Geocaching - what's your simplest way to get best details?

 

Geocaching - wouldn't it be better if they imported from the Garmin webbrowser plugin as Extra POIs not Favorites?

that's the initial thought I'd had. but really I'm looking for the streamlined solution.

We've tested this out only a couple of times on my 750, it's cool, but as you know, using the Garmin website to import the geocaches gives you favorites listed with the obscure code number and lat/long, but no extra information, like the hints from the titles.

you know what I mean. so you have to sync, repeat your search, then edit the geocache locations in Favorites (which now clutter up your list and aren't really favorites smile to put that info back in, or just hope that hint (like "look up") is either remembered ages later or not that important.

So then I look at how nice out POIs come in and how they can be in their own little group and think, how nice that could be.

of course then we'd all delete our existing POIs during the sync because they wouldn't be in the same folder as the web broswers new geocache ones.

so what IS the easy way to do that?

If am i missing an obvious export/save from Garmin--> drop in poi folder --> sync solution, if so i am sorry I was about to go to bed but was reading the site and thought I'd just post now) Or would that work?

okay then , comments?

Wrong tool

the 750 is the wrong tool for geocaching,
you want to get yourself a handheld GPS.

Choosing The Best Geocaching GPS For You
http://www.squidoo.com/BestGeocachingGPS

Geocaching Do's & Dont's
http://www.treadlightly.org/page.php/news-pressrelease/Press...

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Using Android Based GPS.The above post and my sig reflects my own opinions, expressed for the purpose of informing or inspiring, not commanding. Naturally, you are free to reject or embrace whatever you read.

Wrong tool - agreed

I sometimes send a location to my nüvi as a Favorite to get me close to where the site is, but I use a handheld which is more suited for geocaching. I also print the page and carry it with me for reference and as a newbie to geocaching, I would like to have that in hand should the local constable want to know why I'm snooping around in his city park.

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"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

Use a tool like GeePeeEd Editor

megawatson wrote:

Geocaching - wouldn't it be better if they imported from the Garmin webbrowser plugin as Extra POIs not Favorites?

Having the plugin add to your POIs instead of Favorites would be too complicated.

The way I handle this is with GeePeeEx editor. Step One - Import Favorites. Step Two - Merge with an existing POI file or save as a new POI file. Step 3 - Delete them from Favorites.

If you are proactive, you can grab the files that the plugin creates in the Garmin\GPX folder and import them into an existing or new POI file BEFORE they are imported into your Favorites. Then delete the individual GPX files before you boot up the Nuvi.

Either way will preserve the grouping that you have in your POI folders.

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The "Send to GPS" function from both the Garmin website and the Geocaching.com website will only send the Waypoint ID (the GC number) and the coordinates to the GPS unit. In order to get other information such as the Cache name, hint, difficulty/terrain ratings, etc., you must use software on your computer to process the data before it is sent to the GPS unit.

GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) is one such software. Also, in order to get the additional data, you need to be a Premium Member of Geocaching.com

Check out this site for information on how to export the cache information and load them as Custom POIs instead of (or in addition to) Waypoints/Favories.

http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html

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To answer your initial question, the Garmin Communicator plug-in and POI Loader interact with the GPS unit in different ways. I don't know all the ins and outs of the programming, but I doubt that it would be possible to have them be Custom POIs. And even if it were technically possible, it wouldn't be practical because the Garmin Communicator plug-in only can send one location at a time as opposed to loading a group of locations at the same time like POI Loader does.

My Nuvi 250 and I have done

My Nuvi 250 and I have done a lot of geocaching. With the Pilotsnipe way you don't even have to carry paper.

You don't have to be a premium member...but there are more hoops

Motorcycle Mama wrote:

<snip>

GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) is one such software. Also, in order to get the additional data, you need to be a Premium Member of Geocaching.com

<snip>

If you have a card reader and can make the Garmin Communicator put the caches on a card, then you can zip those into a .zip file and load the zip into GSAK. This method gets all the info the same as being a premium member but its free and a little more difficult.

I'm a fan of GSAK myself.

I'm a fan of GSAK myself. Such a great tool for geocaching!

Premium membership plus custom tools

With the inexpensive premium membership ($3/mo), I get to setup pocket queries. I have a couple of queries that run every week, automatically emailing me GPX files with my nearest not-yet-found caches. I added a procmail filter to extract the zip attachments when the emails arrive, a makefile to extract the GPX files from those, and to run a Perl program to parse them, move the cache description to the waypoint description field (so it shows up with the "More" button on my C580), and sort them into individual GPX files based on the cache type (also trimming duplicates from multiple queries). I'm hoping to have this part fully automated soon.

For now, I'm still using POI Loader to generate the gpi file, but I'll start playing around with gpsbabel soon to see if it can do the job. Then I'll do everything from a cron job and just have to copy the file to my GPSrs when done.

The point is, I don't want to do any pointy-clicky work. I could even get fancy enough to add hotplug rules so when I plug in my GPSrs they'll automatically be updated. The premium membership is a great value to me simply for the pocket queries.