Set waypoint for car location

[+zippes]

For those ‘challenging’ caches, it is often necessary to drive to the general area, park the car, and begin the trek into the ‘wilderness’ to begin the search.

 

For those areas that are particularly dense, it can be ease to get a bit turned around and not be sure where the ‘car was parked’.

 

May I suggest an additional functionality for the Geocaching app. where you can ‘set’ a ‘auto waypoint’ (with and appropriate car-type icon) once you park the car. This car-waypoint can then be ‘selected’ like any other cache on the map when you want to re-locate your parked car. Once you return to your car, the car-icon(waypoint) would be cleared.

 

Additionally… it could be used when you park you car in one of the many parking areas that surround a large city mall… (and then exit out a different mall exit and wonder where why your car isn’t where you left it).

 

Just a thought…

 

I’ll let you guy kick it around and decide if it has merit.

 

Zippes

[Keystone]

This functionality already exists. Start navigating to any cache and, from the map page, select "Add Waypoint" from the menu at the top right (iPhone app).

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Yeah.... always "Mark" your vehicle before walking away from it! Voice of experience, here.

 

Especially where your vehicle is parked in the middle of nowhere and the nearest true road is at least 12 miles away.

 

Been there and done that... once, but ne'er again.

[+niraD]

This functionality already exists. Start navigating to any cache and, from the map page, select "Add Waypoint" from the menu at the top right (iPhone app).

Unfortunately, that adds your parking waypoint to the cache you were navigating to. Once you've found and logged that cache, it may be difficult to look up it (and your parking waypoint) again.

[+zippes]

Keystone: Many thanks for pointing me to the screen where I can create a waypoint… this will, indeed, allow me to accomplish what I was looking for.

 

niraD: I agree with your statement… the added waypoint is visible (flag) only on the “Navigate to Geocache” map rather than the “Find Nearby Geocaches” map.

 

Having a ‘car-waypoint’ set/clear capability which would be visible on the ‘big’ map would be, in my opinion, used by most cachers that leave their car and enter the jungle to follow their quest

 

Thank you all who have replied… be safe my friends.

 

Zippes

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Keystone: Many thanks for pointing me to the screen where I can create a waypoint… this will, indeed, allow me to accomplish what I was looking for.

 

niraD: I agree with your statement… the added waypoint is visible (flag) only on the "Navigate to Geocache" map rather than the "Find Nearby Geocaches" map.

 

Having a 'car-waypoint' set/clear capability which would be visible on the 'big' map would be, in my opinion, used by most cachers that leave their car and enter the jungle to follow their quest

 

Thank you all who have replied… be safe my friends.

 

Zippes

 

The ability to mark a waypoint (it could be any place, not just where a car is parked) is a common feature on pretty much every dedicated handheld GPS. However, a GPS isn't just for geocaching, but can be used for general navigation. As, the official app is a Geocaching App and not a general navigation app, the ability to mark a waypoint that is not associated with a cache is really more a general navigation feature and there are probably lots of GPS navigation apps that provide that functionality.

 

 

[+geodarts]

The ability to mark a waypoint (it could be any place, not just where a car is parked) is a common feature on pretty much every dedicated handheld GPS. However, a GPS isn't just for geocaching, but can be used for general navigation. As, the official app is a Geocaching App and not a general navigation app, the ability to mark a waypoint that is not associated with a cache is really more a general navigation feature and there are probably lots of GPS navigation apps that provide that functionality.

 

On the iphone (and presumably other platforms as well), there are plenty free apps for marking a car's location or taking a waypoint.. I switch out of the caching app all the time to route to a location, take a Hipstamatic photo, or even answer a phone call. So I am not sure that a specific "parking waypoint" feature is needed any more than I need Groundspeak to improve in-app photos to allow square pictures with various filters.

 

With that said, the "Add a Waypoint" feature in the Groundspeak app seems to be mysterious for a lot of people, and there are times when it would be nice to press a single button rather than to go through a lot of screens. But if there was a specific feature to add a waypoint independent of a cache, then perhaps we would see even more caches with loose coordinates.

[Smokinall1]

This functionality already exists. Start navigating to any cache and, from the map page, select "Add Waypoint" from the menu at the top right (iPhone app).

 

Wow didn't even see that, thanks a lot that option will be very handy.

[+Don_J]

Yeah.... always "Mark" your vehicle before walking away from it! Voice of experience, here.

 

Especially where your vehicle is parked in the middle of nowhere and the nearest true road is at least 12 miles away.

 

Been there and done that... once, but ne'er again.

 

Before GPS, I lost my car in the parking lot at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for two hours. Now, I make a bee-line to it as everyone else is wandering around aimlessly, and am one of the first cars out of the lot.

[+suchanana]

This functionality already exists. Start navigating to any cache and, from the map page, select "Add Waypoint" from the menu at the top right (iPhone app).

methinks that would be so much easier than my "mark"ing and labelling "car" each time i venture out into the trails of the woods doing multiple caches involving multi caches...tried following the route tracker, but that gets confusing with backtracking...

counting your tip as my "learned something new each day" for Friday...thanks