Plan a Sunday walk

[+Tina&Oli]

Hi everybody.

Just started my first Geocaching adventures.

Is there an easy way to plan a Sunday-walk along with some caches?

As I have 2 very little kids I would like to plan a 3 miles tour along some caches.

Is there a tool I can setup a route, check the length on the map and export this to my IPhone?

 

I tried this using google-maps, but I have to export all chache-coordinates first, set a route to check the length of the trip and than had no way to export this in the groundspeaking app. Instead I created a custom list with the caches in question manually.

 

Is there an easier solution?

[+Lieblweb]

If you're a Premium Member - you can setup a pocket query 'caches along a route'

 

If you're not a premium member, maybe someone else can comment on it.

 

Perhaps your best bet on such a short notice, is to search for rail trails, walking trails, biking trails, parks, etc in your area and hope there are caches there. Or simply look at the map....pick some streets to walk on that have lots of caches and utilize your 'find nearbye caches' on the APP and keep refreshing it.

[+JesandTodd]

Hi everybody.

Just started my first Geocaching adventures.

Is there an easy way to plan a Sunday-walk along with some caches?

As I have 2 very little kids I would like to plan a 3 miles tour along some caches.

Is there a tool I can setup a route, check the length on the map and export this to my IPhone?

 

I tried this using google-maps, but I have to export all chache-coordinates first, set a route to check the length of the trip and than had no way to export this in the groundspeaking app. Instead I created a custom list with the caches in question manually.

 

Is there an easier solution?

 

Do you have the into app or the full app?

 

If you have the full app it's easy.

 

Perform a search. This can be done either by :

Find nearby caches

Search by location (which never seems to work for me, but it's an option)

-Or- if you know the GC code of a cache you want to center your search around, then pick 'search by GC code'

 

For ease, let's choose 'find nearby caches' (the big obvious button in the middle)

 

When you get to your map screen, scroll around to an area you'd like to go to. A nice park, lowland woodsy area,...you pick.

 

The caches won't auto-populate on the map like they do on the website. So when you get to an area you want to cache in, hit the little swirly looking-glass button on the bottom left hand side. This will perform a search of the new area.

Want to see more caches than 30? Hit the ellipses button (...) on the top right and select "+load more results". You can hit this button to your hearts desire and keep adding 30 caches to the screen.

 

When you are satisfied with your search, hit the ellipses button again, and select "Save to offline list"

 

Select the top green bar "create new list"

Give your new list a name "Sunday walk with the kids"

 

Hit done.

 

It will forever reside in your saved tabs.

 

 

Want to finesse some of the results?

If you have time, look at your cache results in the list view (instead of map view). You can easily see which caches have D/T combos outside of your comfort zone.

 

If you'd like these caches removed, you can select those caches, hit the ellipses button again, and select "Remove from this list"

 

 

It's not nearly as time consuming as it may appear.

 

Merely selecting a map view, loading more results and saving them to an offline list can take under a min. In fact, I use this technique FAR more than loading PQs.

 

Have fun!

[+kunarion]

easier solution?

How little are your very little kids? You can use the Geocaching.com web site, to research some local caches that have decent sized containers and very low difficulty/terrain, that were found recently and are kid-friendly. Narrow the list to couple of choice caches, then look on the map and decide a walking route. You could also check out a few cache-rich parks, and plan to arrive and cache at the end of the walk.

 

If you live where there are lots of caches along the paths, just walk. The App automatically shows nearby caches. You can research them as you approach, to decide which will be suitable.

Edited November 24, 2013 by kunarion

[+Tina&Oli]

Thanks for the responses.

I have the full iPhone app (and bought a year-membership after my first caches... :-).

 

What I am missing is some kind of route-planner.

I'm really bad at distance guessing and I would like to keep the walk in a 3-miles-zone so my kids can manage the complete tour.

At the moment I need some 3rd-party app (like google maps) to calculate the distances from one cache to the next (and because walking strait from one to the next and return the same path is not that interesting too I'd like to return a different path back to the car, so I need to set more waypoints).

 

Oliver

[+Lieblweb]

Thanks for the responses.

I have the full iPhone app (and bought a year-membership after my first caches... :-).

 

What I am missing is some kind of route-planner.

I'm really bad at distance guessing and I would like to keep the walk in a 3-miles-zone so my kids can manage the complete tour.

At the moment I need some 3rd-party app (like google maps) to calculate the distances from one cache to the next (and because walking strait from one to the next and return the same path is not that interesting too I'd like to return a different path back to the car, so I need to set more waypoints).

 

Oliver

 

Your first step, is to understand pocket queries and creating a route. However - this doesn't necessarily show you 'distances' that you are looking for. Another tool - is GSAK. GSAK is a very powerful & somewhat complicated software that does all sorts of things. It works with and utilizes the pocket queries that you create to do more with them..... If you're a techy kinda person and have time....you could learn it. I personally only dabble in GSAK and haven't done much of anything with it. My husband does all sorts of things with it ...(over my head).

 

GSAK is one of those 'must haves' in geocaching - especially if you're addicted to the hobby.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Lieblweb

[+JesandTodd]

I'm a 'tip of the iceberg' kinda gal when it comes to GSAK. I think it's another language,and I'm at the ordering a taco phase. I didn't realize it could help with distances.

 

I use mapsource to get a rough distance using the ruler thingie at the top.

 

But for just a Sunday walk, I'd eyeball it. Maybe bring a pedometer on walks and then turn around at the halfsies point.