Caches Along a Route

[Cheesehead Dave]

Hey… did you notice the new tool on GC.com for finding caches along a route?

It’s pretty handy. You need Google Earth to generate your route which you save as a KML file. You can then upload that file to the link above and generate a Pocket Query to get the caches along that route.

Once you upload a route, you can also add a description and keywords and make it public for others to search for and use.

Note that you need to be a Premium Member to use this feature.

If you’re not into making KML files, I’ve started to work on a route database for Wisconsin. It’s nowhere near complete yet, but I thought I’d show off what’s there so far. You can pick a starting point and a destination and get either a link to a KML file which you can do what you want with (hint: GSAK also lets you import KML files to use as filters) or get a link to to route in GC.com.

I’d also like to add a separate list of “speciality” routes, such as the Ice Age Trail, or memorial routes such as Highway 32.

Hopefully my tool can be of help to catalog popular routes in the state. I still need to fill in many of the routes, so don’t be surprised if the from/to combo you pick isn’t listed yet. If you happen to come up with a missing route, please drop me a PM with a link and I’ll be happy to incorporate it into the database.

[abcdmCachers]

Very cool. What distance from the route does it use to determine if a cache is included or not? Is that configurable? This seems like a hidden feature – is there a link to the routing page anywhere? I looked in my account, my pocket queries, etc. but couldn’t find one.

Doug

[Cheesehead Dave]

I’ve added instructions to the page for using the GC.com tool and GSAK.

In a nutshell:
If you use the GC.com tool, your ultimate result is a Pocket Query containing caches along the selected route. You are presented with the usual PQ options, with an additional one for selecting the distance from the route.

If you use GSAK, one of the filtering criteria is distance from the imported route.

[Ray]

Wis Highway 32 has been done for a while:
http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=e5c97077-33dc-439f-918c-d7a9aeb3dc99

[Team Deejay]

Pretty neat. Are they going to post a link somewhere on the site so people can find it? (Maybe while they are at it, they could create a link to the cache adoption page!) I only see one problem with this. The list appears to be sorted by the distance from the route, i.e. caches within 0.1 miles of the route are listed before caches that are 0.2 miles from the route. (Or maybe it is just some kind of GC.Com Bizzarro World sort that I am too dense to pick up on.) This results in nearly a random ordering of the caches. Of course, if you are downloading the PQ into a database, this is not problem, but if you are not….. Maybe they could add a few sort options while they are developing it (Longitude, Latitude, D/T, Date placed, date last found come to mind as nice sorting options).

[Cheesehead Dave]

I’d guess the assumption is that if you’re downloading a pocket query, you’re probably shuttling it into some piece of software, so the order of the results doesn’t really matter. All my queries go straight into GSAK, so I couldn’t care less what order they are in the GPX file. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen questions about the PQ sort order before and I think that’s always been the response.

I think the route tool is still a “public beta”, as the only place it is mentioned is the “Caches along a route” thread in the GC.com Website Forum. Jeremy (the Irish one) is asking for people to use it and find bugs and places for improvements.

[djwini]

i logged onto GC today to check a PQ and the new link for caches along a route was there. along with instructions. when looking at it, i saw all the routes posted by the cheeseheads. nice work. this should make traveling and caching a lot easier.

[Cheesehead Dave]

@djwini wrote:

i logged onto GC today to check a PQ and the new link for caches along a route was there. along with instructions. when looking at it, i saw all the routes posted by the cheeseheads. nice work. this should make traveling and caching a lot easier.

Thanks! Don’t forget, I have all the routes I’ve created filed here for easy searching.

[hogrod]

@Cheesehead Dave wrote:

Hey… did you notice the new tool on GC.com for finding caches along a route?
Note that you need to be a Premium Member to use this feature.

guess I’m slow, I didn’t notice this new feature until yesterday. very nice!

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