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Combining Maps for Planning


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My hubs and I go camping just about every weekend but he isn't that into caching. He has no problem doing it as long as it doesn't have him stopped for too long (he's a go go go kind of guy). So to help me plan ahead and find the most cache's I was hoping someone could explain a way for me to combine the trail maps of the parks I plan to visit with the google map I can pull up of the area with the cache's on it. This way I can better tell what cache's are on what trails (or not on a trail at all) and have better luck finding caches! I hate hiking around and realizing I just walked by a cache, cause he isn't turning around...

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Well, this is what I do, on a Mac (YMMV, I've no idea how difficult this would be on a PC):

 

I take a screen shot of the section of the geocaching google map that contains the caches I'm interested in. I drag this into PowerPoint.

 

I then take a screen shot of the park map showing the trails. I drag that into PowerPoint on top of the first map and adjust the transparency of that image to about 45-50%. At this point you should be able to see the info on both images. I then adjust the scale of the top image and move it around until the roads or other landmarks line up on both images. Then I print out the result. This usually gives me a very good idea of which trail is nearest the caches.

 

The biggest problem is that in our local parks there are a lot of side trails that have been created over time, and these don't appear on the official maps. So I use my mashed up map for a general guide but also watch for side trails that seem to go in the desired direction. In many cases caches have been placed off the side trails anyway.

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