Day Five - Caches along a route/Pocket Queries/GSAK

Congratulations to AnnapolisMG for scoring the last of the Bonus caches!

Today, Hostelers delved into the software that can help them plan there caching trips as well as add some geocaching to their other travels. We downloaded and installed Google Earth. This online mapping tool can be lots of fun for getting a birds eye view of our world, but it's primary use in geocaching is creating a route we can use to generate a list of caches along a route.

Hostelers used Google Earth to plan a route to there next destination, then we used that file to run a "Pocket Query" on geocaching.com. A pocket query is generates a .gpx file of gecaches which is emailed to our own email account. That files is then opened using GSAK.

We discussed the differences between EasyGPS and GSAK, primarily that GSAK is a more powerful and versatile program. We also discussed the differences between the .loc files we used on Tuesday when we when to Live Oak, and the .gpx files we were working with today. The .loc files contain only the waypoint name and number and the coordinates, while the .gpx file contains all of the information on the cache page.

We then set up GSAK to load Waypoint in our GPS with more useful information. On the GPS menu in GSAK, select "Send Waypoints". On that window, "Use Defaults" should NOT be checked. Under Waypoint name, the following text should be entered - "%drop2%typ1%con1%bug". Under Waypoint Description, enter "%smart/%hint" (do not enter quotes). Click here for an image.

This configuration will cause GSAK to drop the "GC" at the beginning of every Waypoint number and add information at the end that will tell you what type of cache you are looking for (T=Traditional, M=Multi, etc) and what size the container is (M=micro, R=regular, s=small, L=large). It will also shorten the cache name and add the hint to it in your GPS. This why you already have most of the useful information about the cache in your GPS without referring to the cache page.

Following our discussion of some of the other capabilities of GSAK, we explored some of the variations of geocaching, such as Waymarking, Benchmarking, and Terracaching.