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How do you prepare / manage waypoints for a 2 week cache run?


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We'll be heading to CA in May for 2 weeks. We'll have a laptop with internet access & a PDA. We already use GSAK & cachemate. We'll also have our mapping software loaded.

 

I'm one who likes to know what caches we'll be doing ahead of time. But I can't possible imagine how many to pre-pick for a 2 wk trip. What if I don't pick enough?

 

What do you guys do? Do you just download 500 waypoints for each area & go? Do you pick them ahead of time? What if you run out?

 

Currently for home, I have 1000 caches loaded into cachemate on the PDA. I pick which ones to do today, assign them to a "to do" category. Then change them to "need to log" once we've found them. Then to "found" once logged. But at home, we only do a few caches a day. In CA, I see people with crazy #'s like 100 caches a day! First of all, I just can't even fathom this. I guess I'll learn when we get there.

 

Do I start making a bookmark list for each area of CA & just download the ones we want?

 

Help! I don't want to be spending each night in hotel picking & managing waypoints for the next day.

Edited by wandering4cache
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I load GSAK with caches in the areas that I will be in. I also keep all the area's caches in my pda and load them all to my GPSr as POIs.

 

On a nightly basis, I pull up a map of those caches in MS Streets & Trips. I delete those caches that I have found that day and identify the area that I would like to cache in the following day. I then use the route function to plan a logical order to go after the caches in that area.

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Agreed. Where in CA will you be? Is it a caching trip or a trip where you'll do some caching? What type of caches do you like?

 

When I travel, I run PQ's around the route just a mile or so on either side. I may be missing some caches, but ya can't get 'em all.

 

I load the caches into MapSend (Magellan) on my laptop and then have the cache pages saved offline as well (using GPX Spinner). This way, as we drive, we can scout the area ahead in real-time and see what sounds interesting.

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We'll be heading to CA in May for 2 weeks. We'll have a laptop with internet access & a PDA. We already use GSAK & cachemate. We'll also have our mapping software loaded.

 

I'm one who likes to know what caches we'll be doing ahead of time. But I can't possible imagine how many to pre-pick for a 2 wk trip. What if I don't pick enough?

 

What do you guys do? Do you just download 500 waypoints for each area & go? Do you pick them ahead of time? What if you run out?

 

Currently for home, I have 1000 caches loaded into cachemate on the PDA. I pick which ones to do today, assign them to a "to do" category. Then change them to "need to log" once we've found them. Then to "found" once logged. But at home, we only do a few caches a day. In CA, I see people with crazy #'s like 100 caches a day! First of all, I just can't even fathom this. I guess I'll learn when we get there.

 

Do I start making a bookmark list for each area of CA & just download the ones we want?

 

Help! I don't want to be spending each night in hotel picking & managing waypoints for the next day.

When I took a few trips to Colorado, I prepared ahead of time getting several PQs along the routes I thought I might take. I limited these PQs to caches within a mile of the highway and also to caches with a Terrain rating of less than '2' and a Difficulty rating of less than '2.5'. Then, when I got WiFi access, I requested a PQ or PQs for that area to refresh the database with new caches, and remove caches that had been Disabled or Archived. I divided all these PQ up by States (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado) to make the searching easier.

 

If you have an 'x' Garmin, you can load thousands of caches into your GPSr ahead of time as POIs, using the instructions given in this great Silly Garmin POI Tricks thread. :o These could be put into the GPSr by specific location to make the searching for them easier.

 

Posting in the local threads for the areas you are heading towards is also a good idea becuase you can get suggestions for which caches you just have to do, and you might even get some volunteers to take you around the area for a day or two. :D

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Here's an example showing how I prepared for a recent 1,800 mile road trip across Florida:

 

080124_Florida1.jpg

 

The two software programs I use are GSAK and Streets and Trips. A few weeks before I left, I scouted out the area with the geocaching.com Google map, planning a route and getting an idea of what areas I'd like to visit. Since I was working on a county challenge, my options were somewhat limited. A week before the trip, I set up a number of pocket queries to cover areas in which my route wasn't as certain (the circles on the map) and also ran a route query along interstate 10. Some of the circles encompass two or three queries with the same point of origin, separated by date.

 

I took the icons from the old geocaching.com map, and converted them to .bmp so that S&T could use them as custom waypoint symbols. Then I used GSAK to export each individual cache type as a separate .csv file, and set the icons accordingly.

