TAG :: Toronto Area Geocachers

Not to be outdone by Groundspeak’s “Challenges” updates, Garmin’s Opencaching.com site has also posted a site update. Most of the changes are little UI tweaks like making the map full screen,  and updated searching.

There are some GPS specific changes though. If you have a Montana, 62 series, Oregon or Dakota, there’s a firmware update waiting for you. This will let you rate a cache’s “awesomeness” in the field, and participate in the new digital verification feature. Colorado owners (like me) are left out in the cold on this one.

Digital verification lets a cache owner verify your find by having you scan a QR code, enter a code manually or … respond to a chirp beacon.  The manual code method will work for owners of older devices and I presume the QR code feature will make it’s way to the smartphone apps. Otherwise only those of you using an absolute top of the line camera built in Garmin GPS need apply.

Another tidbit that I found in the release is that the Garmin Dakota a week giveaway has expanded from the USA to include Canada now. Every 10 approved caches placed before August 28 earns you an entry to win a Dakota 20 GPS.

[ Garmin OpenCaching Update ] [ Garmin Advanced Geocache Logging ]

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• New Garmin Beta Firmware – Oregon, GPSMAP 62/78, Dakota
• Pro Tip: Downgrading your Garmin GPSr firmware
• New beta firmware for GPSMAP 62/78, Oregon x50, Oregon and Dakota GPS Receivers

Also as promised, Groundspeak has posted smartphone updates for Geocaching challenges. Only it’s a separate application, not a part of the Geocaching app. On iOS anyway. Presumably the Windows Phone 7 and Android apps have also launched, though I don’t see it when I search the Android Marketplace right now (or Windows Phone either).

From the iOS App store description:

Geocaching Challenges turn every location into an adventure.

Go somewhere, do something. That’s the basic idea behind Geocaching Challenges. You might be challenged to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, sing a song in the middle of Times Square, or take a picture of yourself walking through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Are you up for it?

Create your FREE account at http://www.geocaching.com to play.

Application Features Include:

- Direct access to the Geocaching.com database of Challenges

- Ability to accept and complete Challenges anywhere in the world

- Search nearby and worldwide Challenges from your current location

- View and upload Challenge gallery images from your phone

- Keep track of your accepted and completed Challenges

When you start up the app, it gives the standard Groundspeak “This can be dangerous!”, followed by a couple descriptive screens:

Intro Screen 1 of 2

Intro Screen 2 of 2

You’ll need to sign in to actually search for challenges. When I fired up the app, there were two Challenges in my area. One is at the CN Tower, the other is in Gage Park, Hamilton. Both are “Photo” challenges. You’ll see the thumbs up/thumbs down ranking for the challenge, and you can accept it, or even complete it from the app.

More screens from the app:

Searching for Challenges

Note the distances are in imperial in this screen shot as the app defaults to that. Quick click on that settings button in the middle and we’re over to metric:

The Settings Page

Once you pick a challenge, you get details, you can accept/complete or rate:

Photo Challenge - Hamilton Gage Park

Accept a Challenge?

Of course, there's a map view too. The GPS accuracy you see in the screenshot reflects the fact I'm indoors right now.

If anyone spots a link to the Android or WP7 apps, drop a comment and I’ll put the links up in this article too.

[ iOS Challenges App ] [ Groundspeak Challenges FAQ ]

Related Posts:

• Logged a DNF for Related Posts :(

It’s not Tuesday, but as expected Groundspeak has taken the site offline to launch Challenges ahead of Groundspeak’s big Block Party.

We’ve been over challenges already, the part I noted in the announcement was more the details about the fact that changes are already planned:

Challenges is a work in progress! We are planing several hotfixes in the next couple weeks to address bugs and feature requests. Some ideas for the next phases include:

• Highly rated Challenges displayed in geocache search results
• Pocket Queries for Challenges (and GPX downloads)
• Mapping tools
• New Challenge Types
• Support for verification questions

Related Posts:

• GSAK Version 8 is Available Now
• Groundspeak Teases Us with “Action” Challenge Video
• Geocaching.com update brings 3rd Party API

Update: Looks like the overall find count will go up when you log a challenge. [Link] (Thanks Avernar)

Groundspeak released a video on Youtube (via their Latitude 47 Blog) that describes “Action” Challenges, where a cacher will be expected to go to a certain location and perform an action of some sort. The example provided in the video is “go to a spot and play chess”. This activity, which brings back additional logging requirements virtual caches in a slightly different way, is set to launch later this week. The smartphone apps will all be updated once it launches. Groundspeak also has a “Photo Challenge” type, that presumably requires you to take a photo in a given location (which is much more “virtual cache” like).

