How do you deal with elevation when entering a cache location?

[Guest dmdeitz]

When entering a cache's location in my GPS, what do you do with the elevation field? Where the cache is could be several hundred feet different from where I am when I enter it (and take that current location's elevation as a default? Or doesn't it matter? If you are at the base of a cliff, and the cache is at the top of the cliff, the GPS will still say you are only a few feet away, even if you knew that correct elevation ahead of time?

 

Thanks!

[Guest Markwell]

As accurate as the GPS receivers are for Lat/Lon, I've not found them to be entirely accurate for elevation. You might mention your elevation as a portion of the clue in the text ("My elevation was listed as 1830 feet," etc.) which would clue people to really carefully look at a topo map.

[Guest Nemesis]

quote:

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Originally posted by dmdeitz:

...If you are at the base of a cliff, and the cache is at the top of the cliff, the GPS will still say you are only a few feet away, even if you knew that correct elevation ahead of time?

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It would be great to have the option of displaying distance to go in three dimensions and not the two that we are currently limited to, that is, to take elevation into account too. I have an eTrex Summit, so my elevations can be quite accurate (that is, with proper calibartion). Maybe we should mention this to Garmin etc., I hope they would consider adding the option in their latest firmware upgrades.

 

Cheers,

Donovan.

[Guest bob_renner]

I assume the original question was pertaining to _looking_ for a cache rather than _hiding_ a cache. When you try to take the cache listing and enter that into your GPSR (at least with and eTrex), you mark your current position and then edit the coordinates. You can change the lat and long to what's on the cache sheet, but there is no elevation on the cache sheet. You just leave that field as it currently is. There is no need to modify it.

 

Bob

[Guest navdog]

It would be nice if we could enter the elevation under the coordinates when we are logging our cache pages, then everyone could input that along with the coordinates before they head off to a cache. In some cases it might be helpful information when looking for a cache.