When over 16 miles is closer then less then 3 miles...

[+Coldgears]

I think a new stat should be added, for DRIVING DISTANCE or DRIVING TIME... Here's why...

 

 

Doesn't seem like a big deal? Let's look at them all on the same map.

 

 

When I can be at the LIBERTY BELL NEARLY 18 MILES AWAY, before I can arrive at a cache listed as LESS than 3 miles away... There's an issue.

 

I plan on posting this in the Feedback Forum, but I need to refine my suggestion. I want something to reflect this in my stats, but don't know what the best way to go about doing it is...

[+hydnsek]

A classic example of YMMV. Totally subjective depending on where you start and where you're going. And why limit it to cars - hiking caches often have similar stats. Try looking at a cache that's only .25 away but 2-3 miles and 2000 ft uphill on a switchbacky trail.

 

Edited July 30, 2011 by hydnsek

[+Sol seaker]

So Coldgears, you plan on asking them to rate all caches based on how far they are from your house??? :laughing: :laughing:

 

 

 

 

(For those who don't know Coldgears, he is around 16 years old. Transportation was a big issue for me at that age too.)

Edited July 30, 2011 by Sol seaker

[+Mr Kaswa]

Maybe Penndot has a feedback section and you can start one asking for a more convenient bridge?

[+fizzymagic]

I plan on posting this in the Feedback Forum, but I need to refine my suggestion. I want something to reflect this in my stats, but don't know what the best way to go about doing it is...

 

What is it exactly that you want Groundspeak to do? Calculate the driving distance from your house to all your found caches?

 

:laughing: :laughing:

 

Perhaps you would also like detailed directions to all caches provided as well. Maybe a nanny to hold your hand on the cache hunt?

 

Look. You can get the data from Groundspeak on your finds. You can purchase or write yourself an application to calculate the driving distance to the caches. Of course, the distance won't be accurate because it may not know exactly how you got there. So in that case you could just keep a track of all your tracks to every cache.

 

But to expect geocaching.com to do that for you is well beyond ridiculous and into absurd.

[+Roman!]

 

What is it exactly that you want Groundspeak to do? Calculate the driving distance from your house to all your found caches?

 

 

Nice, made me laugh but in a world where we always blame someone or something else this time I think it's safe to blame Coldgears, if he learnt to swim then the distance would be correct.

[+Hypnopaedia]

While I do not agree at all that Groundspeak should do anything about this, I understand the feeling. I am an FTF hound (Seemingly the most horrid of creatures among the forum dwellers) and I have a 30 mile notification range. The problem is that I live in the Puget Sound Area North of Seattle. So I am constantly getting notifications from 10 miles away when I would have to take a ferry. By no means am I complaining, it takes me 5 seconds to see I'm not going to go for it. But it is a little bit of a let down when I hear that ding and think the race is on.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

We have a similar situation in my area. I live at the southern end of one of the Finger Lakes (Cayuga), which is about 40 miles long. The next lake over (Seneca) is a bit longer. Neither have a bridge that crosses them and I guess because there are no major cities along any of them there has never been any sort of initiative that I know of to build one. There are roads which follow the shorelines on both sides and while caching along the lake I've frequently found the "next closest cache" to be about 2 miles away, but would be a 30-40 mile drive to get to it.

 

To me, finding the best route to a cache, which might involve looking at roads, trails, identifying lakes, rivers, or streams, which may need to be crossed or circumnavigated is part of geocaching. Sometimes even identifying private property and planning a route so that I don't trespass can be part of the navigation process. A few years ago I went after a rarely found cache about 14 miles from me that had several possible access points. One involved a 2.5 mile (one way) hike up a series of trails. Another was about 2.0 miles one way, coming from the other direction, but upon examining the maps, I could determine that although the overall elevation difference was more, the first .7 of a mile or so was along a fairly flat gated road (on State land). I spent quite a bit of time looking over the options before deciding on a route then, on a spring saturday morning went after it. I took the shorter, but steeper route and was glad that I did because the snow had been mostly cleared on the road so I "only" had to walk 2.6 miles in the snow up to 1 feet deep. Even though this cache is only 14 miles away it took about three hours from the time I left home until I returned and I only found that one cache.

 

I guess that's a lot different from someone that uses a auto-navigation GPS that gives them turn by turn voice directions to a cache located withing 50 feet of the road.