Take a look at the video:

Premium members will be able to create new challenges, and when you complete one you do get a “smiley”, though these will not count toward your total geocaching finds count.

This isn’t to be confused with the already existing “Challenge Caches”, where there is a physical cache to be found but you cannot log a cache online until you meet the cache owner’s “challenge” (example: find a cache in every county of the Province, or find all difficulty/terrain combinations).

It’s Not About the Numbers also has some information on this new caching type on their blog.

[ Latitude 47 ] [ INATN ]

Related Posts:

• Geocaching.com Update Time – Challenges, Logs and Profile Changes (Oh My)
• Geocaching API Distance Limits
• GSAK + Geocaching.com API – First Look

Not for the feint of heart, but GSAK – the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife has posted a beta of the next major version. Version 8 is going to be a chargeable upgrade, but in the mean time you can play with the beta version using your version 7 registration key.

The big update here is that you can interact with the Geocaching.com public API using GSAK 8. This is an extremely useful bit of functionality – just think about the potential for this in the macro section for example

Clyde calls out three main changes over V7:

Version 8 includes many changes since Version 7, but probably the 3 biggest of note are:

1. Increased functionality by leveraging the new Groundspeak api
2. Support for custom data (virtually unlimited number of fields)
3. A newer, more modern look and feel

The rest of the changes are located here.

If you are a macro developer, or a GSAK power user who wants to try the new program before it’s complete go on over and download it. If you are not ready to use potentially broken software, or put up with bugs wait until the final release.

[ GSAK ]

Related Posts:

• Geocaching API Distance Limits
• GSAK + Geocaching.com API – First Look
• GSAK Version 8 is Available Now

BFL Boot Camp is an annual night caching gathering held in North Halton by the Keepers of the Order of the BFL, or simply “The BFL Crew”. This group of cachers head out every friday night looking for geocaches hidden throughout the Greater Toronto Area. One night each year, the tables are turned – and the BFL Crew hides the caches, and hosts an event. This is the 6th year we have held the event.

Most event caches feature caching followed by a meal at a pub. Not this event – our tradition is to meet at a local pub, then send everyone out to look for the caches over the rest of the night. We set up a “command centre” where you can interact with other cachers, chat with the BFL Crew, or simply warm up with some hot chocolate. The pub portion of the event runs typically from 7pm to 9pm, and the caching runs from 9pm to 4am.

We have two “events” hosted on Geocaching.com:

• GC31VTF – BFL Boot Camp VI – Briefing Pub  (Not published yet – still working out which pub to take over)
  This is a gathering before the night caching where cachers may get together and share stories, or group up for the upcoming night caching session in the woods. The pub is still being organized, so it has not been activated on Geocaching.com just yet
• GC2YVBH – BFL Boot Camp VI – Retro Reflect
  Is the main geocaching event. This is the location of the “command centre”.We’ll be out there in the woods from 9:30pm to 4:00am.

Related Posts:

• Groundspeak Recognizes BFL Bootcamp
• Journey ON Magazine Geocaching Article
• The Ontario Event Cache Experiment

A couple weeks ago (July 20), a new app quietly popped up in the  App Store by Pi-Soft Consulting. These are the guys who brought us the Wherigo player for iPhone which later became Groundspeak’s official Wherigo App for iPhone. The new app is called GeoBeacon …. it enables another technology that is used for geocaching, namely Garmin’s Chirp beacons.

The $1.99 app requires you to purchase a $80 Fisica key before you can use it. These are sold as Wahoo Fisica (pictured above), or you can also get the one from Digifit. This adds the important Ant+ technology to your iPhone, since the iPhone doesn’t have it built in.  Once you have the app and the Fisica key, you simply open the app and use it to locate … or even program a Garmin Chirp. I have seen the Fisica key at Mountain Equipment Co-Op, might be a good spot to check before you import one from the USA.

