geocaching while traviling

[wehowe]

We are new to geocaching and the kids and I are really enjoying it. We are planning a trip this summer. Can someone tell me how to find out if there are any caches hidden along the route we will be taking? Also,once we get there how can I locate caches close to where we are staying, especially if I don't know the zip code. We plan to camp part of the time and I would love to goecach while there.

 

thanks

Wendy

[+briansnat]

If you are a premium member, there is a "caches along a route" feature that lets you run a pocket query of caches on the way.

 

If you don't know the Zipcode of the area you are going, it's easy enough to find it at www.usps.gov. Surely you must know the name of a nearby town.

 

Another way would be to use the Google Earth geoache browser to see a map of caches near your destination.

[+carolalma]

We just completed a trip of 6,820 miles from the Florida Keys to Alaska and geocached along the way. I'm a little picky about which caches to hunt for with limited time, plus we can't go just anywhere on our travel days because we're towing a trailer. I use Google Earth, locate towns or campgrounds where we're likely to stop, and choose a few for each day. I try to find parks, or short walks that look interesting as well as some quick park and grabs. As I look at the map I can also check out rest stop caches. This does take some preparation time but I happen to enjoy that part of it as much as the hunt. Along the way, we often use libraries to check email, so I have searched for local caches then. Have a great trip!

[wehowe]

As I look at the map I can also check out rest stop caches.

 

I do know the zip code of the actual location I am going, it is my mom's. And I planned to use that when we got there. But I don't know the zip code of the campground where we will be camping. Also, how do I find rest stop caches? I think the kids would really like to do that instead of just walk around a bit to stretch.

 

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[+Fuzzywhip]

When I am planning a caching holiday, I use GoogeEarth with the Geocaching KML plugin.

 

Zoom in close enough to see the highway you plan to use (approx 10 to 15 miles worth on the map) and let the plugin show you the potential cache location.

 

Might take a bit of time to find the right size and challenge level for your trip, but it is definitely worth it.

 

I will also make a note of one cache per location, then use geocaching.com to search for caches nearest to the picked cache. This lets me choose the caches with better descriptions than just using GoogleEarth.

 

Best of caching on your holidays

[+Thrak]

I do it the "old fashioned" way. I do a series of pocket queries based on the zip codes of various towns along my route. I then put the entire folder of pqs into a single GSAK data base. I export a mapsourse file from that and then use the arc filter on that file and tell it I only want caches within .1 miles of the actual route so that I only get caches that are physically that close to the road.

 

Depending on the trip - I'm going to Montana soon from California - I may have 700 - 900 caches in the original pocket queries. After running the filter it may come down to only 50 or so which is a far more manageble number. By limiting the caches to such a short distance from the road I'm guaranteed to have a list of caches that I can stop and find fairly quickly while traveling and it always includes any that are at rest stops.

 

My wife and I will travel for a couple of hours until we feel like stopping for a bit and then I'll select a few caches that are nearby at that time and we stop and do those. I have a cheap, old Palm Vx I got from eBay and I put the travel caches on there so I always have the description, hint, and the last 5 logs for each cache. It works great for me.

 

I haven't used the "new" caches along a route feature of gc.com. I've heard it works well but, since the old way works great for me, I haven't bothered to change the way I do things.

 

You might want to do a search for "caches along a route" on the forums here. You should find threads for both the old way and the new way. Read them and decide what you want to do.

[+Miragee]

I do it the same way Thrak does. When I traveled from California to Colorado, I did not know what roads I was going to take, so getting several PQs in a diagonal across the state of AZ, leaving out the huge number of caches in the Phoenix area I didn't want to search for, I was assured to have caches in my GSAK database if I took a different "Blue" highway.

 

I also got PQs for Southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, northwestern New Mexico, and on a subsequent trip, the route across Nevada and up through Utah from St. George to Green River. I had a lot of data to begin with, but using Mapsource, and the Arc/Poly filter in GSAK, I soon got it down to a manageable number for my Garmin Vista C.

[+Night Stalker]

I create pocket queries for the locations I am traveling to. At one time I did it the hard way. When I would arrive in a town I would start up my GPS. Get the coordinates and input them into the Hide/find page. I would then print out the closest caches to where I was located and start my hunt. This method is prehistoric compared to using pocket queries.

 

This method won't work if you are trying to cache along the way. The only solution for this kind of caching is to become a premium member and use the PQ for caching along a route. It will give you a lot of customizable abilities such as how wide an area along a route you want the querie to cover. I don't know of any other way to get the information that you want.

 

[MN-Paradox]

You can check a map for the route you're taking, and plug cities/states into the USPS Zip Code Locator which can then be plugged into the geocaching.com website.

 

Hope this helps!

 

-G

[+NevaP]

For your campground zip code just check a map and look up the nearest town. Almost every dot on the map has a zip code.

