.. title: GPX Downloads from geocaching.com
.. date: 2019-04-02 00:09:12 UTC+02:00
.. tags: gps, garmin, geocache
.. slug: geocaching-com-gpx
.. type: text

Geocaching was admittedly not very high on my priority list in the
last years and so I hunted the odd cache only with the help of my
mobile phone and the `c:geo <https://www.cgeo.org/>`_ app.  As I did
not log into the web user interface of Geocaching.com it escaped my
attention that there were changes somewhere along the way.

So yesterday I realized that free accounts now also can download GPX
files that can be processed without any further intervention by my
eTrex 30 device.  Just copy the files to the GPX folder on the SD card
and you are good to go.  Also in comparison to the previously
available LOC files, the (XML) GPX files contain `Groundspeak
Extensions <http://static.groundspeak.com/cache/1/0/1/cache.xsd>`_
(use "View Source" in a browser as the schema displays only as an
empty page) that are understood by the eTrex device for a very nice
geocaching experience:

.. image:: /images/etrex30-gc.png
   :alt: Geocache on eTrex 30
   :name: Geocache on eTrex 30
   :align: center
   :width: 400

This makes the special handling described in my own (old) post
:doc:`geocaches-on-etrex30` superfluous.  This is very nice as the
instructions would need to be updated anyhow as the `QLandkarteGT
<http://www.qlandkarte.org/>`_ project is now dormant and replaced by
the `QMapShack <https://bitbucket.org/maproom/qmapshack>`_ project.
Switching to Debian Buster forces me to relearn my workflows in
this new tool, but I am not yet as fluent with it as I was with the
old one.  Somehow the top level approach of working with tracks feels
counter intuitive for my tasks but maybe I just need more practice to
get over this.

But all in all this new(?) development makes the eTrex much more
attractive for hunting caches.  The one thing that did not change is the
precision of the eTrex device compared to my mobile phone.  The former
is still superior in this respect.