The app can read a Chirp, program a Chirp, plot Chirp waypoints on a map. It’ll show you all the details including the number of visitors and when the last visit was, plus the run time and battery condition. One nice touch is the app will store lots of Chirp data rather than overwriting it immediately like the Garmin units do if another beacon comes in range.

The Fisica key is also useful outside the GeoBeacon app, so don’t feel like you’re spending $82 just to find a Chirp cache (though it is less than the average Garmin GPS with Chirp costs). I also use the Fisica key with my Garmin Heart Rate Monitor to keep track of my runs with RunKeeper.

Here’s a few screen shots from the app:

Connecting to a Chirp

Here the beacon data is being read. It's kinda neat how it "paints" in bit by bit.

Here's a detail screen that you get after the data is loaded. See the battery status?

Chirp details plotted on the map. Leave it to Pi-Soft to include the map view.

[ GeoBeacon (iTunes) ] [ Garmin Chirp ]

Related Posts:

• Geocache Navigator Updated
• PiGo becomes Official Wherigo App for iOS
• Garmin Launches Official OpenCaching Clients for iPhone and Android

Starting the Hike. Photo by Kelly Gray

This week’s featured geocache is GCG4RN – Algonquin Western Uplands. It was hidden on May 19, 2003 by  Vexorg & Fallen Angel & company. It was later adopted by PitSauerland in 2008. The cache is a traditional and is considered a 2.5 Difficulty/1.5 Terrain. As of today (August 8, 2011) there has been 198 finds logged on the cache. You can drive up here (about 2.5 hours north of Toronto), or take the Park Bus from Toronto.

As you may have guessed by the name, the cache is located in the western part of Algonquin Provincial Park. To be more precise, the cache is located on the Western Uplands Backpacking Trail – a multi-day hiking trail. There are loops that range from 32 km to 88 km in length.

Since the cache was placed in 2003, it pre-dates the Ontario Parks physical geocache placement ban. Hopefully, this ban can be removed in the future, but for now it is very difficult to have a new physical cache approved (on Geocaching.com) inside a Provincial Park.
Since this geocache is placed in an Ontario Provincial Park, you must have a permit to visit the cache.

There are two ways you can visit, both start from the Western Uplands Backpacking Trail / Oxtongue River Picnic Area parking lot.

If you want a quick smiley, you will need a day pass from the park and you will have a short hike of about 1km total round trip. The cache is very close to the parking lot when accessing the trail system from Highway 60.

Chris-Mouse and one of the bridges on the 1st Loop. Photo by Gregory Pleau

Or, if you want an adventure, find this cache as part of an interior hike trip.

There are three major loops on the backpacking trail, starting at the Highway 60 access:

Start -> Maggie Lake -> Ramona Lake -> Start
This is also referred to as the “1st Loop”. The trip will take a minimum of three days. Follow the Blue blazes for this loop.

Start -> Pincher Lake -> Rainbow Lake -> Start
The “2nd Loop”. You’ll need about five days to visit this loop with your backpacking gear on. Once you get to the second loop intersect point, the trail blazes change to Yellow.

Start -> Islet Lake -> Loft Lake -> Start
This is a 6 day trip, and known as the “3rd Loop”. This loop uses red blazes to distinguish it.  This is how I visited the cache, with Chris-Mouse

You can also take a few different versions as there is a “shortcut” trail between Otterpaw Lake and the Third Loop (Double Red Blazes), or you can cut across at Weed Lake. However you choose to visit, you will need to have your interior campsites booked, and a valid permit on your car (or it won’t be there when you get back!).

The trail can be rugged. Photo by Gregory Pleau.

Now the cache is at the start of the loop … so you can find it at the beginning of your hike, or the end of your hike. We did both – we signed in on July 25th and then signed in *again* on the 30th as we were exiting. This makes flipping through the logbook all the more enjoyable as you can see the before and after impressions of the visitors.  Another alternative is to start in from Rain Lake and make this cache your halfway point.

The Western Uplands Backpacking Trail is a rugged trail that is not recommended for day hiking. If you decide to head on in anyway, make absolutely sure you know how to get back to your car. Once you get in a kilometre or so, cell service dies right off (though I did manage to get a signal on Maggie Lake, Loft Lake and Susan Lake). Getting lost inside this trail system is more than an inconvenience, it can become life or death.

