How-to Find Caches Along A Travel Route

[+hoovman]

Have you ever planned a trip and wanted a list of caches along the way that weren't far off your travel route?

 

If you're a premium member, you can use the mapping tool to easily do this.

 

Do a zip code search for the city/town you are starting at. (If you're not starting from home, you can look up zip codes by city/state here )

 

On the search results page, click the MapIt button in the upper right:

 

 

Pan the map until you find the road/street/freeway you'll be on. Zoom in/out until the map shows the road and about the distance you're willing to travel off your route. Use the "pan a direction" tabs around the outside of the map to follow your path along your route. (Remember there are Pan NW, Pan NE, Pan SW, and Pan SE tabs at the corners too, but they're invisible until you move the mouse over them).

 

When you see a cache or caches close enough to your route, click the Identify radio button below the map, then click on/near the cache. You'll get a listing of nearest caches, with the one you clicked at the top of the list.

 

Open any interesting caches in a new window, then continue on panning along your route.

 

I did this for a weekend trip with 3 other people and was able to bring up a bunch of virtuals that we all enjoyed.

 

I hope you find this tip helpful.

Edited May 25, 2005 by hoovman

[+PDOP's]

The "Map It" function only has maps for the USA

[+vree]

markwell has a nice step by step process too: Caches on a Route

 

if you go on a long trip and/or through a more cache saturated area, this may be a good way to do it... that way you don't have to go through and identify as many caches.

for short trips, i do like panning the map, identifying, and reading through the cache descriptions.

[+hoovman]

markwell has a nice step by step process too: Caches on a Route

 

if you go on a long trip and/or through a more cache saturated area, this may be a good way to do it... that way you don't have to go through and identify as many caches.

for short trips, i do like panning the map, identifying, and reading through the cache descriptions.

Interesting technique Markwell has there. Might be a bummer for Mac users, as it relies on Microsoft Streets & Trips which I don't think runs on Mac.

[+sbell111]

I love using MS S&T and MapPoint, but surely there is good mapping software for a Mac, isn't there?

 

On a completely off-topic side note, why would anyone buy a Mac if software wasn't available or as good?

[+hoovman]

On a completely off-topic side note, why would anyone buy a Mac if software wasn't available or as good?

PLEASE don't start that war here. At the very least, take it to the off-topic forum!

Edited May 25, 2005 by hoovman

[+Markwell]

And of course - the Map It panning and zoom feature only works for Premium Members...

[+vree]

actually, you could use "The Markwell Technique" with just about any mapping program. find your circles and choose your locations to do your PQ. GSAK will let you export the waypoints to tons of different mapping programs... the idea is really kind of independent of the mapping program.

[+sbell111]

PLEASE don't start that war here. ...

The point of my post could actually be found in the first sentence, not the second.

[+Team Dromomania]

Last year I took my first 3 week vacation ever and used it for a road trip. Of course I wanted to nab geocaches in every state we passed through (ended up with 15 states). I used the mapping tool to locate those caches. Do you know how long it takes to map out a 5,500 mile trip for caches using that method? I do.

[+DAS&SAS]

My wife and I have been on three weekend trips since we started geocaching a little over a month ago (maybe it's two months now?)

 

We used her treo phone/hand held and our gps to locate caches while on the road. We would pull over the interstate and use the gps to get our current location, then use gc.com to search for near by caches.

 

Now that we are PMs we use the pocket searches