New to Geocaching, Question about Pennsylvania caches

[+walkingmax]

I'm new to geocaching and just got my premium membership.

 

At first, I was hoping to use the pocket queries to get a list of caches in PA.

 

I think I was a little over optimistic

 

What I wanted to do was create a list of queries centered on Clarion, PA, with a radius of 75miles. This covers all the areas I might visit near family and all the routes I might take.

 

Ideally, I am looking for queries that are in and around state parks and the Allegheny national forest. I am disabled and cannot walk too far so the route query might be a better idea for me (would appreciate opinions on this). I have a camper van and hope to do some overnight camping along the clarion river and in the national forest

 

The 75mi pocket query I ran centered on Clarion says it found 500 caches. I told it to select all and then downloaded the list to my computer and opened it with GSAK. However, GSAK only shows 20 caches imported, all of them centered on Clarion PA (at least that part is correct).

 

Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong, or give me a better idea how to get a list of PA caches?

 

I have a 1490T garmin gps. I think it can store 1,000 poi's.

 

Thanks for your help.

[+Thrak]

I'm new to geocaching and just got my premium membership.

 

At first, I was hoping to use the pocket queries to get a list of caches in PA.

 

I think I was a little over optimistic

 

What I wanted to do was create a list of queries centered on Clarion, PA, with a radius of 75miles. This covers all the areas I might visit near family and all the routes I might take.

 

Ideally, I am looking for queries that are in and around state parks and the Allegheny national forest. I am disabled and cannot walk too far so the route query might be a better idea for me (would appreciate opinions on this). I have a camper van and hope to do some overnight camping along the clarion river and in the national forest

 

The 75mi pocket query I ran centered on Clarion says it found 500 caches. I told it to select all and then downloaded the list to my computer and opened it with GSAK. However, GSAK only shows 20 caches imported, all of them centered on Clarion PA (at least that part is correct).

 

Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong, or give me a better idea how to get a list of PA caches?

 

I have a 1490T garmin gps. I think it can store 1,000 poi's.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

I'm not quite clear on the process you used. A pocket query returns a file - there's no need (or way) to "select all". When you run the query you should be able to get a .zip file. Save that to your computer and then simply drag it onto GSAK. It will automagically open and the caches will be there. It sounds like you ran the query and then looked at the "results" page. That's a good page for seeing the results right away but isn't the actual query file. Since it only shows 20 per page, your "select all" probably only selected the 20 caches shown on the first page of results.

 

When you create your pocket query be sure to check the box at the bottom of the page for the zip file and include your email address:

 

Output To E-Mail: xxx@whatever.com

 

Format: GPS Exchange Format (*.gpx)

 

Compress files into *.zip format (recommended)Include Pocket Query name in download file name

Edited March 3, 2011 by Thrak

[+walkingmax]

Thanks, I'll try it again. I'm in the right place but chose "open with" GSAK instead of save file. Maybe that's it.

[GOF and Bacall]

Markwell's PQ primer.

[+walkingmax]

Markwell's PQ primer.

 

Thx for the link. I'll check it out.

 

fwiw, I did try it again with 1000 selected. I clicked submit and nothing happened.

 

I went to "your pocket queries" page and it shows the query but it says last generated PST Never.

It also shows zero queries ready for download.

 

I'll read the link and see if I'm missing something. Thanks again.

[+walkingmax]

Markwell's PQ primer.

 

Step 5 solved it all.

 

Thanks again

[+niraD]

There are two ways to use the PQ. It sounds like you're previewing it, and then downloading a GPX file of the 20 caches shown on the preview page.

 

If you check the box to run the PQ today, then you'll have a bigger GPX file that has all the caches in the PQ. With up to 500 caches, the GPX file is emailed to you. With 501-1000 caches, you have to download it from the site. Either way, you can feed that GPX file to GSAK.

[GOF and Bacall]

Did you check a day of the week to run the PQ? That one caught me the first time.

[+walkingmax]

niraD, GOF and Bacall,

 

That's what I was doing wrong. It wasn't obvious to me either. I now have exactly what I was looking for.

 

Thanks again everyone

[GOF and Bacall]

Glad it worked out.