[+SeekerOfTheWay]

Can't you get turn by turn direction from your current location (your house) to the cache site on either your handheld GPS, your cell phone, or your dedicated driving GPS? I learned a long time ago, very quickly, what the term As The Crow Flies means. Now, especially when doing hiking caches, I take a look at Google Maps so I can see what trails I have to take to get to the cache. Same applies for what roads. But I use Google Navigation turn by turn on my phone to get to the cache location and it gives mileage and time to destination.

 

Figuring out how to get to the cache starting location is half the fun sometimes.

Edited July 30, 2011 by SeekerOfTheWay

[Clan Riffster]

There's an issue.

There is?

I guess I'm missing it.

A cache is X miles away as the Crow T Robot flies.

It is XX miles away as the Puppy Monster hikes.

Looks like simple math to me...

 

I am an FTF hound (Seemingly the most horrid of creatures among the forum dwellers)

I don't think anyone has suggested FTF hounds are horrible. Not even those folks who most disparage the practice. For the most part, those, like myself, who don't play that little side game just don't get the attraction. It seems rather silly to expend so much time and effort just to ensure your moniker is above the others on a logbook page. But the reality is, you are playing the game the way you like to play it, probably staying well within the accepted rules of that sub game, and you are presumably having a heck of a lot of fun doing so. That's all that matters.

 

An oft coined phrase around these parts goes,

"If you aren't having fun playing this game, you're doing it wrong"

When we accept that as an axiom, the logical other side to that coin is,

"If you are having fun, (barring any rule breaking), you're doing it right!"

Don't let yourself go through life needing the acceptence of strangers.

Lots of folks don't get my fascination with catching venomous snakes.

I don't let their lack of comprehension bother me.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Maybe Penndot has a feedback section and you can start one asking for a more convenient bridge?

 

That would be the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

Penndot are the peole who put out the really funny looking benchmarks! P.D.H. Benchmark.

 

Hypnopaedia points out another, worse, situation. Or, Coldgears could try living on the North Jersey side of the Hudson River, and look at all of those caches in Brooklyn, just under ten miles away. Google Maps says that we can do it in 16 miles and only 34 minutes driving - through the Lincoln Tunnel and across the Brooklyn Bridge! (Goodle Maps doesn't know anything about traffic!) Or the caches in Central Park that are just two miles away. We allow an hour driving for that!

 

So, my suggestion is that Coldgears move farther away from the river!

[+FraenCache]

C´mon people, this thread is ridiculous!

 

Dear Coldgears, maybe you should contact the guys from tom tom (the car navigation specialist) to invent a car navigation game.

Geocaching was invented as a outdoor sport activity I´d say. "Out in the wild" there are no roads that lead you to a cache, you just go cross-country. IF THERE IS A OBSTACLE OF ANY KIND, IT´S YOUR PROBLEM.

 

Can´t see any issue here. It´s a fact, that the cache is 3 miles away. How you may get there is your problem. Maybe somebody owns a kajak. To him it wouldn´t be a problem crossing the river to get the cache. So it always depends on the personal view/ability.

[+CanDMan47]

OT

We have a similar situation in my area. I live at the southern end of one of the Finger Lakes (Cayuga), which is about 40 miles long. The next lake over (Seneca) is a bit longer. Neither have a bridge that crosses them and I guess because there are no major cities along any of them there has never been any sort of initiative that I know of to build one. There are roads which follow the shorelines on both sides and while caching along the lake...

 

Man, I wish I knew about Geocaching was invented in the mid 90's when I lived in Corning and my route frequently took me around the Finger Lakes. The drive was always pretty, especially in the fall. Not that caching back home in Michigan is all that bad.

 

Back on topic:

 

I've heard of problems in need of a solution and a solutions in search of a problem, but what it seems Coldgears has is neither a problem (for anybody but himself) nor a solution.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I found my first 600 or so with a Garmin Yellow that had no maps, just the distance and a direction arrow. It was part of the fun to figure out how to get there and while I had them in the car I rarely used maps, preferring to just follow the roads or trails and see where I ended up. I found a lot of interesting places that way as well as a large number of 'can't get there from here' situations.

 

It's like air conditioning, though, once you have it there's no going back! I tried caching with a basic (no maps) unit last year and it was pure frustration! I've become spoiled by good maps and turn-by-turn directions.

 

Still, even with the best mapping GPS it happens. I went out on a fire call yesterday and my GPS routed me down a road that ended abruptly in a field. I could see that the road continued on the other side of the field about a quarter-mile away; evidently the stretch of road in between had been torn out to make a park and the mapping companies had not been alerted to the fact that the road no longer went through. I had to figure out a detour route that was perhaps 2 miles around to get to the other side and back on the road I wanted.

