Catching up / backfilling

I'm in the process of creating the blog posts dating back through August 2012.  I am using my cache notes, as well as a journal I kept at the time, to generate the logs for the appropriate dates.  My comments at the time were based on what I knew then, not what I know now, so while it feels a bit odd to write about LPCs or guard rail caches like they are new things, that is indeed what I noted back in the day.

Over the next week or so I intend to complete as many backdated posts as possible, and then I'll be all caught up.  Going forward from that point, everything will be live and accurate.  I commented on this in my first post, but I want to be clear that the backdated posts are being created off of original notes and my journal, and I'm not just making crap up. :)

I'm also tinkering with the layout a bit, so don't be surprised if you find that things look different if you check back later.

UPDATE #1 - I'm about halfway through October now.  I did post a quick tutorial on how to use Google Maps to search for caches, and should have quite a bit more up here soon.

UPDATE #2 - I'm through October and into November.  I didn't get a lot of caching done over the holidays (and since), so I'm almost caught up.

UPDATE #3 - I'm pretty much caught up.  I have one more backdated draft post, and then everything going forward is live.  The backdated post is a fairly comprehensive and may take a day or two to put together, but that's it.

I have a few other drafts in the works, but they are not related to any particular date, so I'll just post 'em as I make 'em. Woohoo!

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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).

Click to enlarge.

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).

Click to enlarge.

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!

Using Google Maps to Find Geocaches

Part of my hesitation in originally trying Geocaching was my lack of a GPS.  I had a cheap TomTom in my car, but it was unsuitable for caching (believe me, I tried).  At best, it could get me to a nearby parking area; the worst it did was try to place me on a highway overpass, rather than the road underneath where the cache was hidden.

I've seen the Geocaching.com blog post about the guy who does everything with maps, but honestly, my map skills and patience for the technique are not that good.  I did manage to find my first 20 or so caches without GPS, though, simply using Google Maps.  This gave me enough of a taste for caching that I decided to commit to it and eventually invest in a GPS receiver (though I ended up getting one for my birthday instead - woohoo!)  It's a great way to learn about caching without spending a dime, and the challenges of using a map instead of a GPS add an additional element of "fun".

This is not difficult to do, but I'm posting a short tutorial with pictures for anyone interested.  I'm still pretty new at this, and I love hearing about people discovering this hobby.  If this helps get you out and caching, all the better!

Important - please note that this method works best in an area with landmarks.  It's pretty easy to identify light pole caches or guard rail caches with this method, and bushes and trees are pretty easy to spot if the area is not too overgrown.  I would not recommend doing this for caches in the woods, however.  This works well in urban or suburban areas: parking lots, shopping centers, and the like.

GPS Accuracy Issues

Also note that the coordinates listed on the Geocaching web site are only as accurate as the GPS used to get the coordinates in the first place!  The rule of thumb is that the coordinates get you within 30 feet / 9 meters, so even if you follow these steps exactly, you may only end up close to the cache.

Additionally, GPS accuracy is limited by both the original cache owner's coordinates and your own GPS accuracy.  If their coordinates were off by 30 feet when they submitted the cache, and you're 30 feet off from their original coordinates due to your GPS, you're now 60 feet away!   As you gain experience, you'll rely less on the GPS and more on what you've learned, and even if you have a state of the art GPS, it's still a good idea to scope out the satellite view first and look for landmarks in advance.

STEP 1 - Choose the cache

Visit Geocaching.com and look for a cache that you want to find.  For this example, we'll use an archived cache so I'm not giving any spoilers away - Avoid the Noid, which was archived back in September of 2012.  I'd also like to thank the owner, ngauger, for permission to use this cache as an example.

STEP 2 - Copy the coordinates

Highlight the GPS coordinates with your mouse and copy them.  I use Ctrl-C, but you can just as easily Right click and select Copy.

Copy the coordinates from the circled area.

STEP 3 - Enter the coordinates in Google Maps

Visit the Google Maps web site, paste the coordinates into the search area, and hit Enter.

STEP 4 - Adjust the map to show the cache

You'll notice that Google Maps shows two markers - the red pushpin "A" marker, and a green arrow.  The coordinates that you entered are always the green arrow. The red pushpin shows the closest business nearby, so in this case we can see it's a Domino's Pizza (remember the old "Avoid the Noid" commercials from the '80s?).

If you are seeing the street map, rather than the satellite view, click the square in the upper right hand corner that says "Satellite". 

