Road trip - cache research

[+GoodHunting]

I'm planning a road trip from central Illinios to Florida in a few weeks. Does anyone have any tips on how to search the database for caches near a specific highway(say I-55 for example)?

 

When we went to New England last summer I did many, many searches at about one degree intervals - tooK a REAL long time. I'm looking for something quicker and easier.

 

GoodHunting

[+Markwell]

I mention it a little here - but I'll update it a little here.

 

Method 1:

Use the maps on Geocaching.com. Start by searching for local caches and click the "map it" icon in the upper right. You should be able to zoom in and out until you get a comfortable level, and then you can pan for the route. At key points, you can also identify the caches, and download them by loc file.

 

Method Two:

Another mapping site, but you can't download a whole bunch of caches at once.

 

Method Three:

You need Microsoft Streets and Trips for this.

• First, you set up a pocket query or queries for the area you'll be searching. If you're passing through Colorado, download all the caches for the state. If the state has more than the 500 limit, either just download the portion of the state you'll be passing through (find the center and radius of that area using MS Streets and Trips).
• Once you receive your pocket query, use either Geobuddy or or Expert GPS or GPSBabel to translate the results of the query into Comma Delimited or MS Streets and Trips import file.
• In S&T, import the file using the data import feature. The caches will now show up on the map as black pushpins (you can change the map marker by right clicking on the file's name on the legend and left clicking on properties - I like the dark green dot).
• Set up a route using the Driving Directions (the car icon at the top).
• Once the route is displayed, right click on the route and "Show Information" along the route. You'll get a pane on the left that shows a "distance from route" at the bottom that you can change depending on how far off your path you're willing to go.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

[+ShaneN4Girls]

I do the same thing quite often (just don't get to find a lot of the caches I map...)

 

The only thing I would add to Markwell's post is to try Utopia for putting the cache lists together. It works with gpx and loc files, and can add multiple files of multiple formats together then export them to Streets & Trips in customizable csv files, allowing you to decide what to include in the export (I export cache type, cache ID, cache name placed by ? as one field, and the cache page web address as another field, along with long and lat).

 

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."- Jim Elliot

[+Touchstone]

Markwell's first method is what I used on our last trip and it seemed to work pretty well. The only drawback was that I couldn't get a GPX file that way to download to my PDA for the cache pages. Made some of the hunts a little more challenging

 

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. The rest go geocaching.

[+Corp Of Discovery]

We went on a month long trip a few months ago, Chicago-Florida-New York and back. The way I looked for them is thru the zip code. I knew what cities we would be going thru so I just entered those zip codes and picked the caches that looked most promising. Time was a big factor so we limited it to virtuals. We aren't a premiun member (yet!) so couldn't do pocket queries, but it seemed to work out fine. I picked 46 to go for and we got 37 of them.

 

Remember, wherever you go- there you are!

 

[This message was edited by Corp Of Discovery on October 10, 2003 at 04:14 PM.]

[+GoodHunting]

Cool! Tried method 3 for one state - worked great.

 

Thanks. (Now why didn't I think of that)

 

GoodHunting