[+AmphibianTrackers]

OK, going out on a limb here but as a newbie I found some of these responses to be rather harsh. This was just an expressed idea. How things started or how you use them or the location in which you search is not the question. The question is could the distance be changed from how the crow flies to the distance a nonflying person has to go to get there. The person is only asking about how their own stats are calculated. I am not advocating for anything except more kind responses.

[+Panther&Pine]

OK, going out on a limb here but as a newbie I found some of these responses to be rather harsh. This was just an expressed idea. How things started or how you use them or the location in which you search is not the question. The question is could the distance be changed from how the crow flies to the distance a nonflying person has to go to get there. The person is only asking about how their own stats are calculated. I am not advocating for anything except more kind responses.

The OP will survive, certainly not the first time he's gone up against the forums for some odd (at least to me also selfcentered) requests)

 

PS. CG try GSAK and a macro, I'm fairly certain it can be used with a route planning software to figure all that out for you. Or that funny option at the top of the screen that says something about "Driving directions"

[+Chokecherry]

I rarely use my car gps to get to geocaches with for a few reasons.

 

1. We have many roads up here not on the GPS. If I had trusted it the other week when I went on minimum maintenence roads I would have never got to the caches.

 

2. We have some roads on GPS that really shouldn't be. Some "roads" are really more like trails and will put you some place you don't want to be. We have a lot of logging roads where I am that shift and move and what not. The GPS isn't very accurate when dealing with that.

 

3. Typically I know the shorter/safer drive to the cache in the area. If I'm not familiar I pull a map out and do it the old fashioned way navigation wise.

 

Anyhow, here it's not unusual with how the roads are laid out to have to back track to a cache after going through some other ones first. What appears to be a simple 20 mile trip will sometimes turn into a 40-50 mile debacle just to get to a cache here.

Edited July 30, 2011 by Chokecherry

[+AmphibianTrackers]

Yesterday, we used the GPS to get directions and we also had to use the laptop with Google Earth to find our way around to a location. This has happened several times, lately. Of course, geographical situations have to be taken into account. We are caching near a river right now and there are few bridges. I just can't always take the laptop with me to find a cache. I can understand that it is frustrating to use the function to sort nearest caches and have to search through them with the phone maps to try to find what is really closest. Anyway, more than any technological advancement, I value kindness.

[+Panther&Pine]

Yesterday, we used the GPS to get directions and we also had to use the laptop with Google Earth to find our way around to a location. This has happened several times, lately. Of course, geographical situations have to be taken into account. We are caching near a river right now and there are few bridges. I just can't always take the laptop with me to find a cache. I can understand that it is frustrating to use the function to sort nearest caches and have to search through them with the phone maps to try to find what is really closest. Anyway, more than any technological advancement, I value kindness.

Like my sig. line says I use a PQ, GSAK and a macro to do that. Then I write down the cache names in order that I'll be going for them.

I"ve got a Garmin Vista and the TOPO maps on it, but a smartphone app won't work everywhere around here (and I still haven't tried to figure out how to use my BB for caching).

[+AmphibianTrackers]

Yesterday, we used the GPS to get directions and we also had to use the laptop with Google Earth to find our way around to a location. This has happened several times, lately. Of course, geographical situations have to be taken into account. We are caching near a river right now and there are few bridges. I just can't always take the laptop with me to find a cache. I can understand that it is frustrating to use the function to sort nearest caches and have to search through them with the phone maps to try to find what is really closest. Anyway, more than any technological advancement, I value kindness.

Like my sig. line says I use a PQ, GSAK and a macro to do that. Then I write down the cache names in order that I'll be going for them.

I"ve got a Garmin Vista and the TOPO maps on it, but a smartphone app won't work everywhere around here (and I still haven't tried to figure out how to use my BB for caching).

 

I understand what a pocket query is and use them. I also make a list of the caches we are going to in order. I don't know what a GSAK or a macro is. Thanks for your help!

[+Panther&Pine]

. line says I use a PQ, GSAK and a macro to do that. Then I write down the cache names in order that I'll be going for them.

I"ve got a Garmin Vista and the TOPO maps on it, but a smartphone app won't work everywhere around here (and I still haven't tried to figure out how to use my BB for caching).

 

I understand what a pocket query is and use them. I also make a list of the caches we are going to in order. I don't know what a GSAK or a macro is. Thanks for your help!