 

The day before I left, I downloaded the 4 queries that covered the first areas I would drive through, assuring that I had the freshest data. While on the road, I occasionally stopped and downloaded the next 4 queries along the route. I always keep one of the 5 daily queries ready to run, in case I need to change my route and set up a new query on the fly (otherwise I would have to wait 24 hours).

 

Edit to add: Once I have the caches mapped, I spend the week before I leave browsing cache listings looking for close caches that sound interesting. While on the hunt, I keep track of all my finds in a small notebook that I keep in my pocket. At the end of the day, I have a list of waypoints, assuring that (as long as I keep track of the notebook) I don't lose track of my finds.

Edited by DavidMac
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My method is very similar to DavidMacs.

 

I use the caches along a route feature to plot out where we are goping and where we will be staying. I use S&T and google earth to get the visual aspect. Gather them all into GSAK and then pare them down a bit to my personal preferences. Then carry the laptop with me and a few printed maps of select areas. Each morning load as many as 1000 up in the unit and PDA for a good caching day. With good internet access you can make certain you have fresh data for each step.

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You'll need to decide what you want to get out of the trip, and what you want the mood to be. I've pretty much settled on not going after more than about 10-12 caches in a day, thus leaving plenty of time for other things I enjoy, and time to enjoy each Cache as a seperate event. I get to do some picking around for which Caches I want to find, and often skip some that are very near. If you read some of the discussions and logs of the 100 plus cachers you will see that it is quite a different thing. Quotes like "plenty of time to eat later" are not uncommon. If that's the mood you want, then you'll have to see someone else for tips, as I have no idea how that works, but if you want to go along the lines of a more relaxed vacation, I would recommend some research ahead of time and pick individual caches that apeal to you. For something in the middle, maybe hand pick a few, and download "Everything" near them.

 

edited to add...

 

With your laptop, it wouldn't be hard to pick and choose at home, then if you want to do more, just PQ 500 Caches from wherever you're sitting/staying

Edited by WRITE SHOP ROBERT
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Well I'm a geek and write all the caches I want to do and make a route. Then I put all these on excell and write down road directions and parking coord's. We use a PDA for the cache info sheets, but I like to have some of it on paper (1-2 pieces). I also take into consideration how hard the cache will be. If we're out for numbers then I pick the easy ones, but if we want to do some of the hiking ones I add those in with a star beside them. We recently did a caching trip to Vancouver, BC and I had a route planned out before we went. Even in the rain we did 6 on the way down from Penticton to Vancouver, 37 (perfect day) on the saturday, and 13 on the sunday on our way home. We could have done WAY more if it wasn't raining so hard. Didn't feel like venturing too far from the car on the sunday (realized my coat was NOT waterproof that weekend LOL)

Edited by anakerose
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On my last trip I used the google map off the cache page and just scrolled down the road I was taking looking at all the caches near the road. Read each cache page deciding if it looked good. Didn't have time for long hikes so ruled them out. Bookmarked each cache I wanted then pq'ed the bookmarks. Did a PQ in the towns that we stayed overnight in just in case we had some time in the evening to get a few more. Did that all along the coast of Oregon down to LA.

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It sounds as if you have a ton of great sightseeing opportunities! I see you have found 3 geocaches in California. Have you vacationed in California very much, and how much sightseeing do you plan to do, especially the National Parks? Are you committed to certain sight and routes, or are you going to explore the countryside?

 

This summer, I spent 7 days in the deserts of Utah (and three in Las Vagas), combining geocaching with visits to the national parks. The driving and time in the parks took up much more time than I imagined, but I just HAD to visit those parks, not knowing when I would return.

 

Having a much more open itinerary than yours, I downloaded about 1000 caches to my Garmin 60CS and several thousand to my Palm, covering just about every area I might travel. The 1000 were all regular traditional caches. The plan was to hit one of these, then search my palm for any nearby ones of interest.

 

This worked great for me. As a geocache showed up on my GPSr, I would look over the description in my Palm and decide if I wanted to look for it (in the deserts of Utah, they were quite dispersed). Once found, I searched my Palm to see if other nearby caches caught my interest.

 

I was surprised at how few caches I actually did on this trip. But I found some of the most fantastic!

 

Oh, on your way to Yosemite, may I suggest you take a detour to BODIE? It is a fantastic ghost town well worth half a day or more of your time. There are 3 caches there. Here is a link.

