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Planning caches around other people's caches


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Over a period of a few weeks ive been working on a series, its another buggy friendly route and have waited till now to get it published so that it coinsides with the camping event by me this weekend. Problem is someone else has also just published a series and our paths cross in a few places. I need to get out there asap and move some of the caches in my series, but im worried they are then going to clash with other cashes and they wont get published in time. How do people usually check on other caches that are in the area, when planning their own cache? Do you input all the caches in the area onto your GPS then walk round with your GPS showing closest caches? This is what i do, but i have a etrex, so have to enter each one manually so it gets a bit tiresome, also, like in this case, if the other persons caches havent been published yet or are planned while you are planning yours you dont even know they ate there. :( Advice please!!

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I'm planning a series at the moment and have identified other existing caches that fit into the route. My plan is to contact the owners to see if they will be happy to incorporate theirs into the series.

 

Best way to plan it though is to use the GC maps which show where the existing caches are. You can then plan your series around them. However there is no way of knowing if anyone else has a similar plan at the same time - I guess it's first come first served, although if your caches are at least 163 feet apart there will not be a problem. There are two series on Kinder that follow a similar route, Jaggers Cluogh and Crookstone Knoll. It means you are stopping quite frequently but it seems to work.

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If you are planning caches for a specific event then start early! Finding where other caches are located isn't too difficult but finding the 'hidden' locations of multi's or unknown caches can only be done if you find them. Don't ask your reviewer to tell you where these are :lol:

 

When you submit the caches it really helps us if you provide all relevant information, anything odd about the location we may query, permission details and so on. There are many mapping resources you can use to check your locations before creating the caches - these are the same resources we use when reviewing your caches.

 

I've written a page on my resource site called 'Help your reviewer' which basically tells you how you can help us get your caches published quickly. Worth reading. You'll find some of the answers to your questions there.

 

Edited to add as my post crossed in the post so to speak!

if your caches are at least 163 feet apart there will not be a problem.
The proximity distance is 528 feet or 161 meters. Explained here in the Guidelines.

 

Chris

Graculus

Volunteer UK Reviewer for geocaching.com

UK Geocaching Information & Resources website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk

Geocaching.com Knowledge Books

Edited by Graculus
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I run a PQ or filter on my GSAK database for all caches within a few miles of my intended 'route' and then dump them onto a 1:25K map in MemoryMap. You can see immediately what caches are close to or impinge on your circle.

In the 'good old days' (?) when you new most, if not all, of the cachers in your area, a quick email to them giving the rough area of your proposed new cache would be enough to 'reserve that area.... Too many cachers to do that now :(

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I've written a page on my resource site called 'Help your reviewer' which basically tells you how you can help us get your caches published quickly. Worth reading. You'll find some of the answers to your questions there.

 

Ive had a quick look at your site it looks great! Will look at it properly in a bit to help find new homes for some of the series. Thanks for your help!

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how do you do the quote thing lol

 

click on "reply" and type outside the quoted message and don't fiddle with the tags on it, you can delete some of the text..but do not touch the quote tags

Edited by t4e
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I run a PQ or filter on my GSAK database for all caches within a few miles of my intended 'route' and then dump them onto a 1:25K map in MemoryMap. You can see immediately what caches are close to or impinge on your circle.

In the 'good old days' (?) when you new most, if not all, of the cachers in your area, a quick email to them giving the rough area of your proposed new cache would be enough to 'reserve that area.... Too many cachers to do that now :(

 

dont have a technical gadget with maps, just an etrex!

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dont have a technical gadget with maps, just an etrex!

 

You could try downloading Basecamp from Garmin and the OSM maps from Talkytoaster. That would give you UK maps on your PC. Depending on your model of Etrex it may talk to Basecamp (the old serial ones don't work I believe). You can import gpx files into Basecamp and see them on the map.

 

The beauty of the above is that it's all free!

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How do people usually check on other caches that are in the area, when planning their own cache?

 

If you are using GSAK you can create a filter of caches in the area you are interested in. There used to be a macro that you could run on the filter that would open the caches in Google Earth with a ring around each one corresponding to the proximity distance. If you look through the GSAK macros for KML you should find it if it still exists. I think it was written by a cacher named rutson. Of course it will not help if there are multi ot mystery caches as only the starting point will be circled.

Edited by Master Mariner
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I download the local caches into Google Earth too. I then use the ordnance survey overlay (which you need to download from somewhere) to create a map and plan hides with this overlay and the ruler option to give likely locations which are far enough away from any local caches (which isn't usually a problem as most seem to be mine!). A print of the map also helps when out and about.

 

Of course, when you get there you may find that the potential location is no good but if you've allowed a margin for error on any proximity issues its usually not a problem to find the right location.

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