Finding Caches Along a Route in Alberta
Updated 2010/11/01
Links to Route Pocket Queries for selected Alberta highways are also provided.
This page is divided into five sections:
- ARC files for selected Alberta Highways
- KML files for selected Alberta Highways
- Route Pocket Queries for selected Alberta Highways
- How To Create Pocket Queries for all Active caches in Alberta
- GoogleMap of Routes
ARC files for selected Alberta Highways
Instructions for loading the arc files are at GSAK.net. The colors match the map legend (click) at the bottom of this page.
Using arc filters requires that you have a GSAK database with all the caches for the area you'll be travelling. It allows for filtering in GSAK and searching more than 8km (5 miles) from a route which is the limit with the Geocaching.com "User Route Pocket Queries".
KML files for selected Alberta Highways
The GoogleEarth kml files below can be uploaded at the Caches along a Route page on Geocaching.com or used in the arc filter function in GSAK. The colors match the map legend (click) at the bottom of this page.
Route Pocket Queries for selected Alberta Highways
Following are instructions for setting up Route Pocket Queries on Geocaching.com to obtain geocaches along selected highways in Alberta. You must be a premium member of Geocaching.com to use the Pocket Query feature.
An undocumented feature on Geocaching.com allows sharing of Pocket Query settings as per this post by Jeremy Irish .
To save these as your own queries click the link to open the query page then use the "Submit Information" button at the bottom of the page to save it as your query.
Note that these are set up for caches within 8km of the route except where this returns more than 500 (the maximum allowed) geocaches. In these cases the distance has been reduced. The colors match the map legend (click) at the bottom of this page.
How To Create Pocket Queries for all Active Geocaches in Alberta
Below are instructions for setting up Pocket Queries on Geocaching.com to obtain all the active geocaches in Alberta. These are very handy when you want to find caches along a route on a road trip anywhere in Alberta. You must be a premium member of Geocaching.com to use the Pocket Query feature.
Alberta has exceeded 10,000 active geocaches so 20 or more queries will be required if you have them emailed to you. Alternately you can set up the query to return a maximum of 1000 caches but it can only be downloaded from a link on your Pocket Query page (link)
The Pocket Query below is intended as an example on how to use "Date Placed" to return all caches within a geographic area and will return up to about 490 (500 is the maximum allowed for emailed PQs) geocaches. All pocket queries exclude caches that have been archived.
An undocumented feature on Geocaching.com allows sharing of Pocket Query settings as per this post by Jeremy Irish . To save this as your own query click the link to open the query page then use the "Submit Information" button at the bottom of the page to save it.
You will need to copy this PQ several times using the Copy button on the Pocket Query page and changing the date range as required until you have a series of PQs covering all possible dates. For example the date ranges of the first five of my PQs currently are:
Alberta01(20000101_20050522)Your date ranges will be different due to the number of caches requested in the query and which other parameters were slected when setting up the queries.
Alberta02(20050523_20060420)
Alberta03(20060421_20061025)
Alberta04(20061026_20070615)
Alberta05(20070616_20071006)
A message shown after pocket query submission indicates the number of caches which will be returned (at the top of the page) so when you set the date range and summit the changes you do not have to preview the pocket query to see how many caches are returned.
If you're using GSAK you will receive a warning when any query reaches 500 caches. At that point you'll have to create another pocket query to capture the newest caches.
The number of caches in each older PQ will decrease over time as caches are archived and(or) if you've set them up to exclude caches that you have found. For GSAK users once you have the initial set of Pocket Queries populating a database you can use a GSAK macro to periodically figure out adjusted dates for maintaining each PQ at close to 500 caches. The macro examines caches in a GSAK database not online from Geocaching.com. This macro can be downloaded from the Macro Library on the GSAK forums.
MAP
Click and drag to repostion the "Routes" box as required.
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