So you have a new GPS device and would like to put some caches on it right? The quickest and easiest way to do this is to do this is via a Pocket Query (PQ)
Premium members of Geocaching.com can run a PQ which will produce a GPX file. This file will contain all the information that your GPS needs to get you on the right track; the description, hints, attributes and logs.
How to create a Pocket Query
1 – Visit the following link to start your PQ – Pocket Queries – Each query can hold a maximum of 1000 caches and you can run 5 queries in any 24hr period. For full detail on how to create a PQ reach the following article.
2- Select the day of the week you want the query to run and then fill in the search criteria you need. For example, you can select all cache types or just Traditional; large or small, high difficulty or easy as pie.
For the ‘Centre Point’ you can choose Home (uses the home coordinates in your profile), a cache (by waypoint GC code) or coordinates which you can supply. If you are going caching in a different town or area, think carefully at the point at which you want the query to start searching from.
3 – Submit the query and you will get an email which gives you a link to your profile where you can download the PQ file.
4 – When you receive the email, you will need to unzip the attachment. Windows should be able to do this for you if you ‘right-click’ on the attachment and unzip, however I use 7-Zip. You will be left with two files. Once is the cache information, the other is the additional waypoints (parking, trail-heads, etc)
5 – Connect your Garmin to your PC using the supplied USB cable and go your ‘Your Computer’ to navigate to the GPS device. For those GPSr’s that have an additional memory card, you can place the two files in the GPX folder on either the device itself or the memory card, using the ‘GPX’ folder which can normally be found in Garmin/GPX/
6 – Once copied over, make sure you eject the device correctly by right clicking on it from ‘My Computer’ and selecting ‘Eject’
7 – That’s all there is to it. When powering on your Garmin Device, you should now have all the Geocaches in your chosen area.