  

Zoom in as close as possible.  By default, Google Maps now tilts to a nifty 45 degree aerial shot when you zoom close, but that's not always going to be very helpful.  Move your mouse over to the top right button that now says Map and uncheck the 45° symbol.

Make sure that 45° is unchecked.

STEP 5 - Look for landmarks

The image below shows the cache area, zoomed in as far as it can go.  As mentioned above, the green arrow shows the location of the GPS coordinates that you entered into Google Maps.

Zoomed in, flat view.  The green arrow is the location of the cache.

Look for landmarks within the picture.  In this case, we can see at least three trees (maybe two large trees and a big bush) to the east side of the building.  We can also see that the cache is pretty close to the northeast corner of the building.

Some landmarks to look for:

• Anything in a row, e.g. trees, light poles, telephone poles, etc...  If the cache is near one of them, simply count down the row until you get there - i.e. Second light pole in the third row of cars in a parking lot.
• Landmarks within line of sight - Is there a water tower or cellular antenna tower nearby?  Are you within sight of one corner of a large building?  You can use the visible landmarks to triangulate your position.
• You may be able to use the printed copy of this image (Step 6 below) to help triangulate position.  Use a ruler and pencil to draw lines intersecting the cache with the tall landmarks.
• In parks, look for ground markings on sports fields.  Does the cache line up to the third base line? (I found one this way)  Also look for bleachers, goal posts, or anything else to help get your bearings.
• Lone objects in otherwise empty areas.  I found a cache under a bench, which was the only thing visible on the Google Map.  Honestly, I couldn't tell it was a bench from the satellite photo, but when I got to ground zero it was easy to spot.

Here's another example from a different cache:

In this case, the green arrow isn't pointing at anything in particular, but it's really, really close to a light pole.  As mentioned above, GPS accuracy is an issue.  In this case, it makes sense to check the light pole before expanding your search area.

Another example from a different cache:

Note that the green arrow is pretty close to several trees off of a dirt road.  You can bet that the cache is in one of the trees, but you probably should actually go to GZ to get a better sense of where the hide may be.

And here's one that's probably too difficult to find without a GPS:

Yeah, good luck finding this one.

Note the lack of landmarks in this picture.  I mean, you can see the roads, but there are a lot of trees, and not much information in this image to differentiate between them.  You can barely tell from the image above, but there's also a stream in the vicinity.  When you switch to the Map view from the Satellite view, you see this:

I actually looked for this one with a GPS and still couldn't find it.  It's since been archived.

The location of the arrow looks like it may be on the west side of the stream, but with GPS accuracy it could really be on either side.  Note that there are still no other landmarks to work with, so unless you feel like putting on waders and working your way up and down both sides of the stream, it's probably a good idea to look for a different cache.

STEP 6 - Print the image and go find the cache!

You can print this image by clicking the little printer icon in the upper left of the window.  The little chain link thing lets you copy the web site permalink for email / posting / etc...

Print the cache description and hints as well, along with a few recent cache logs.  It's probably a good idea to review more logs to gather any more clues that you may need.

Now get out there and find the cache!

OPTIONAL STEP - Use Google Street View to get more information

You've done all that you really need to do, but the more information, the better.  Let's check to see if there is any Street View images that can help us.

Please note that the pin that shows up on Street View can be much less accurate than the pin viewed from overhead.  Also note that Street View is not available in many areas, places like large parking lots, and anywhere off road.

Using the original "Avoid the Noid" cache as an example again:

So we know that the cache is somewhere near the northeast corner of the building, but before you go to visit the cache you may want to check out the Street View of the area to get a better idea of what to expect. 

Click and drag the little Street View guy over to the nearest road.  As long as the road turns blue when you hover over it, Street View images are available.

Drag this guy over to the closest road.

Drag the mouse around until you see the pushpins, and zoom in if you need to.  You should end up seeing something like this:

The pushpin to the left, with the GPS coordinates, shows the location of the cache.

The pin to the left, marked with the GPS coordinates, is the location of the cache (or nearby).  It's difficult to see in this picture, but there is a guard rail right near that marker.  The hint for the cache was "Look by the tree", and sure enough, the cache was located just past the tree, in the guardrail.

Final Thoughts

Obviously a GPS receiver, or even a smartphone, makes things much easier, but if you don't have access to them it's still pretty easy to go caching.  So... what are you waiting for?  :)

Happy Late New Year Wishes!