 

Premium membership is a great thing. We just returned from a 4000 miles, driving to California and back trip, and I think I found every rest stop cache along the way. I ran route PQs ahead of time, plugged it all in a GSAK database and generated streets and trips maps. Then I compared the push pins for caches with road maps to spot the ones that appeared to be in rest areas.

 

In pre caches along a route days I used to look at the maps ahead of time and run PQs for circles around towns that would catch the rest areas. Route PQs greatly simplified all this.

 

Last year I upgraded to a GPS with huge storage card capacity so for this trip I ran a lot of PQs covering every where we might be and tossed several thousand of the on the card and also loaded the cache information into my pocket PC. I did have a number of specific interesting hike to caches located and I went after many of these but when we stopped for the night or to get gas or to sight see I would pull out the GPS and see if anything interesting was nearby. A number of time a quick grab turned up close.

 

We did deviate from the projected route enough one night to not have the area covered but I had the laptop along and the motel had wireless so I was able to call up a few local caches and I missed an FTF by an hour or two.

 

And I'm not a tech geek. I'm just a senior citizen who still thinks its all done by magic. Keep working at it and you too will learn how to do all this stuff.

[ISUDogCachers]

I second the comments about using Google Earth. I am a map person by trade, so love looking at Google Earth with the geocaching kml activated. (A recommendation I heard was to set that at manual refresh so that you control the refresh when you've zoomed to where you want to see because you only have a certain number of views per day.)

 

I view on Google Earth and if I see a cache in the area that I'm interested in, I click the symbol and click "view cache details". It brings up geocaching.com right under the Google Earth map so I can see the map and the cache description at the same time. I can then determine how to set up my pocket queries to get what I want to have while traveling.

 

We are about to embark on our first big trip after starting to geocache. I found out by doing a pocket query on Juneau, AK that it is actually made up of several parts. I did a pocket query within a certain distance of a zipcode and none of the caches I had picked from Google Earth were in that list. I then revised my query to show caches within a certain distance of a specific cache and got all the ones I think are realistic to hit.

 

I think the key is determining which caches are realistic on your trip. From the other posts, it sounds like some people will just look at caches within a certain distance of the route or check for close ones when they decide to stop. On our trip, we're specifically trying to drop a couple TBs and have limited time in each location. I needed to be sure the caches were big enough to hold the TBs. I also read descriptions in logs for things that were more interesting to me. I might go a little out of my way to hit caches that look more interesting than those close to my route...

[+sbell111]

Normally, I just look for routes that other people have built. There is usually routes already set up that I can use so I don't have to worry about making my own.

 

For the cruise that Cathy and I are going on, I just used the Google map to find caches near where the boat docks. I then simply flagged those caches to a watch list that I created for the trip and ran a PQ on the watch list.

 

Easy Peasy.

[+hide_from_the_kids]

I have used goodle earth and run pocket queries after saving and uploading a kml file . . . as a graphic learning by nature that process is a bit slow for me and I have a hard time arranging the list in my memory. I will find a cache via zipcode close to where I am going or what to go (on the google geocaching map page, a feature that is on every cache page) and will search that way. I can arrange things spatially and can pick and choose according to my criteria for the day.

[marnen]

The only solution for this kind of caching is to become a premium member and use the PQ for caching along a route. It will give you a lot of customizable abilities such as how wide an area along a route you want the querie to cover. I don't know of any other way to get the information that you want.

Since I'm not a premium member yet, I use the Google Maps feature on the Advanced Search page. It works beautifully, although it might be too much work for routes of more than 200 miles or so.

[+Ashmai]

what are pocket queries? I am very new to geocaching, but really would like to be able to see the last 5 user comments, and the clue, of caches, but am not sure the best way to do that. I was thinking of bringing my laptop and caching every page locally... But I think i am gathering you use cheap old style palm pilots to do this for you?

 

You have wet my lips, give me more...

 

On a side note, I am planning a trip from WA state to AZ in a few weeks, and am going to geocache along the way. Currently, I have been using google earth to look along my route and pick and choose a few caches that peaked my interest along the way then adding them individually to my CrossoverGPS. The problem is, I don't know if I will feel like stoping at the time I am near the cache (maybe we just filled up for gas 20 miles back and want to keep driving for awhile) or perhaps Ill want to get out sooner to stretch my legs, but wont know any caches where I am at...

 

best way to solve this problem?

 

Thanks goecaching community

[+Miragee]

Pocket Queries are files that you get emailed to you. You create them from a link on your My Account page. If you don't already have it, GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) is a very, very useful progra. If you have a PDA, you can Export the information from GSAK for a program such as Cachemate, which has both a Palm and PPC version.

 

When I traveled, I got PQs for areas along my route and I took my laptop with me so I could put caches in my GPSr as I traveled.