You’ll climb rather large hills (I wouldn’t call them “mountains” but they are quite memorable with a pack on). There are at least two major “Lookout” points that are signed. You’ll cross wetlands, in fact thanks to the resident beaver population, you’ll probably cross more wetlands than you expect. A lot of the bridges are crumbling in the interior, and the trail gets overgrown in the summer. You have a good chance of seeing Moose, Deer, Bears, Beavers and more. I spied a Red-Tailed Hawk on Ishkady Lake.

Me And the cache. Photo by Kelly Gray

If you’re taking a GPS, make sure you also bring your map and compass. The trail is also included in the Ontario Trails Project, which is a handy reference for your hike. Plan your trip accordingly. While the sign at the entrance says 25km is “reasonable” I would be more inclined to say 12-14km is “reasonable” in the summer. In the winter you cannot ski this trail, or pull sleds so this would be a particular challenge that time of the year. Hiking this trail in autumn would be absolutely breathtaking, so I will be back in the future for an autumn hike.

Camping on Maggie Lake. Photo by Gregory Pleau

If you’d like to take a break from the 100 cache-a-day power trails, may I suggest taking up to a week for one cache.

Related Posts:

• Ontario Trails Project v0.80, Now Available!
• GeoBeacon: Garmin Chirp – on an iPhone (or iPad)
• Geocaching.com Adds New Features

Another feature that popped back to Geocaching.com with the August update is renewed social networking links.

This isn’t the controversial feature that allowed you to “Like” a geocache on Facebook. This time it’s more personal – you can connect your Twitter account and/or your Facebook account, and have the link generated by your geocaching log posted to your feed. It still links directly to the cache, not your specific log but there’s no “Like” count incrementing on Facebook, for example. People looking at a cache page will not see that you have linked to it.

Connecting your geocaching account to a social network is fairly straightforward. When you go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/sharing.aspx , you are (currently) presented with two buttons: Login with Twitter and Login with Facebook. If you pick the Twitter one, you’ll be presented with a web page that asks for your Twitter credentials and a big “Authorize app” button. At this point, if you give Geocaching.com authorization to use your account, the site will be able to post updates to your twitter feed.

If you change your mind later, go back to http://www.geocaching.com/my/sharing.aspx and pick “Remove Access”. Or go to your Twitter account, and remove access from the “Settings” menu.

The process is similar for Facebook integration. Back to http://www.geocaching.com/my/sharing.aspx, hit Login with Facebook. If you’re already logged into Facebook on the computer, you’ll see the screen above. Otherwise you’ll be asked to login first. You will see what Geocaching.com wants access to, specifically the ability to post to your wall at any time.

Again, if you change your mind there are two ways to remove the link. Either click on the Remove Access button at http://www.geocaching.com/my/sharing.aspx, or you can do it from the Applications subpage of the Account page on your Facebook profile.

Something I highly recommend, so that you are not flooding your newsfeed … turn off automatic posting from http://www.geocaching.com/my/sharing.aspx. Go to the page, and clear the  check boxes under Twitter for Send a Tweet when: “I log a geocache on the website”, “I log a geocache through a Geocaching Live-enabled application”. Also clear the check box under Facebook for “I log a geocache on the website”. Keep an eye on that greyed out one that is “(coming soon)” as you will likely want to disable it too.

Why did I take you through connecting up your Social Networks, only to disable them? Simple. This stops you from spamming your Twitter and Facebook followers/friends every time you go out caching. If you are the sort of cacher who goes out for one or two caches once in a while then this doesn’t affect you much. If you tend to go out power trail caching, visiting 100 caches in a day then you will likely have no followers or friends left by the end of your caching day. The options above will post a Tweet or Status Update every time you find a cache. That means 100 Tweets for a 100 cache day, and that is the sort of thing that causes people to want to silence your updates.

You can still have your connection to Twitter and Facebook though! When logging on the site, you’ll notice two new options have appeared below your log text. There are check boxes for updating your Twitter Status and your Facebook Status. When you want to highlight a cache  to your friends and followers, just tick those two boxes in the “Sharing Options” block and it’ll be sent to your feed or your wall.

On Facebook, the posts are pretty noticeable, with an image representing the cache and a link back to it.

And here it is on Twitter – with the simple text that I “found the geocache” and a link to the cache.

