I placed 4 caches with Google Maps!

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Mr.Yuck
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I placed 4 caches with Google Maps!

Post by Mr.Yuck » Mon Oct 14, 2013 2:35 pm

Yep, I did. Not only did I obtain the coordinates for the 4 BIT Caches via Google maps, I actually chose the hiding spots with the maps. Wrote 'em up, complete with Google Map generated coordinates, and let them rip as soon as I physically went to the park to place them. They are http://coord.ch/OU06C0, http://coord.ch/ou06c1, http://coord.ch/ou06c2 and http://coord.ch/ou06c3. Being an admin, I could "see" my unpublished cache pages, and download them into my GPS! Now I know most people couldn't do that, and if they ever tried something similar, they'd have to input the coords for the 4 caches by hand into their GPS. Checked the coordinates, and hey, close enough in all 4 cases. One of them, the GPS even read 3 or 4 feet at the cache site. I might add, this was a relatively open City Park with a ring road around it, and I could street view the locations from the ring road. They are most certainly not "in the woods", but they are in a nice waterfront park.

So what do you think? Cool use of existing resources, or is obtaining coordinates and choosing hiding spots with Google maps lame and cheesy?
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TermiteHunter
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Re: I placed 4 caches with Google Maps!

Post by TermiteHunter » Mon Oct 14, 2013 4:30 pm

I have used the OCus map to do much the same thing prior to actual placement. I have found the coordinates” close enough” as well. The coordinates at the bottom right of the map change with the pointer as you move it around.

I have used google maps to adjust coordinates for caches on the frog when searchers complained that the coordinates were off significantly.

I have also pre searched for caches using street view. When I have done that I have noticed the variation of listed coordinates and actual placement. In fact you can sometimes see variation between the street view location pin and the most zoomed point on the overhead view. Makes me wonder which is the most accurate. Seems that the street view pin point is the least accurate in my experience

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DudleyGrunt
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Re: I placed 4 caches with Google Maps!

Post by DudleyGrunt » Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:51 am

I use the coordinate readout feature on our maps all the time. Sometimes for the initial listing and sometimes for help with various caches - here or on other sites, paritcularly locationless caches, where I may have forgotten to grab the coords for the example I found. I just wish we could somehow click to copy the coords for a given spot. I usually right them down so I don't forget them when I got to enter them on the cache page.
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Sabrefan7
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Re: I placed 4 caches with Google Maps!

Post by Sabrefan7 » Tue Oct 15, 2013 11:47 am

I used the map to get the coords for the new virt I just submitted. They work very good I think

Mr.Yuck
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Re: I placed 4 caches with Google Maps!

Post by Mr.Yuck » Wed Oct 23, 2013 12:56 pm

Sabrefan7 wrote:I used the map to get the coords for the new virt I just submitted. They work very good I think
Yeah, I did that once for a civil war memorial I decided to make a virtual in Eastern Indiana. It was really impressive, so I made an on the spot decision I was going to make it a virt. Took a few pics and a logging password, and figured I'd get the coords from Waymarking.com. Nope, not listed!! So I Google Mapped them.

For us sites that accept virtual caches, I don't see a problem with this at all. And even on the Groundspeak side, I've seen several "armchair placed Earthcaches", where I'm sure the people pulled the coordinates off of Google Maps or Google Earth.
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