Mapping Your Cache Finds
The maps on my profile page were generated in part by the
Tiger Mapping Service, a service of the US Census Bureau. Many commercial mapping programs allow you to map out a list of waypoints, but the Tiger maps are best for the web since they're public domain, and you don't have to worry about copyright issues when sharing them online. The found caches maps were generated directly from their website, but the find count map (broken down by state) was created by hand from a blank US map. I made this map by counting the number of caches I've found in each state I've visited, factoring out locationless and moving caches. Next, I manually colored in the states and entered their respective find counts manually.
To create the find maps, you will need:
-a .loc file(s) from Geocaching.com of all of your finds.
-some sort of web space where you can upload a file that can be accessed via http.
-an image editing program.
-a copy of
GSAK.
-a text editor with a "find/replace all" feature.
The first step is to get a list of all your finds from the geocaching site. This can be done by going to your profile, clicking on the Stats tab, and clicking the "All cache Finds" link. On each of the pages, click the "check all" button, then be sure to deselect any locationless or moving caches before downloading the waypoints. Alternately, if you have a premium membership, you can download a query of all your cache finds, even archived ones, from the Pocket Query page.
The next step is top run the files through GSAK. The program is free for the first 21 days, so a registration code isn't required in order to run the program (though if you plan to keep it, I'm sure Clyde would appreciate your registration...). After importing all of your finds into the program, go to the file menu and choose "Export -> Custom Export...". First, change both the waypoint name code and the description field to "x". The Statement to Run field should read something like:
"C:\PROGRAM FILES\GSAK\GPSBabel.exe" -i gpx -f "C:\PROGRAM FILES\GSAK\temp\babel.gpx"
append the bold text to the end of the line so that the string reads (all on one line):
"C:\PROGRAM FILES\GSAK\GPSBabel.exe" -i gpx -f "C:\PROGRAM FILES\GSAK\temp\babel.gpx"
-o tiger,oldmarker=redpin5,nolabels -F "C:\finds.txt"
Now click the Generate button. The file "finds.txt" should be created on your C:\ drive. Alternately, you can change the line to save the file in a more convenient spot if you want. For my maps, I picked the "redpin5" icon, but you can change this to suit your preference. A list of supported icons can be found at
http://tiger.census.gov/instruct.html#SYMBOL.
The next step is to generate the map on the
Tiger Map Server website. If you have webspace, upload the text file to your site and grab it's URL (the TIGER service only supports URLs that begin with "HTTP://"; I'm not sure if it supports FTP). Paste this address into the "Marker URL" field on the Tiger site, and use the controls to zoom the image to the point you want it.
Once you have the map you want, right-click on the image and select "save image..." to save the .gif image to your computer. You can then upload it to your profile on GC.com and use it in your profile.