 

http://www.desertusa.com/bodie/bodie.html

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Michigansnorkeler, the 3 CA caches (& most other out of state caches) are from when my husband travels for the military. Anything he gets time to find within immediate area on his limited time off.

 

My wish list of things to see/do in CA is growing. 2 weeks won't be enough. lol. I've never been & don't know when I'll ever get back. The parks are high on my list. Funny you mentioned ghost towns, because that & trying my hand at finding gold are also something I want to do even if just for an hour. The Gold Rush / Donner Pass / wagon train history fascinates me.

 

I know we won't see everything. Won't find as many caches as I would like. But I'm excited just thinking about all the new things & new places we'll see. I know we'll be coming home exhausted! lol

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not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet or not, but it's something we've learned from experience when trying to make and run PQ's for longer trips or large areas...

 

make sure you plan out when you'll need to run each PQ to have that data available for your trip...since you can only run a few each day, make sure you spread them out to run over a few days, so you have each set of data when you need it, and don't get caught needing to run one, and you've already run your max number for that day. Take into account if you'll have internet access during your entire trip, only during certain parts, or not at all. Also, make sure you leave plenty of time for the PQ results to arrive--during busy times, it can take a few hours, which can cause problems if you're relying on internet at hotels, hot spots, etc.

 

Also, double-check your PQ list to make sure you've turned off/unchecked any that you don't need to run--that way you free up as many spots as possible.

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There are lots of caches in the area you will be in, from GZ for GW6

100 mile radias 16137

50 mile radias 6086

10 miles 147

GW6 is about 30 miles from the center of Sacramento.

 

I do not use the cache along a route feature much anymore, in Ca. there are so caches that a person can find along a route it can take hours to go just a few miles. A freind used the cache along a route feature going from san francisco to sacramento, it took him 8 hours to go 100 miles.

 

Within 100 miles Vacaville which is about half way between San Francisco and Sacramento along Hwy 80 the cache total is 16111

This is a list coordinated for some of the cities around the San Francisco bay area and Sacramento area.

They may be of help for anyone planning a trip to the area. These are the coordinates for the PQ I use.

 

San Francisco

N37 45.350

W122 26.754

Marin

N38 01.191

W122 39.811

Concord

N37 54.726

W122 03.237

Vacaville

N38 21.466

W122 00.168

Placerville aka. Hangtown

N38 40.576

W121 08.831

Davis

N38 32.729

W121 44.678

Rocklin

N38 48.466

W121 15.694

Edited by JohnnyVegas
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You'll need to decide what you want to get out of the trip, and what you want the mood to be. I've pretty much settled on not going after more than about 10-12 caches in a day, thus leaving plenty of time for other things I enjoy, and time to enjoy each Cache as a seperate event.

 

That reminded me of a little piece of geo-roadtrip advice that I thought I'd share. Generally, I aim for 500-700 miles a day, not much more unless I take the interstate (I like to stick with smaller highways). For every park and grab style cache that I plan to search for, I assume I'll need 10 minutes. For higher d/t caches, I plan to take 20. I filter out nearly everything above a rating of 3, unless there is a special cache that I want to get.

 

In practice, each 5 caches you find will add about an hour to your trip time. I've found 10 to be a good number that doesn't slow me down too much, and 20 is usually about right for a decent 500-mile caching day. If I want to hit 30 or more, I usually plan to be on the road no later than 8 AM, and accept the fact that I'll be getting in pretty late.

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You'll need to decide what you want to get out of the trip, and what you want the mood to be. I've pretty much settled on not going after more than about 10-12 caches in a day, thus leaving plenty of time for other things I enjoy, and time to enjoy each Cache as a seperate event.
That reminded me of a little piece of geo-roadtrip advice that I thought I'd share. Generally, I aim for 500-700 miles a day, not much more unless I take the interstate (I like to stick with smaller highways). For every park and grab style cache that I plan to search for, I assume I'll need 10 minutes. For higher d/t caches, I plan to take 20. I filter out nearly everything above a rating of 3, unless there is a special cache that I want to get.

 

In practice, each 5 caches you find will add about an hour to your trip time. I've found 10 to be a good number that doesn't slow me down too much, and 20 is usually about right for a decent 500-mile caching day. If I want to hit 30 or more, I usually plan to be on the road no later than 8 AM, and accept the fact that I'll be getting in pretty late.

I also still like to make it to my destination at a specific time. Instead of planning to his only specific caches, however, I cache for x amount of time and spend the rest of the time driving.
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