Interesting enough, the links go straight to the cache page, and not straight to your log but then again anyone acting on your link will most likely see your log right there at the top of the list. I would have preferred that they link straight to your log entry but I suppose this is more about introducing people to the cache as opposed to your story.

Related Posts:

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• GSAK Version 8 is Available Now

Geocaching.com has gone down for it’s monthly maintenance window. But the Release Notes have a gem. This update activates the third party developers API. That means you can get things like smartphone apps, which use live data – and not have them resort to site scraping. This API has been a very controversial popular request, as seen on UserVoice

The first app out the gate is CacheSense, a Blackberry geocaching application. This fills a bit of a need since Groundspeak has not created an official Blackberry app. Well, there was that Trimble thing but really, this fills the niche better.

Also notable, you can now put 15 attributes on your cache page instead of 10. Might be time to revisit your listings and see if you need to add anything that didn’t make the cut before. There are also some new attributes - Seasonal Access, Teamwork Required, Tourist Friendly, Tree Climbing and Front Yard

The rest of the changes happening today follow:

What else is new?

New

• Added a video to Geocaching.com/iPhone showing the Geocaching for iPhone application in action
• Added new cache attributes: Seasonal Access, Teamwork Required, Tourist Friendly, Tree Climbing and Front Yard (private residence)
• Added Hungarian translations to Geocaching.com
• Retroactively awarded Mega event Souvenirs for 4 recent events
• Increased total number of assignable cache attributes from 10 to 15
• Localized Basic and Premium registration pages so they can be translated in other languages
• Increased the number of Trackable activation codes that can be retrieved within a one hour period
• Added an option in search results to highlight “beginner caches” (low difficulty/traditional type/recently found etc.)
• Added Twitter and Facebook sharing options to cache log pages, visit your profile or geocaching.com/my/sharing.aspx to connect your accounts
• Added the ability to temporarily close the yellow banner announcing scheduled maintenance on Geocaching.com
• Updated Terms of Use Agreement (Section 4) to clarify age restriction for posting to Groundspeak Discussion Forums
• Added special Block Party icon for annual Groundspeak headquarters event

Bug Fixes

• Removed meta tags from cache page source of unpublished cache pages so spoilers are not revealed pre-publication
• Fixed bug which caused a Trackable to enter a limbo state if marked missing and moved to the owner’s collection
• Membership referral field when creating an account will now properly recognize extended characters in usernames
• Changed “Waypoint Name” to “GC Code” on Create a Pocket Query form
• When previewing a Cache Along a Route the highlighted portion of the map will now properly adjust in size based on the zoom level
• Added Chatham Islands as a region for New Zealand and now allowing caches placed there to have a West longitude
• Fixed bug on home page search where street addresses were not recognized without a postal code
• Fixed bug which prevented marking a Trackable missing when language set to German or Czech
• Added missing “generic” Geocoin icon to Trackables inventory page and Trackable map
• Fixed bug where retracted caches would still appear on the map for a short time
• Fixed support request form to properly auto-populate your username when filling out a support inquiry
• Caches found in the African nation Congo no longer incorrectly appear on the statistics map in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Fixed profile statistics display in which the first cache type in a bar chart was truncated
• Fixed bug in advanced search which improperly included found or owned caches in search results when the user requested they be excluded
• Disabled Send to GPS link for PMO caches when viewed by a logged in Basic Member
• Fixed paragraph formatting for print-friendly cache pages
• Added a new text entry field on Trackables lookup page for situations where the Trackable ID was first entered incorrectly
• Fixed bug which prevented the resending of validation emails when the first email was misplaced
• Updated cache creation page to require a state selection when submitting caches for Belgium
• Fixed Trackables description display issue which cause emoticons to disrupt HTML formatting
• Updated cache log smiley icons to the higher contrast versions used on the map
• Fixed styling issue on account creation page causing error message to be misaligned
• Changed link on Travel Bugs ordering info page from shop.groundspeak.com to shop.geocaching.com
• Added ability for cache owners to set the “Needs Maintenance” attribute on caches they own

[ Geocaching.com August 2 Release Notes] [ CacheSense ]

Related Posts:

• Geocaching API Distance Limits
• GSAK Version 8 is Available Now
• iPhone Geocaching App gets big update