GSAK is a dbs managment tool- it isn't overly pretty and a heck of a learning curve. It allows you to slice and dice your PQs into what you want. There is a free 21 day trial, then a nag screen. But it is only 25 for a license that you can use on any one machine at a time.

 

Macros are little snips of code that automate certain things. Like I use a macro to upload all the local caches in the area to google earth, then I run a second macro that puts little red circles around each of those caches- the circle is a tenth of a mile out from the cache coords. Easy visual way of seeing roughly what areas are open for new caches. GSAK has a number of macros that are specific to it.

[+AmphibianTrackers]

Oh! Will check that out.

[+Coldgears]

Honestly, this request isn't that big of a deal... Is it? Google maps API even includes this feature, look at some Fast Food Restaurants page, you enter in an address if gives you ones nearby. Just like geocaching's maps. Where it differs, is when you click on a restaurant in the database, it tells you how far the drive is, how long it is, and gives directions. If geocaching was to use this API to get how far the drive is, and how long it is, and throw away the useless information, such driving directions. Then it could work, it would not require as much code as you think it is, google maps is doing most of the work, all they have to code is someway to display the information, and some way to request it from the API.

 

I'm saying this, because when I want to find a cache on the maps. I have to frequently copy/paste the coords into google maps and ask for directions from my house. I have to do this sometimes 20 - 30 times before I find a cache that is close enough.

 

I'm sure at least some of you guys could find it useful to click on a geocache and automatically know how long a drive it is, and if it doesn't take much to implement it... Why not?

[+Panther&Pine]

 

I'm saying this, because when I want to find a cache on the maps. I have to frequently copy/paste the coords into google maps and ask for directions from my house. I have to do this sometimes 20 - 30 times before I find a cache that is close enough.

 

You are making it WAY too difficult. Open a cache page. See the little printer icon? Look right. See the little car icon? Click on Driving directions. See the new tab? Looks like Google Maps directions to me. You'll still have to apply common sense.

[+Coldgears]

 

I'm saying this, because when I want to find a cache on the maps. I have to frequently copy/paste the coords into google maps and ask for directions from my house. I have to do this sometimes 20 - 30 times before I find a cache that is close enough.

 

You are making it WAY too difficult. Open a cache page. See the little printer icon? Look right. See the little car icon? Click on Driving directions. See the new tab? Looks like Google Maps directions to me. You'll still have to apply common sense.

OMG, thanks so much! I can't believe I haven't noticed that in the last year and a half i've been geocaching! Even after you told me it was there I couldn't find it, and checked 2 other screens, and spent 5 minutes before finding it. It's in so much clutter!

 

THANKS!

Edited July 30, 2011 by Coldgears

[+Panther&Pine]

 

I'm saying this, because when I want to find a cache on the maps. I have to frequently copy/paste the coords into google maps and ask for directions from my house. I have to do this sometimes 20 - 30 times before I find a cache that is close enough.

 

You are making it WAY too difficult. Open a cache page. See the little printer icon? Look right. See the little car icon? Click on Driving directions. See the new tab? Looks like Google Maps directions to me. You'll still have to apply common sense.

OMG, thanks so much! I can't believe I haven't noticed that in the last year and a half i've been geocaching! Even after you told me it was there I couldn't find it, and checked 2 other screens, and spent 5 minutes before finding it. It's in so much clutter!

 

THANKS!

No problem.

I design webpage form layouts at work. It takes a certain level of just hitting every button to see what they do and lots of "where the heck is that silly button/function at".

I generally start out by trying out every button on a page when working with a new website.

[+tozainamboku]

I think you should get a boat. It's been done before

[4wheelin_fool]

I use the geocaching app to open the google external map browser and it routes me directly to the cache. If you use the geo app first, they both work together fine.

[+Mr Kaswa]

Maybe Penndot has a feedback section and you can start one asking for a more convenient bridge?

 

That would be the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

Penndot are the peole who put out the really funny looking benchmarks! P.D.H. Benchmark.

 

 

It wasn't too bad a guess from 2945 miles away, as the Google map drives.

[+hukilaulau]

So Coldgears, you plan on asking them to rate all caches based on how far they are from your house??? :laughing: :laughing:

 

 

 

 

I want a GS feature that tells me how far my finds are from Coldgear's house. I dunno, I just like reading stats.

[+va griz]

Here is a cache I have visited. If you search for nearby caches, the closest few are around five miles away. But driving it's more than 90. Far from an issue, it's just one of the quirks of being near rivers.