Pocket Query Basics

One of the features of Premium Membership is the ability to create Pocket Queries. A Pocket Query gives you the ability to create a custom search that can either be viewed on the map or downloaded as a GPX file, which can be copied to your GPS receiver.

When I first started messing with Pocket Queries I wasn't quite sure what to think.  You can only run five queries per day, and each query is limited to a maximum of 1000 caches.  1000 caches seems like a lot, but seeing as my home state (Pennsylvania) currently has over 30,000 caches, it's just a drop in the bucket.  The ability to download the Pocket Queries as GPX files is handy, but when compared to a tool like GSAK (which itself is limited by the Geocaching API), again, it seems limited in scope.

However, with a little bit of tinkering and some patience, Pocket Queries can be one of the most powerful tools on the Geocaching website.  Some examples of what you can do:

• Create a daily query for new caches, giving you a map of FTF possibilities.  When combined with the Instant Notification premium feature, your chance of being first to find is greatly increased.


• Create a query for caches that contain trackable items, like Travel Bugs and Geocoins.  In this case, the 1000 cache query limit can still end up giving you a wide range.  In my case, if I run this query centered on my home zip code, I end up with a circle of caches almost 100 miles in diameter.


• You can create queries in overlapping circles, and then combine them in GSAK (works for everyone) or BaseCamp (if you have a Garmin GPS receiver).  This allows you to create a single GPX file every cache over a fairly large distance.  Compared to downloading caches via the Geocaching API in GSAK, Pocket Queries are faster by several orders of magnitude.  This topic is worthy of its own tutorial, and I'll be creating one soon.

In this tutorial, I'll be covering the basics of Pocket Queries.  I'll post more tutorials with more advanced topics at a later date.

Pocket Query Basics

A pocket query is simply a way to search for caches that meet specific criteria.  If you are browsing for caches with the Hide and Seek a Cache section of the Geocaching web site, you are limited to a pretty basic search based on location.  Pocket queries let you refine your search to look for caches in many other ways, e.g. all Puzzle Caches within 50 miles, or caches in Large containers with a difficulty greater than 3 within 10 miles of Philadelphia, or members only caches that have been not been found yet.

There are some limitations to keep in mind.  You are limited to 1000 results in a Pocket Query search, and you are limited to 5 Pocket Query searches per day.  As long as you understand these limitations, it's fairly easy to work around them.

The example used for this section is a simple search within a 15 mile radius of particular location - in this case, Mullica Hill, NJ.  This is one of the queries that I combine into my main weekly GPX file for my Garmin eTrex 20.

To follow along, bring up the Pocket Query section of the Geocaching web site.  NOTE - You must be a premium member to use this feature!

The first section of the page allows you to name your query and choose how often you want the query to run.  

• If this is a one time thing, e.g. a list of caches near a vacation destination that you won't be visiting again in the near future, you can select Run this query once then delete it.  
• If this is a query that you want to save for later, but it doesn't need to run on a recurring basis, click Uncheck the day of the week after the query runs.  If you want to run the query once, now, make sure that the current day of the week is checked.

This section also allows you to limit your results.  I always set this to the maximum, which is 1000.  I may someday have a need to search for fewer caches at the time, but today is not that day.

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The trick to effectively scheduling queries is to spread them out over several days and repeat ad infinitum.  In order to run my queries for my main GPX file, I run four basic queries centered on overlapping locations on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  That way, I can generate my GPX file any day of the week and have my date be off by four days at most.

The second section allows you to select which types of cache you are looking for.  In my case, I limit my results to Traditional, Multi, and Virtual caches.

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I am working on several Unknown puzzle type caches at the moment, but every one I have looked at shows a lot of information on the cache description page; much more that what would carry over in a GPX file.  If I want to create a separate Pocket Query for use on the Geocaching map of just Unknown caches sometime in the future, I can do that here.

The next section is self explanatory - container size.  I leave this as any container.

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The next section is actually the most challenging section of the bunch, as one check mark in the wrong spot can give you zero result queries.

Note the That (And) at the top of this section.  The "and" means that your cache results need to meet all of the checked requirements.  If you want to look for both Enabled and Disabled caches (if you are updating GSAK data, for example) and check both boxes, you will end up with zero results, as it's impossible for a cache to be both Enabled and Disabled at the same time.

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Likewise, if you want to find caches that you've already found, as well as caches that you haven't, you'll get zero results if you check both boxes. The Difficulty and Terrain boxes work in the same way, though you will likely still get results even if both have been changed to higher numbers.

As I use GSAK to tweak my GPX data (more info in a later post), I actually want to see both disabled and enabled caches.  If you are not intending to do anything other than copy the Pocket Query's GPX file straight over to your GPS, you'll want to check the Is Enabled checkbox.

If you're first starting out with Pocket Queries, it's a good idea to either practice with these settings a few times to see what to do to avoid zero result queries, or get in the habit of only choosing one item to search for - Is Enabled being the obvious choice.

The next section allows you to search within a specified location.  This is not the same as searching along a route, which will be covered in a later tutorial.  This simply means that you can search for caches within a specified radius from a point you set - e.g. 15 miles from your home town, or within a mile of specific map coordinates.

