Geocaching on a roadtrip

[+Bobcat_09]

I just started geocaching a few months ago and am really enjoying it. I am going on a road trip to visit a friend next month and would like to geocache along the way. I will be driving almost 1000 miles, and would like to find caches very close to my driving route. Is there an easy way to do that? Something like google maps but also has the caches along the way?

[+the4dirtydogs]

Use create a route and make a querry. You can set the route to find caches as close to the road you are traveling. It's pretty easy to use. You might have to play around with "create a route" til you get the hang of it. Good luck and have fun on your trip.

[+dfx]

And the place to start would be here: http://www.geocaching.com/my/userroutes.aspx

[+Harry Dolphin]

If all you want is the cache and dashes near the road, that will work. Doesn't work for me. I do pocket queries around interesting areas, and a bookmark list of caches I definitely want to visit. My last trip, 1200 miles, I set up small pocket queries near Bath, Maine, Northern New Hampshire, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Quechee Gorge, Vermont, Pittfield, Mass, and New Lebanon, New York. Plus a bookmark list of caches I definitely wanted to visit. Worked well for me.

[+WeightMan]

What I do is the caches along a route and then look at those results and bookmark the ones I want to do. Expect to find a cache in most every freeway rest stop along the way. One of the problems with just doing the caches along a route is that it will pick up caches that you can't get to easily from the freeway. By bookmarking the ones I want, I can eliminate those. I can then take those that I have bookmarked and plan a route using Microsoft Streets and Trips. That way I can plan my stops and the time involved. I can then decide where to spend the nights along the way.

 

I really like this aspect of caching as it breaks up the distances involved in a road trip. The problem is that the caches take time. I used to take two days to drive from the San Francisco area to Seattle. I now spend three nights along the way when I drive up the coast instead of I-5.

[+Chokecherry]

I did a PQ for easy difficulty and terrain caches within I think 2 miles of the route. Then I followed the route and picked out the caches that I actually wanted to do or that seemed interesting. I got to see some neat areas doing this and it made North Dakota bearable.

[+Dame Deco]

I've driven across country on 70 and 80 between Ohio and Colorado, and I just went ahead and moved along the map/highway the whole way, essentially doing it by hand, instead of doing a PQ. I'd hate to miss something good that's 1/4 mile outside the pq. It might take an evening, but it's fun to look at cache pages and favorite points, etc. In each state, I picked at least one virtual and one Earthcache, knowing that the container can't be lost! I bookmark the likely ones, edit it once I'm done, do a PQ of the bookmark, and voila, I've got my plan.

Edited October 25, 2011 by Dame Deco

[+EdrickV]

Caches along a Route has a limit of 500 miles, so a trip longer then that would have to be done as multiple segments. (The smaller the segments you use, the wider a search radius you can use before hitting the cache limit.) I used Caches along a Route very successfully on a recent trip, though I did manually download one cache that was a ways off the route but was near a place I knew in advance that we would be visiting.

 

Now on a long trip, if I knew I was going to be stopping in certain areas, or visiting certain attractions/landmarks/etc. then I would probably also do pocket queries around them. But then my Geocaching program can use multiple databases, so I can put thousands of caches into it without it bogging down.

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

I have made several geocaching specific road trips. I spend a few days manually going through the caching maps along the route I wil lbe taking. I hand "cherry pick" caches based on several factors.

 

I almost always add in the rest stop caches (hey, if I gotta stop anyway, I may as well find a cache ).

 

I look for parks, viewing areas, etc that will be worth a slight detour off the highway. Historic spots, etc are also added.

 

By cherry picking, I tend to get the "better" caches. I also usually post a note in the appropriate local forum(s) and see what the locals can add.

[+wimseyguy]

I'm with the last three posters. I prefer to spend a few hours panning along my route and creating bookmark lists of targeted caches. I'll pick a center point at cache dense areas, run a dateless PQ, preview the result and sort by fave points to see if there are any blue ribbon winners along the way.

 

I'll also highlight any virts, add rest stops and look at exits that have multiple hides, but usually skip over the ones with just one. This way when I need to stop for fuel, gas or bathroom, I can get a quick find or three as well. But I have no problem driving past those.

 

I find this method much more satisfying than the standard caches along a route result which always includes dozens of 'can't get off the highway here to find these' results, even if it is more time consuming. I too enjoy looking at the variety of cache pages. Sometimes I even add one to the list simply because the page made me laugh.

[+bflentje]

If all you want is the cache and dashes near the road, that will work. Doesn't work for me. I do pocket queries around interesting areas, and a bookmark list of caches I definitely want to visit. My last trip, 1200 miles, I set up small pocket queries near Bath, Maine, Northern New Hampshire, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Quechee Gorge, Vermont, Pittfield, Mass, and New Lebanon, New York. Plus a bookmark list of caches I definitely wanted to visit. Worked well for me.

 

I do both and more. Cache along the route, PQs around an area, and also look for bookmark lists and favorited caches in an area I plan on visiting. Prepping for a road trip can take me hours and hours.

[+wimseyguy]

Sometimes the prep is almost as much fun as finding the caches.