Okay, so I’ve been seeing a lot of folks online complaining about playing Pokemon Go in rural areas. They’re saying there’s nothing around, no Pokestops, no Gyms, just endless fields of… well, nothing. I get it, I live out in the boonies too. But I wasn’t gonna let that stop me from catching ’em all, so I decided to figure this out. I mean, I really wanted that shiny Charizard.
First thing I did was just open the app and walk around my property. Yeah, predictable, right? Nothing. Zilch. Just Pidgeys and Rattatas, the usual suspects. It was super discouraging. My avatar was just standing in the middle of a green void on the map. Total bummer.
Then, I started doing some digging online. Found some old forum posts and Reddit threads. People were talking about how the game uses data from another game called Ingress, which is also made by Niantic. Apparently, Ingress players could submit locations for “portals,” and some of those became Pokestops and Gyms in Pokemon Go.
Operation: Ingress Intel
So, I downloaded Ingress. It’s a weird game, kinda futuristic capture-the-flag, but whatever. The important thing was the map. I started looking around my area in the Ingress “Intel Map” online – it’s like a web version of the game map. I zoomed in super close to my town and the surrounding areas.
I spent a good few days just exploring the Ingress map. Found a few portals in some surprisingly obscure places. Like, there was one at a tiny, almost-hidden historical marker I’d driven past a million times. Another one was at a weird little gazebo in a park I didn’t even know existed.
The Waiting Game (and some luck)
- Step 1: Download and installed Pokemon Go.
- Step 2: Found nothing at home.
- Step 3: Researched using Ingress’ Intel Map.
- Step 4: Located potential portal locations.
So after I find locations, I Marked down the locations of these Ingress portals, hoping they might be Pokestops or Gyms that just weren’t showing up for me. I started visiting these spots with Pokemon Go open. It took a few tries, and honestly, a lot of waiting around, but… bingo! One of the portals actually was a Pokestop! It was a little out of the way, but hey, it was something! I spun that thing like my life depended on it, got some Pokeballs, and even saw a few more interesting Pokemon pop up.
Then, after driving out to another portal I’d found – a church about 10 minutes away – it turned out to be a Gym! I couldn’t believe it. I put my strongest Pokemon in there (a slightly-less-pathetic-than-usual Growlithe) and felt like a king, even if it only lasted for about 5 minutes before someone kicked me out. Still!
It’s not perfect. I still have to drive a bit to get to any decent clusters of Pokestops. But finding those couple of hidden gems made a huge difference. It’s definitely more work than playing in a city, but it’s not impossible. You just gotta be a little resourceful, and maybe a little bit obsessed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a Pidgey to (maybe) evolve. Wish me luck!
