Geocache filters allow you to view the geocaches loaded on your GPS which match the criteria of a filter that you create, especially useful with the newer units like the Oregon x50 and GPSMAP 78 which support up to 5,000 geocaches. For example, if you want to view only traditional caches which are micros that have a difficulty between 3 and 5 you can now create a filter on your GPS to do this.

Filters can be based on any combination of the following geocache parameters:

* Type: Any combination of Traditional, Multi, Puzzle, Letterbox, Event, Mega-Event, CITO Event, EarthCache, Wherigo, Virtual, WebCam.

* Size: Any combination of Micro, Small, Regular, Large, Other, Not Chosen.

* Difficulty: Range between 1 and 5

* Terrain: Range between 1 and 5

* Status: Any combination of Found, Unattempted, Did Not Find.

via Garmin Oregon/Dakota Beta Adds Geocache Filtering.

we’ve been lucky enough to avoid such a close situation, but still….

a seven year old boy was bitten by a rattlesnake while visiting The Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. There has also been a large increase in dog versus snakes this year. leading to expensive vet bills. While these incidents are not directly related to geocaching, it is important to know that you can avoid being a snakebite victim.

via Hazards of geocaching: rattlesnakes.

if only i could volunteer  some folks for this service….

BBC News – Dangerous psychiatric patients tracked with GPS.

New features were recently added to the geocaching.com website:

Lost & Found

The full Lost & Found companion site is live! Visit the site to watch videos (more added each week) and share your own geocaching story with the community. You can also nominate logs written by other geocachers by visiting the log on the cache page and clicking “Nominate this log as a Lost & Found story”.

Official Blog of Geocaching.com

The new blog, Latitude 47, is now live and features regular content about geocaching and geocaching-related news. Check it out and be sure to vote in the weekly caption contest to win a barely-coveted geocaching prize!

Trackables Collection

Has the list of Trackables you are “holding” grown out of control? For those of you with a collection of geocoins or mileage-tracker bugs we have added a new virtual collection to your profile. More information can be found in the Trackables Collection knowledge book.

For the full list of New Features and Bug Fixes, check out the Release Notes.

Geocaching.com is closely monitoring their site, and if you make too many hits in a short period they will “throttle” your account you will receive a message telling you to slow down and your access will be limited for a period of time. If you continue to hit the site rapidly, your account could be closed. You therefore should only use AddLogs when you cannot get the logs in any other way, and if you have multiple caches to update, you should do no more than a 3-4 caches, than wait an hour or so, then do a few more, to spread the load on the gc.com servers and minimize the risk that you will trigger throttling of your account.

Pocket Queries are the approved method for updating your database and AddLogs is not a substitute for Pocket Queries. Pocket Queries from Geocaching.com contain the last 5 logs added to the cache, plus your own. If you run a regular e.g. weekly Pocket Query for caches “I own”, you will get most of the logs. GPX file downloads from the individual cache page contain the last 20 logs plus your own, so if one of your caches gets more than five but less than 20 logs between PQ’s, you can get the others by downloading the GPX file from the individual cache page. Once you have the past logs on your caches i.e. more than 20 logs ago, you should only need to run AddLogs very occasionally e.g. once every month or two to pick up any logs you may have missed.

via GSAK -> Add Missing Logs to Caches You Own.

Test that firmware:

A software glitch knocked out some 10,000 of the military’s GPS receivers earlier this year, according to a new report by The Associated Press. Coming just days after the Air Force launched its first satellite as part of an upgraded GPS constellation, the report raises new questions about the military’s growing reliance on the popular space-based navigation system.

The problems were tied to new software installed Jan. 11 on thousands of new receivers. The software, which was provided by a California company, had not been tested before installation, the Air Force told AP.

via Report: GPS Glitch Crippled Scores of Military Devices – AOL News.

Mark your calendars for September 18! Let's gather again to say goodbye to summer and hello to fall with a potluck meet-n-greet, Saturday, September, 18th, from Noon til 3 pm. We have reserved a group picnic area in the Oak Flat Picnic Ground, in the beautiful Cibola National Forest. It is in the east mountain area, south of Tijeras, off of HWY 337.

Link to the cache page ~ GC299XF

Link to the cache page ~ GC27DDZ

New GSAK macro that solves the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) for up to 23 caches.  With a little filtering and a couple of joins, you could come up with a decent cache run.

GSAK -> Fastest Route Finder.

from the groundspeak forums:

PQ1K

Our fearless leader made a promise some weeks ago, and by extension issued a challenge to the web team: Make PQ generation stable enough to increase the per-PQ cache limit. The challenge was accepted with not a little apprehension at first — after all, the PQ generator had already been under an extremely heavy load, and “now you want us to deliver more!?” — but in the end it came together and PQ generation time was cut in half. With the PQ generator now stable, we can comfortably increase the per-PQ cache limit to 1000.

Some specifics:

• If you change nothing about the way you use PQs you will not be affected by this change
• PQs requesting between 501-1000 caches will be available as a file download only, although we will still notify you by email when it is ready
• PQs with less than 501 caches will be emailed as attachments and available as a file download
• PQs will remain available for download a maximum of 7 days from the date it was generated

My Finds PQs are no longer sent as email attachments, but will be available as a file download