In this case, I'm simply using the zip code of the town that's the center of my query - Mullica Hill, NJ.

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The most important thing to be aware of in this section is the 1000 result limit.  I live in a heavily populated area, within 15 miles of a major city.  If I search for all caches within 15 miles of my house, I get more than 1000 results.  This means that if there are 1300 caches in that range, the query will only show the first 1000 and the remaining 300 go poof.  That may not sound like a big deal, but knowing my luck I'd happen to be 14.7 miles from home with my GPS only to discover that there are none in the area because they poofed due to my poorly thought out query.  The goal is to get as close to 1000 results without going over.

The trick to resolving this is to see how may results you receive and adjusting the radius of your search accordingly.  To do this, go back up to the top of the page, select a day of the week a few days in the future, scroll all the way back to the bottom of the page and click the Submit Information button.

The page that pops up will have a message showing you the total number of caches in your Pocket Query.  Setting the day a few days in advance means that the query won't actually run today and use up one of your five daily queries.

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I've already tweaked my query, so I know that a 15 mile radius from Mullica Hill results in pretty close to 1000 results.  As of this posting, it's 962.  Pocket queries take a few minutes to run, so if you are hitting the limit, adjust the query and submit it again to see if you're back under 1000.

You can do a few things:

• Make the search radius smaller.  Check 14 miles, then 13, etc... until you find a distance with less than 1000 in the result.
• Check for fewer types of caches.  Search for only Traditional caches instead of Traditional, Multi, and Virtual.  A ballpark estimate would be that 90% of the caches in my area are Traditional, and that 10% difference may knock you down below 1000 results.
• Likewise, limit your caches to ones of a certain size.  Hate micro and nano caches?  Now's your chance to stop seeing them in your results.  Simply check every type except Micro in the Selected Containers section of the query.  You may want to uncheck Unknown as well, as many nano hides are listed as Unknown.
• Limit your caches only to ones that are Enabled.  This is great if you're copying the GPX files right from the pocket query into your GPS, though if you use a tool like GSAK (as I do) this won't work all that well.
• Limit your query a bit by including or excluding caches with certain attributes (more details below).  Excluding caches near poisonous plants, ticks, or dangerous animals is probably a good idea anyway. 

Once you get things resolved, don't forget to go back up to the top of the page and change the day of the week back to whatever it was that you originally decided in the first place.

Almost done. The Placed During section allows you to look for only new caches, or all caches placed in May 2012, or caches from back in 2009 or whatever.  You get the idea.

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In this example I want everything, so I leave it set to None Selected.

The last major section allows you to select which cache attributes you want to include or exclude in your query.  From what I've seen, people are pretty spotty with using attributes, so unless you want to cut your results back a ton, leave this alone.  I mean, sure, you can exclude caches near poisonous plants, but based on the cache logs I've seen, this has been misidentified as a poisonous plant.

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The final section, Output To, allows you to select which email address to receive the GPX file - though the files are only actually attached if the queries are less than 500 results long.  You can change the file type from GPX to LOC, but only do this if your GPS is an older model and doesn't work with the GPX format.

Click the Submit Information button, confirm that the query gets results, and you're all set.

Now what?

Once your queries actually run, based on the schedule you set earlier in this tutorial, they will show up in your list of active Pocket Queries (my list is shown below).

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From this page, you can change the schedule or edit the settings for any of your current caches.   Note that in my case, I run my location searches (the first 4) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  See the distances?  Each of those was tested to ensure that it was under 1000 caches.  You can't tell from my query names, but I can get 15 miles from Mullica Hill (kind of rural), but only 15 kilometers (a little more than 9 miles) from Willow Grove (more developed).  There is no particular reason for my flip flopping between Metric and Imperial units - as long as I get to just under 1000 caches I don't care how it's measured.

Also note that I have queries set up for FTF possibilities and trackables.  Those will be detailed in another post.

If you click the Pocket Queries Ready for Download tab, you can click the link and download the ZIP files with your GPX files within.  Pocket Queries are available to download for a week, after which time they disappear.  As I have mine all set to run over and over every few days, none of them should ever be older than 4 days (3 days remaining).

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Simply copy those files to the appropriate folder in your GPS to load them.  Once loaded, they will be available as waypoints.  As each brand and model is a bit different I won't go into details here, but expect some information on the Garmin eTrex series here soon.

The last this in this tutorial is using Pocket Queries with the Geocaching map.  On the Geocaching site, click on Play - View Geocache Map to bring up the map.

On the upper left hand side of the map, you can switch from the regular Search window to the Pocket Queries view.

Simply click the query you wish to view, and your map icons will be limited to those caches within that particular query.  As each query should have approximately 1000 caches in it, you'll still see plenty of caches on your map.

This covers the basics of using Pocket Queries!  The information here went over basic queries, but with a little experimentation it's pretty easy setting up more advanced queries, like ones for FTF hunting or trackables.  Future posts will get into those topics in detail, as well as how to integrate Pocket Queries into GSAK.

If you have any further suggestions or comments for this post, feel free to leave them below.  Thanks for taking the time to read this, and happy cache hunting!