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CA Trip Pocket Query Help


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Okay, I have a question. I'm going to be going to GW6, but I'm also going to be in SoCal for the 2 weeks before, on a family vacation. I want to get a lot of the caches there (not all. There's a ton of them) but I want to have the option to get a bunch. I just don't know how many PQs it will take, so I don't want to run to too close and not get them all. I was thinking about starting to run them now, but if the status changes, it will mess it all up. Is there a way to run just an "Update PQ" to where it only does ones that are disabled and archived, or is that not possible? I'm thinking about getting them all, and setting up an e-mail notification for all disabled and archived logs in SoCal, and then deleting them from my DB, but that would be a heck of a lot of work. Thanks, any help is appreciated, and sorry for the long-windedness of this post!

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Do a query for the closest 500 to where you are staying and that should be all you need. Also why can't you do queries at each location for the next. Wherever you are staying must have a computer. California is way to dense to try and get them all. For instance I live in Rescue, CA and a query of the closest 500 only goes out 9 miles.

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You could create "Caches Along a Route" for the highways you will be traveling and get the PQs for those now for some fun "pre-planning." When I traveled to Colorado and back, I limited those PQs to caches with a Terrain rating of less than '2' and a Difficulty of less than '2' that were within one mile of the highway.

 

When you get in the area where the Event is being held, you might want to limit the Terrain, but not the "Difficulty" for those PQs, since you might be teaming up with other cachers to look for all the caches in the area, even the very tricky, cleverly-cammoed one.

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I do that as well. I do queries limited to non-multi and non-puzzle caches with a difficulty/terrain of 2.5/2.5 for zip codes all along my route and put them all into a single GSAK database. I plot the route in mapsourse and then use that route as as a filter in GSAK. I limit my results to caches within .25 miles of the route though. I find that, on a trip somewhere, if I limit the caches that much I actually get to my destination in a semi-reasonable time. Otherwise, I might never arrive where I started for.

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It's about 3.5 hours from here to Ashland, OR. It once took me over 11 hours to make the trip due to caching............. Have fun. :mad:

 

Perhaps I'll see you at GW VI - and at the Friday Night Meet & Greet the night before if you make it to that.

I'll be there, at both of them, and the early bird dinner, and the goodbye breakfast. Yes, we're there for a while. :D See ya!

 

After a visit to the Denver area, I started towards home. After five hours on the road, I had driven 43 miles . . . :mad: The only way I was ever going to get back to California was to stop trying to find every cache that showed up on the GPSr map . . . :D

Haha, yeah. We're not going to do EVERY one, but we're going to give it a try! Time to push those check-in times! :D

 

Thanks for all the advice!

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I've already started my PQs, routes & picking caches. Never too early. We are visiting 5 different areas of CA, so lots of data to collect.

 

Caches along a route: routes picked in Google Earth & MapSource. PQs for that limited to traditionals & virtuals only. 1/2 mile from route. Terr & Diff 2 or less. Still came up with too many to possibly find. The route around Tahoe however we expanded the distance, diff & terr & included some other cache types.

 

PQs for cities: Just pulled nearest 500 of the type, diff & terrain we felt like doing in each area.

 

Running all PQs once a week from now till needed. GSAK can take out the non-actives for me just before we need the data. (If not active or updated in last GPX file, I delete.)

 

I also hand pick a few certain caches to do in the area or along the way. Allow about 15 minutes per cache along route added to driving time OR like others said, you'll never arrive.

 

We plan on running PQs one last time about 2 days before actually needed in CA. This allows time for GC.com to run them, us to receive them, and us to find time & internet access with our laptop. We'll just purge GPS & PDA of unwanted info & reload with what's needed for next couple of days. Maps, routes, caches, & special waypoints like hotel....

 

Planning for this trip has taught me more about paperless caching & USING it than we've learned in the past year alone. We even have the automated logging thing from Cachemate/GSAK down now. woohoo

Edited by wandering4cache
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Don't even try to get a ton of them.

 

Relax. :D

 

.. ok, now that we got that out of the way...

 

Start your Queries now!!!!! :D Hurry up!! :mad: You only get 5 a day!!! :mad:

 

I always load everything into gsak ahead of time.

 

-------Then run a querie once a week showing all the NEW CACHES that have been listed in the last week (yes, it's a choice) .

I call this my UPDATE file. You can dump those into mapsource and see if you want them added into your pile of possible caches.

 

I do all my cutting and trimming in mapsource.

The only risk is that Archived caches don't get updated in gsak... that's a pretty small risk.

A couple of days before I leave, I quickly check tomorrows caches to see if they have been archived.

At the hotel, I do the same check the night before (every day).

 

In this case, you can just follow someone around at the event. Find someone who is doing the same stuff you want to ...

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After a visit to the Denver area, I started towards home. After five hours on the road, I had driven 43 miles . . . :mad: The only way I was ever going to get back to California was to stop trying to find every cache that showed up on the GPSr map . . . :mad:

I found the same problem with caching along a route, I was leaving Los Angeles for Sacramento, after 7 hours I was sill in L.A. So I just turned off my GPS and drove home. I do not use cache along a route much anymore.

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After a visit to the Denver area, I started towards home. After five hours on the road, I had driven 43 miles . . . :mad: The only way I was ever going to get back to California was to stop trying to find every cache that showed up on the GPSr map . . . :mad:

I found the same problem with caching along a route, I was leaving Los Angeles for Sacramento, after 7 hours I was sill in L.A. So I just turned off my GPS and drove home. I do not use cache along a route much anymore.

 

Odd how your drive time extends when you make lots of stops, isn't it?

Edited by Team Cotati
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