Happy new year!  I hope everyone had a fun holiday.

Not so much fun here - I picked up the flu (I blame Jack) on New Year's Eve and spent all of January 1, and most of the 2nd and 3rd in bed.  When I went to the doctor's on Thursday I found out that I dropped almost 20 pounds (not a bad deal, really... I've been getting chunky) over the past 4 days or so, though a lot of that was water weight.  I did get a flu shot in early November, for what it's worth.

Obviously I have been unable to cache, and honestly I don't think I'll be up for anything more difficult than walking for at least the next few days, and since I missed several days of work this week I'll be super busy next week and caching won't be an option.

I'll keep working one some upcoming posts in the meantime, but not right now.  I seriously need to get back to bed.

Running out of easy local caches!

Aside from the single car family issue that we're dealing with right now, I'm bumping into a problem that's really impacting how often I get to go out and cache.

I have run out of easy, local caches on any of the routes that I use to travel to and from both work sites.

Exhibit A - the caches near where I live:

The one green icon cache on the map is called Cookies, and it's currently disabled. I even went looking for it after 3 people with over 10,000 finds between them logged DNFs.

Exhibit B - the caches near where I work:

In this case, I have everything that's close to work, and the ones that are within my longer range driving area are all ones that I need to devote some time to, and right now, with one car, I'm not even taking lunch breaks  so as not to log too few hours at work.

I like that I've managed to pick up all of the shopping center LPCs and guard rail caches along the Blue Route and Rt. 320, and all of the easy hides along Lancaster Ave., but now that I've had a few weeks with almost no caching time, I really miss being able to just stop by something on the way to work.  Sure, those type of hides are not exactly a challenge, but they are still caches, and they still require stealth and ingenuity to pick them up.  Without practice I fear that I'll soon revert back into my normal bumbling giant ways and have to start over from scratch again.

I guess I'm really just whining, and on top of that, I really miss caching.  Blogging about caching is a poor substitute for getting out and finding caches, but it's all I have at the moment I guess.

Oh well, whining session over.  With the holidays right around the corner I'm pretty busy outside of work anyway, and at least I get to focus on my plans for my new hides.  I've been planning a really neat multi hide, and if I'm trapped in the house I may as well make the most of it.

12-12-12

Just a quick post.  I haven't had a chance to get out caching in a few weeks, and it looks like we're going to be a single car family for at least he short term, which puts a damper on things.

I was able to pick up two quick caches today up at the Plymouth Meeting Metroplex shopping center.  My wife and I both had  the day off, but she needed to stop by her work for a little while.  My parents had reminded me about the 12-12-12 souvenir, and since I had an hour to kill I picked up an LPC right in the middle of the main parking area near Best Buy, and another hide around the back of the shopping complex.  Easy peasy.

With the holidays right around the corner and one car available for both my wife and I, I don't expect that I'll get much caching done until January at the earliest.  This isn't really a bad deal, as it gives me time to get more work done on some new cache containers (Pac-Man, Joust, and Plants vs. Zombies) and get more material together for the blog.

Caches in this post:

• Camp Pns Still Hungry
• Food 4 Thought

On solo caching

I haven't been able to cache for a little while, due to the holidays and work schedule, but I've still been frequenting the forums, checking blogs, and watching YouTube videos about caching.  One thing I've been wondering about is how many people cache solo, vs. how many people cache in groups.

I'm a solo cacher.  Not totally by choice, mind you - I'd be perfectly happy to go caching with a local sometime, but I don't happen to know any of the local cachers.  I've cached with my dad and my father-in-law, and occasionally Emily mentions that she'd like to take a short caching day trip on a weekend (when we have time), but aside from Jack joining me on some weekends, I really just cache by myself.

A lot of what I like about caching is the solitude.  When I first found the Springfield Trail, my favorite part of the discovery was that there was nobody there.  Nobody was in the park on the way to the trail, nobody was on the trail, and I had this whole private nature area to myself.

Now, I know that people go back there. I saw some bike tracks and footprints in the dirt, and the path was pretty clear of leaves and debris, but just having that 20 minutes of privacy was awesome.

There have been plenty of hides where a second set of eyes would be useful, though...  Dunno.  Maybe I'll look for a local event, just to meet some of the people whose Geocaching names have become so familiar.  That would be neat, and for some hides at least, it would be great to combine skills and brainpower and whatnot.