Planning a vacation - best way to do this?

[+BAMBOXES]

I have a Magellan Triton 1500 and want to find the easiest way to enter all the caches coordinates along our route from home to destination. (Roughly Vancouver, B.C. to Calgary, AB)

 

I see lots of adverts and links to download Garmin software/features that instantly upload for the compatible device...but nothing for Magellan.

 

Intro deets:

I'm still new to this, and went through a huge panic attack when I got my first magellan 500. It was defective. completely.

But I just thought I was doing something wrong. (Reaaallly wrong!)

I had a big day planned with over 80+ beavers, cubs & scouts (& siblings) to teach them about caching/ettiquette/appropriate contents of a cache/building caches/hiding caches, etc...coming up the following weekend. And I had a defective G[reat] P[ile of] S!

It was a horrible way to begin, so alot of the "stuff I learned" was junk.

 

I have the software that came with the Magellan, but it doesn't seem to have any fluid way to pull cache info and sync it to my device, either. I must be missing something.

 

So far, I am plopping them in one by one - Which for a night out doing one or two caches would be just dandy.

 

But to potentially have ...well...I actually don't even know how many I'd be looking at along that route....but it would be LOTS....Can someone please help me???

[+StarBrand]

Pocket Queries are your friend - or more precisely PQs along a route.

 

http://www.markwell.us/pq.htm to learn the basics of Pocket Queries - you need to be a premium member to use these.

 

And then this page to define your route: http://www.geocaching.com/my/routeedit.aspx

 

Save your route and run a PQ for it - each segment is limited to 500 miles.

 

Again - you must spend the $30 per year to be a Premium member to use this.

[+wimseyguy]

I'd also suggest downloading and learning the basics of GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). When I have large roadtrips I make one database of the whole shebang, and then often a separate and more manageable database for each date or region of the trip.

[+Bundyrumandcoke]

My missus and I recently did a 8200km caching trip. We used Caching along a route PQ's, and GSAK to progressively upload the caches we sought.

 

With Caching along a route, you can choose previously published routes, or custom design your own route if it doesnt exist.

 

The whole PQ process makes premium membership well worth the money.

 

Cheers

Bundy

[+Fuzzywhip]

I just did a 6000 km road trip (and naturally did a LOT of cache on the way there and back) WA -> OR -> ID -> UT -> AZ -> NV -> CA -> NV -> UT -> ID -> OR -> WA

 

I used GoogleEarth with the geocaching KML plug-in to find the caches along the route. When I found an interesting cache, I would research the cache on an open browser page. If I wanted to hunt for the cache, I would print the page (yes, I know, I'm old-school on using paper) and upload the coords into my Legend (don't use GSAK... yet).

 

Anyways, I was able to list over 115 caches along my planned route and found 78.

 

May be low tech and doesn't use GSAK or Pocket Queries, but for me, it got the job done!

 

PS: By printing out the cache page using the "No Logs" printing option, I would write my notes about the cache and the find on the printout. As I usually do not have wireless access available while travelling, this lets me accurately log my finds when I got home.

[+bittsen]

I also have a Magellan and got a premium membership so I could use the Pocket Query function and upload gsx files to GSAK.

It is awesome!!

 

Doing a pocket query along a route is the way to go! You will never go back to the old method of paper recording caches.

[+edscott]

I just did a 6000 km road trip (and naturally did a LOT of cache on the way there and back) WA -> OR -> ID -> UT -> AZ -> NV -> CA -> NV -> UT -> ID -> OR -> WA

 

I used GoogleEarth with the geocaching KML plug-in to find the caches along the route. When I found an interesting cache, I would research the cache on an open browser page. If I wanted to hunt for the cache, I would print the page (yes, I know, I'm old-school on using paper) and upload the coords into my Legend (don't use GSAK... yet).

 

Anyways, I was able to list over 115 caches along my planned route and found 78.

 

May be low tech and doesn't use GSAK or Pocket Queries, but for me, it got the job done!

 

PS: By printing out the cache page using the "No Logs" printing option, I would write my notes about the cache and the find on the printout. As I usually do not have wireless access available while travelling, this lets me accurately log my finds when I got home.

 

This is basically how I do it also. Sometimes I just print out the page that has the satellite map on it and use the wasted space on that page to write down any other necessary data. Takes awhile to plan a trip, but I think sorting out the trash caches is more accurate after seeing the map and reading the page. When I'm on a trip with purposes other than purely geocaching I can't hope to get every cache I pass, so I just want to download the best 10 or 15 available that day.