Documenting Your Searches

[+keydetpiper]

I'm still new to Geocaching; I've been doing it for a few weeks now, and I'm hooked. I was curious as to what other folks do to document their searches and finds, how they keep track of where they've been, if at all.

 

I print out a cache I'd like to find and keep them all in a binder. I'll document any activity on that cache with the date (eg, "found 5/25/06" or "found stage 1 and 2, stage 3 not found"). Is anyone else as AR about their bookkeeping as I seem to be?

[+BlueDeuce]

Nah, just the standard cache page logging.

 

I do use a personal travel bug to log through each cache. Takes o-bit of work to do it though.

[+Totem Clan]

I keep a personal logbook. After a hunt I jot down my thoughts for later. Find # whatever, the date, anything interesting about the cache or the hunt ect.....

 

I like it.

[+Miragee]

I have an older, monochrome Palm M500 on which I installed Cachemate. I load that program with caches from my GSAK database and when I find a cache, I mark it as 'Found' in Cachemate and make notes about the cache, TBs, etc.

 

When I get home, using that as a guide, I mark the caches I found in GSAK. Double-clicking on each cache in that program, brings up the cache pages on GC.com where I log my finds on the web site.

 

I also have a Geocaching Blog.

[+hikergps]

Nope. I just use the cache pages and tag them either found or DNF. If I want to look back I can from my profile page.

 

edit so the post makes sense to everyone

Edited June 7, 2006 by hikergps

[+Team JSAM]

My online logs for us. I sometimes go back read old ones.

[+briansnat]

I just use the online logs. No need to duplicate effort.

[+Team Perks]

Just online here too. I'm surrounded by enough paperwork already; the idea of creating even more of it is terrifying.

[+Cache us Clay]

When we started, we didn't use a PDA. We printed each cache page before we left. If we found a cache, we put the cache page in one folder, if we didn't find it, we put it in another folder for our next try. That way we weren't printing out multiple copies for multiple attempts. Silly, I know. I'm a paperwork kind of girl.

 

We download all of that information to our PDA now.

[+ThePropers]

I print out the cache pages, then when I find the cache, I sit down and paint a watercolor on canvas of the area, which typically takes 2 or 3 hours. While painting, I set a small tape recorder (I haven't sprung for a digital recorder yet) on the nearest rock and dictate any thoughts I may have. Then I go back home and build a custom frame for the painting, usually out of oak, unless I have some extra cherry lying around the house, in which case I use that. I sign and date the painting, and then fold up the printout and put it behind the canvas so if I can't remember which cache the painting is from, I can just pull out the printout. I then hang the painting on the wall in my hallway and put a small sticker underneath it designating it with a number. Using the number, I can then look up my thoughts in a special notepad that I've designated for that cache. Using the tape recorder, I create my journal entry in the notepad. The entry in the notepad can be as simple as a 4 or 5 page essay of my search (for parking lot micros), or as much as several encyclopedias worth of information for a cache that would require a hike . The journal is then locked in a walk-in safe that I keep in my basement next to the gimp, and I mail the tape from the tape recorder to a safety deposit box in Switzerland. I then call my Database Administrator with the name of the cache. I pay him to maintain a large encrypted database of which caches I've done. Sure he's expensive since he charges by the hour, but it's well worth it, since he keeps several backups on disc, as well as a backup in a briefcase that is handcuffed to his wrist at all times. Then when I am ready to do another cache, I just have to call him up and make sure I haven't done it yet.

 

Of course, once in a while I'll just log it online and leave it at that.

[+Teamhawaii1981 & blueicyrose]

I DL the found PQ and upload it into GSAK.

Basically a high tech way of keeping a binder of cache pages, just much more efficient with more features.

[CoyoteRed]

I'm still new to Geocaching; I've been doing it for a few weeks now, and I'm hooked. I was curious as to what other folks do to document their searches and finds, how they keep track of where they've been, if at all.

 

I print out a cache I'd like to find and keep them all in a binder. I'll document any activity on that cache with the date (eg, "found 5/25/06" or "found stage 1 and 2, stage 3 not found"). Is anyone else as AR about their bookkeeping as I seem to be?

 

We got into caching from letterboxing so keeping a journal is second nature. Depending on what is convenient we sometimes use the journal for solving puzzles and keeping track of intermediate stages of multis.

[+mellisarock]

I am new and also hooked on geocaching. I have a gps but can't figure out how to download....working on that...for now though I keep small notebooks. When I am planning a caching trip I hand right each cache out with street directions using google maps. This has been working so far. When I find a cache I log the date and trade on same sheet in notebook. This makes logging online very simple-- all the info is right there! Now that I have typed it all out seems like a lot of work.

[+sbell111]

I use an application called Cache Log Book on my pda. Its a nice little caching database. After each cache hunt, I tap in all the info. That way it's really easy to log my finds later or to keep track of stage info on multis.

[+ADK 46-R]

I don't keep track of individual caches, i have a journal or i call it my hiking notebook, after the day is over and i get back home i have a beer and write about what i saw what i did, where i went etc...i don't write about every cache, i might say "Found a few caches today while hiking panther mt or in the silver star wilderness. i just like to look back and read my past logs about animals i encountered and things of that nature. there interesting if you are a forgetfull person like me. my logs are usually very interesting because normally you will come accross way more bears and wildlife than people where i live. i hate people

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I print out the cache pages, then when I find the cache, I sit down and paint a watercolor on canvas of the area, which typically takes 2 or 3 hours. While painting, I set a small tape recorder (I haven't sprung for a digital recorder yet) on the nearest rock and dictate any thoughts I may have. Then I go back home and build a custom frame for the painting, usually out of oak, unless I have some extra cherry lying around the house, in which case I use that. I sign and date the painting, and then fold up the printout and put it behind the canvas so if I can't remember which cache the painting is from, I can just pull out the printout. I then hang the painting on the wall in my hallway and put a small sticker underneath it designating it with a number. Using the number, I can then look up my thoughts in a special notepad that I've designated for that cache. Using the tape recorder, I create my journal entry in the notepad. The entry in the notepad can be as simple as a 4 or 5 page essay of my search (for parking lot micros), or as much as several encyclopedias worth of information for a cache that would require a hike . The journal is then locked in a walk-in safe that I keep in my basement next to the gimp, and I mail the tape from the tape recorder to a safety deposit box in Switzerland. I then call my Database Administrator with the name of the cache. I pay him to maintain a large encrypted database of which caches I've done. Sure he's expensive since he charges by the hour, but it's well worth it, since he keeps several backups on disc, as well as a backup in a briefcase that is handcuffed to his wrist at all times. Then when I am ready to do another cache, I just have to call him up and make sure I haven't done it yet.

 

Of course, once in a while I'll just log it online and leave it at that.

Similar process here, but for my using a 4G pixel digital camera instead of watercolor, and, instead of using a handwritten journal, I enter all my notes in a database on my PC; the database is mirrored real-time with triple redundancy to magnetic and optical archival/backup drives located in a fireproof and bomb-proof sub-basement beneath our fortified bunker home in the wildernes, with real-time dual mirroring via DSL line and satellite to a secure online vault service using the famed but uber-expensive XEV14.790b Severe Zero-Fault Data Vault protocol; their dual land-based storage facilities are located deep underground beneath mountains in upstate New York and in central Switzerland and their sole undersea storage facility is located at a depth of over 4,000 feet on the Pacific seafloor, in an earthquake and volcano-free zone.

 

I also tend to file pretty lengthy and detailed online log entries for caches, for all types of log entries, such as Finds, DNFs, Notes, etc.

Edited June 9, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team