map to see which are close to but with easy accessible from the road.

4. Then created a Bookmark list for those I think I will have easy access (mostly welcome centers and rest stops)

 

Then ran several reqular PQs for areas I think I want to visit.

1. Some of the caches I found within these PQs raised an area up in the "Maybe visit” list

2. Eliminated other caches for whatever reasons.

3. Added ones I determined "Hope to do" to the Bookmark list.

 

Week or so before leaving

1. PQ from the Bookmark list to verify they are still available.

2. Run the other PQs ajusted to search for new caches since I last ran the PQs

 

When it is time to go I will refresh all PQs then load

1. Bookmarked list into my Garmin StreetPilot as Favorites from GSAK

2. "Maybes" into the StreetPilot as waypoints using Garmin’s POI loader (they show up different).

3. Bookmarked in my Magellan 500

4. Separate “Maybes into States then regions of states

5. Create folders for each State on Magellan 500

6. Load regional files into appropriate State folder

7. Send all to PDA

8. Bring a notebook to log reminders until I can get on line.

 

While on the road if I have time I will check for new caches in the area I find myself and refresh data if possible.

 

Wow, I'm tired just writing all this. Lot of work? Yep, sure is. Worth it? I'll let you know in September

 

Thanks... And all of this because... You know.

[+JoesBar]

 

All of you are mentioning free wifi.. Is there a site with coordinates to free hotspots?

 

BR,

tr1976

 

In the USA many coffe shops have free wifi. Starbucks coffee shops are everywhere. Also, some local coffee houses have free wifi. If you are in a city with a college or university, many campuses have wifi. Just sit on a bench or go to a common area. Lots of hotels offer this with a room. Public libraries may not have wifi, but many, not all, allow free use of a computer.

Edited April 17, 2007 by JoesBar

[+Miragee]

<snip>

It would be so easy if one could do a pocket query for e.g. the whole USA and Canada, but I guess that is not

possible. So what's the second best option?

I made a few trips to Colorado last year. I did not know exactly what routes I was going to take, so I could not take advantage of the "Caches Along a Route" feature. I did know I was going to be traveling the "back roads," for the most part, and not the Interstates.

 

I only had a few days to prepare for the first trip, but I quickly set up about 20 PQs for areas in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado I thought I might travel through. I set up the PQs to only return caches with a Difficulty rating of less than '2 1/2' and a Terrain rating of less than '2'.

 

I created separate databases in GSAK for each state. I also created separate databases for each State in Cachemate on my Palm. I loaded my GPSr with caches along the route I would take the first day.

 

As I traveled, I would periodically create a new route in Mapsource, use that in GSAK (Arc/Poly filter) to get new caches, delete the caches in my GPSr and load the new ones.

 

I was camping during my travels, but was able to get WiFi access at little coffee shops, libraries, and the parking lots of motels to log the Trackables I picked up and get fresh PQs.

 

I don't think I ever ended up looking for a Disabled or Archived cache. It took a bit of work to keep my Vista C loaded with caches because of its 500-cache limit, but I needed to take a break from the highway periodically anyway, and the "computer work" gave me a nice diversion.

[+SgtSue]

 

Thanks... And all of this because... You know.

 

I have no problems with the steps. Gives me a good map recon prior to the trip so I am familar with where I will be traveling. Allows for me to discover a cache or a place I would kick myself if I got back home and realized I was near but didn't visit. Me, I'm happy we now have Caches along a Route ability. The rest allows me to pre-vacation dream while stuck at the office.

 

edit to add -- Yes sbell111 I have looked at that and cachemate, but I kinda like just making a few notes while in the field. Also allows for someone else less computer experienced to make the notes in the field or as we drive along. I am the driver, planner, GPS loader, and PDA operator. My buddies just find the caches and chip in for gas.

Edited April 17, 2007 by SgtSue

[+ThreeRushkateers]

Most McDonald's restaurants have free wifi...

http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless/find_hotspot.html

[+sbell111]

Around here, Krystal's and Bread & Company restaurants have free wifi. Also, some public parks are getting set up.

 

I'm often surprised at how many free wifi places there are.

[+sbell111]

Most McDonald's restaurants have free wifi...

http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless/find_hotspot.html

From following the link to the provider from McD's site, I'm not positive that this is free wifi.

[+Moore9KSUcats]

Most McDonald's restaurants have free wifi...

http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless/find_hotspot.html

From following the link to the provider from McD's site, I'm not positive that this is free wifi.

 

I couldn't quote something specific, or guide you to a point that mentions it, but I think that most McDonald's do charge a fee for wifi.

[+Miragee]

Panera Bread has free WiFi. I don't know how widespread that chain is, however.

 

There is also a Waymarking Category for WiFi Hotspots. Maybe someday that will be a more-expansive list . . .

[+clatmandu]

Most McDonald's restaurants have free wifi...

http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless/find_hotspot.html

From following the link to the provider from McD's site, I'm not positive that this is free wifi.

 

I couldn't quote something specific, or guide you to a point that mentions it, but I think that most McDonald's do charge a fee for wifi.

McDonalds do charge, and I believe that most if not all Starbucks charge as well. Panera Bread does have free access. You can go to their website to find their locations.

[+TrailGators]

Panera Bread has free WiFi. I don't know how widespread that chain is, however.

 

There is also a Waymarking Category for WiFi Hotspots. Maybe someday that will be a more-expansive list . .

Is there a way to sort that category for free wifi hotspots?

[+Miragee]

If you check my additions to that category, those are free WiFi hotspots . . .

[+chkin11]

You can also get cards for your laptop from your cell phone service provider, you can search online and drive down the highway at the same time. Not sure what the prices run but may be worth looking into.

[+Trucker Lee]

Don't know about in Finland, but here in the U.S. many states are offering wi-fi in highway rest areas. This suppliments the Starbucks, motels, Barnes and Nobles, airports, and many other wi-fi locations.

 

The cell providers are usually $50 to $80 a month, plus cost of card to access. Little pricy for me, but may be better in your area.