All caches in british columbia

[+larkspeed]

This summer I will be spending 6 weeks visiting family in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

 

I am trying to put together an offline database either in Gsak or with a GPX file of all the caches within a 200km radius centering on Maple Ridge.

 

The problem I am having is pocket queries seem to be limited to 1000 and Gsak's circle search is limited to 50km.

 

I'm not going to have a data connection while I am out there so I really need this as on offline database I can access when in the field

 

---edit---

 

Ideally would be if there is a member here from that area that already has a comprehensive database in gsak that they could export and email to me that would be brilliant.

Edited March 27, 2015 by larkspeed

[+noncentric]

This summer I will be spending 6 weeks visiting family in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

 

I am trying to put together an offline database either in Gsak or with a GPX file of all the caches within a 200km radius centering on Maple Ridge.

 

The problem I am having is pocket queries seem to be limited to 1000 and Gsak's circle search is limited to 50km.

 

I'm not going to have a data connection while I am out there so I really need this as on offline database I can access when in the field

 

I think PQ's would be your best bet, but you have to get around that pesky 1000 cache limit. You may have success by breaking up your PQ's into multiple PQ's, so that each is under the 1000 cache limit.

 

For example, maybe have 1 PQ that is just Mystery caches. Another PQ that is just Multi's. Another PQ that is just Virtuals, Webcams, Earthcaches. Then for Traditionals, you could segment by placed date...1 PQ for hidden dates 2001-2004, another PQ for 2005-2007, another PQ for 2008-2010, etc. The things I've listed may not be under 1000 each, so you'd have to experiment and see what works best for you.

 

Hope that helps.

[+larkspeed]

I thought it would come down to that, I was just hoping that there would be a way to do it that would be considerably less labor intesive. That area seems to have a lot so it would be a lot of queries.

 

Not being funny but surely it would be better if they lifted the limit in PQ's at least for premium members. one big PQ has to be easier on the system than 50 small ones.

[+speakers-corner]

Set up different pocket queries for the area. Start off in the middle, Maple Ridge and then work around. Do you want just traditional Caches or all?

[+larkspeed]

I want all types but like I said in my previous post I was hoping for something easier and less time consuming.

[+noncentric]

Not being funny but surely it would be better if they lifted the limit in PQ's at least for premium members. one big PQ has to be easier on the system than 50 small ones.

I agree. It would be great to have a limit that's higher than 1000 per PQ. I've spent too much time creating, previewing, editing, previewing again, etc.

[+Isonzo Karst]

the way to grab large numbers of caches in an area is by DATE RANGE, not type.

 

If you authenticate at project-gc, you can go to the splitter tool, and they'll give you the date ranges to divide BC, Canada into 1000 cache chunks

 

http://project-gc.com/Tools/PQSplit

 

member here from that area that already has a comprehensive database in gsak that they could export and email to

this is a terms of use violation that directly attacks Groundspeak's business.

[+larkspeed]

ok kind of stupid that sharing a database with a premium member visiting from another country is a TOS voilation.

 

But not as stupid as that same visitor having to run 43 pocket queries over 5 days into order to get the geocaches in the area.

 

Sorry Groundspeak you want to attract new people to geocaching how about letting up the reigns a bit so the people you do attract want to stay, make it too much like hard work to get anything done and people will leave and find another hobby.

Edited March 27, 2015 by larkspeed

[+Team Taran]

May I offer advice on how I would prepare for a caching trip If I was visiting a new area. First I would make a list of the kinds of caches I like to find most. These include virtual caches, oldest caches, geo trails. I would bookmark these. Then I would figure out where I was going to be. Would I be mostly in one place. Would I be traveling to specific places? Then I would run pocket queries for a reasonable distance around those points. Also I would limit these queries to the kinds of caches I like to find most. I would spend time choosing the caches that appealed to me and add them to my bookmark. I would use caches along the routes I expected to travel. I would also plan to access free wifi to check for new caches or to account for a change of plans. I know everyone doesn't like to plan but I think planning is part of the fun and more productive than downloading every cache in a providence.

[+larkspeed]

Where i can understand that this is my problem.

 

I have friends and family that live all over BC some in very remote areas where they cannot always rely on their internet connections or phones to be working on any given day.

 

Couple this with the fact that free wifi is not going to be anywhere near the vast majority of the province.

 

This leaves me with only one choice to be sure that no matter where in the province I am I will always be able to find caches, this is downloading the caches for the province in advance and carrying them on my tablet.

I was just going to concentrate on a 200km radius of my moms house but since I have to put in PQ's anyway I may as well get them all and cover all the bases.

 

Like I said I have sat and put in 43 pocket queries which at the 10 per day limit will take 5 days for them all to complete. This will give me a full up to date database of all the caches in the province all I need to do is run one more query before i go to get any new ones added since today and i'm set.

 

I still stick to what I said though, 4 queries at max 10,000 would have been a lot less strain on both me and the servers than 43 queries at 1000 each.

[+Team Taran]

A couple of more suggestions- be sure and update your database close to when you leave to get recent information on archived and disabled caches. If you use gsak, this can be done by refreshing geocaches using the api I believe. Also if you haven't thought of it you might want to contact some local cachers. The Canada section of this forum seems pretty dead but there is a Facebook page if you do that https://www.facebook.com/pages/British-Columbia-Geocaching-Association/91747292945

[+Ladybug Kids]

If you use gsak, this can be done by refreshing geocaches using the api I believe.

Yes, up to 10,000 caches per day. One can use the User Data fields populated with "1," "2," etc. to easily sort the database into 10,000 cache chunks and run the refresh on them one batch at a time.

 

Another way you can significantly reduce the number of caches you have to refresh is to focus on only those with X or more favorite points and eliminate cache types you really aren't interested in doing.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Ladybug Kids

[+Team Taran]

If you are a gsak user I would check and see if there is a way to populate your database directly from the api. I would check their forum.