Mar 16/2010
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Geocache Activity 606 |
FIND 550 |
IDENTIFICATION
Difficulty 1; Terrain 1.5; size small Creator: Elementry Date First Hidden: 2/14/2010 Date Last Found: 3/14/2010 Description This One Cried out for a game piece. Happy Hunting. Welcome to the Crowsnest Pass Nestled in the southwest corner of Alberta, the Crowsnest Pass offers all the amenities you need to live, work and play here! Friendly people, good facilities, great restaurants, unique shopping and services, and a quality of life bar none! The breathtaking scenery of the majestic Rocky Mountains is your backdrop as you enjoy the numerous Geo-caching opportunities. Hint X marks the spot. Comments
PLANNING
I was eager to begin today's activities. Yesterday I learned how to use geocaching.com's "Create Pocket Query" to obtain all the caches along a route (in this case Highway 3 between Pincher Creek and Sparwood). This gave me a total of 49 caches to search. This was a .loc file. (The geocaching.com website says that I should be able to obtain this as a .gpx file but I have not been able to figure out how to do this yet.) I then had to convert this to a .gpx file using a program called GPSBabel. I then used a program called Garmin Road Trip to see these caches located on a map on my Mac. This is the same map that my Garmin nuvi uses for its display. This gave me a clear picture of the location of each cache along the highway before I set out. I then downloaded these caches as a .gpx file to a file folder on the Mac desktop and I dragged this folder to the Garmin nuvi (in the folder called GPX) which was hooked up to the Mac. This may seem like a lot of work, and it is, but it is still much better than having to load each of the 49 web sites individually into the nuvi.
I took along my BT-335 data logger, my Garmin nuvi, my camera and my iPhone. I did not make any notes as I assumed I would be able to use my iPhone to obtain the cache descriptions and details. I also did not make any notes about the sequence of searching as I assumed the nuvi would always indicate which cache was the next nearest and that would work satisfactorily as I was basically following a linear route.
OUTCOME
This was my 8th search of the day. This was a neat hide. There were a lot of possibilities, but simply walking around the structure and looking for an X made it a relatively easy find. Clever. Here is my posting to the geocaching.com website:
The hint was useful. Thank you. TNLNSL.
Here are a few photos:
entrance to Crowsnest Pass
X
containerI am now 5/8 for today.
