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? re: Find Caches Along a Route


PezLori

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I am brand new to all of this. I've done a lot of reading and have a Garmin and a PDA and I have GSAK and Cachemate and I think I'm ready to go. However there's something I can't figure out. I did a PQ for a route - we're heading up to Oregon from Central CA. In the "preview PQ" screen and on GSAK, the caches don't seem to appear in any particular order. How do I make them show up in order, from the beginning of my trip to the end? I can't seem to find a way, but I have a feeling it's obvious. Or something.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

~Lori

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I am brand new to all of this. I've done a lot of reading and have a Garmin and a PDA and I have GSAK and Cachemate and I think I'm ready to go. However there's something I can't figure out. I did a PQ for a route - we're heading up to Oregon from Central CA. In the "preview PQ" screen and on GSAK, the caches don't seem to appear in any particular order. How do I make them show up in order, from the beginning of my trip to the end? I can't seem to find a way, but I have a feeling it's obvious. Or something.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

~Lori

You can also pick a cache and then click on top menu "Centre Point." Once that pops down select "Current waypoint" to sort the caches that are closest to that one. Cachemate also allows to to sort caches by nearest. But normally you would be using your GPS on a trip, so you can see which caches are closest just by looking at the GPS.
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For the geek-minded:

 

GSAK also has a macro that I stumbled on here that can take a filtered list of caches on GSAK (and the selected one is the starting point) and sort them by which one is the next closest.

 

I tried it on a radial search and it created a nice spiral effect.

Edited by Markwell
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With Gsak, if you can sort by the closest, does it end up making you go north, south, etc..? Or will it sort by a straight line? In other words, if cache A is one mile north of my home, cache B is one mile south, and cache C is 1.5 miles north from home, how would the GSAK sort this? I would rather go from cache A to C, then A, back to B, then C? :D

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The caches will be sorted by Nearest on your GPSr once you are on the "hunt." Prior to leaving, you could "Export" from GSAK for the mapping software you have, or for Google Earth.

 

Then you can plan your trip, since sometimes the "Next Nearest" on the GPSr isn't really the one that is practical to "Go To" next.

 

In GSAK, I use the "Centre Point" feature a lot to filter for the caches I want in my GPSr for a day since my Vista C only holds 500 caches. I'll use a cache in the area I expect to be in for the "Centre Point" or I'll create a route of my travels in Mapsource and then use the Arc/Poly filter in GSAK to get caches I might be driving near.

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With Gsak, if you can sort by the closest, does it end up making you go north, south, etc..? Or will it sort by a straight line? In other words, if cache A is one mile north of my home, cache B is one mile south, and cache C is 1.5 miles north from home, how would the GSAK sort this? I would rather go from cache A to C, then A, back to B, then C? :D

 

The Cache Raid macro I linked starts at a point (Cache A) and then finds the next closest cache (Cache B). From Cache B, it ignores Cache A and finds the next closest cache to Cache B (Cache C). It jumps from cache to cache for proximity, not proximity from the starting point.

 

However, here's the differences between the paths created by the Cache Raid macro and just sorting South to North

(not real caches, just push-pins placed on a map for example):

8cc741e4-9d27-4ca0-8e43-f1f4977cebbf.jpg

Not a WHOLE lot of difference, but a difference.

 

I love to let the computer do as much as possible, but there are some times that an old IBM axiom comes in to play: It's Better Mannualy (or in this case graphically).

 

What I do for those long haul trips is to put them all into Streets and Trips or some other software (maybe Google Earth) and take a look ahead of time which ones I would want to do in which order. It may be that there are ones that I would skip because it wouldn't make sense to do in a drive.

 

A good example would be the one above that's far to the west on North Yolla Bolly Mountain (again, not real caches). If I were looking to do this route, even though that cache returned as being close to my route, it wouldn't make sense in reality, so I'd skip it - and maybe save that as one on the way back.

Edited by Markwell
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Very interesting Markwell - thanks for the post. I find myself trying to figure out the best way to plan for my caches. I have the Palm, I have GSAK, things are starting to make more sense.

 

It does bring up another perhaps unrelated question. What happens when you have a ton - lets say a 500-1000 geocache points loaded into the GPS, and have loaded that many into the Palm.

 

I guess the GPS will let you know of the nearby cache's (my garmin 60CSx does). But how does one manage with cachemate in the Palm to find those say 20 caches in the area I am going to out of the 500 pages stored in the palm?

 

I guess I am trying to learn the most efficeint way of PLANNING a cache run :o

Edited by Mtn Summit
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I love to let the computer do as much as possible, but there are some times that an old IBM axiom comes in to play: It's Better Manually.
Don't forget about the famous KISS Rule: Keep It Simple Stupid. Nothing beats just loading your GPS heading down the road and watching the radar..... :o
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When finding caches on a route, I do it this way in GSAK.

 

Find cache, or home, and mark centrepoint. Check this cache also under the little person icon. (you will check others here also)

Review your route, if you will be making turns, (ie, Tracy to Modesto, then north) you need to locate a cache near the turn, and check it. Do this for each route turn.

Locate a cache near the destination, and click it.

Open filter, go to last tab, using arc/line, add the clicked waypoints. Be sure to set for ample miles in the little box to include the most caches convenient to your route.

Load caches to GPS, and to Cachemate/PDA. I also send to my map program on laptop so I can see a pushpin coming up if laptop is on.

Get smilies.

 

Using the polygon filter requires that you get at least 4 sets of coords, you can do this by writing them off a map program, but will allow you to see all caches in a huge rectangle, if you wish.

 

Note one problem that recently came up. GSAK assigns short names to caches, and if two are identical in the first six places, my Garmin will ignore all but one. You may wish to change the short name parameters if this happens.

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I also use GSAK to change the waypoint name to let me know exactly what kind of cache is coming up next on my radar. I strip off the GC and then replace GC with a code like TR or MM:

1) The first digit shows the type of cache I am approaching (T=Traditional, M=Multi, V-Virtual, Y=Mystery, etc.)

2) The second digit shows the size of container (L=Large, R= Regular, S-Small, M=Micro)

 

I also add a single number at the end of my code to provide the terrain rating. I use a 1-9 (you can convert by subtracting 1 and then dividing by two).

 

The code I use is: %typ1%con1%drop2 %Ter1

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