Tracking your caching milage

[+The Graystone Gopher]

Is there an easy way to track the distance that you have traveled while geocaching, from one cache to the next? It would be interesting to me to keep track of that.

I was thinking maybe there was a shareware program out there that would allow you to enter the lon/lat and compute the accumulated distances.

I also saw a TB that someone had set up to log in and out of each cache, but since I didn't do that in the beginning, I would need to post a note for 70+ caches. I really hate to clutter the logs of the caches with that. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[jholly]

Is there an easy way to track the distance that you have traveled while geocaching, from one cache to the next? It would be interesting to me to keep track of that.

I was thinking maybe there was a shareware program out there that would allow you to enter the lon/lat and compute the accumulated distances.

I also saw a TB that someone had set up to log in and out of each cache, but since I didn't do that in the beginning, I would need to post a note for 70+ caches. I really hate to clutter the logs of the caches with that. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

FindStatGen will do that.

 

Jim

[+StarBrand]

itsnotaboutthenumbers.com can do that as well. Keep in mind it is very dependant on you enter the caches in the exact order you found them.

 

If you logged a cache in Denver than 1 in Cheyenne, Wy than other in Dever (for instance) it would throw the mileage off quite a bit.

[+BlueDeuce]

You can backlog a personal TB through caches and then delete the cache log without affecting the bug tracking. Not that I recommend doing all that work, but it is possible to do.

Edited November 16, 2008 by BlueDeuce

[+The Graystone Gopher]

itsnotaboutthenumbers.com can do that as well.

I can't seem to get that site to generate anything for me... the stats say I started caching in 1969 (quite a feat!) and the rest of the stats are blank. I'm sure it is my error, but I don't know what I am doing wrong or how to correct it.

I created the pocket query of my finds, saved it as a zip file without changing the name and then entered the location that it is saved into the INATN site. I tried it last week for the first time and had the same problem. I re-ran the query and tried again today with the same results. Any suggestions?

[jholly]

itsnotaboutthenumbers.com can do that as well.

I can't seem to get that site to generate anything for me... the stats say I started caching in 1969 (quite a feat!) and the rest of the stats are blank. I'm sure it is my error, but I don't know what I am doing wrong or how to correct it.

I created the pocket query of my finds, saved it as a zip file without changing the name and then entered the location that it is saved into the INATN site. I tried it last week for the first time and had the same problem. I re-ran the query and tried again today with the same results. Any suggestions?

 

MyFinds is a zip file, so I don't understand saving it as a zip file. Go to the PQ page, near the middle is a box titled My Finds and a button labeled Add to Queue. This will generate a PQ that is emailed to the email address associated with your account. You detach this ZIP file and upload it to INATN. But of course if you just ran the real MyFinds your going to need to wait a week before you can run it again.

 

Jim

[+The Graystone Gopher]

Yep, my mistake! It seems the default saved it with a different name. I used the drag/drop from the email attachment and retried... success! Thanks to all for the suggestions.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

itsnotaboutthenumbers.com can do that as well.

I can't seem to get that site to generate anything for me... the stats say I started caching in 1969 (quite a feat!) and the rest of the stats are blank. I'm sure it is my error, but I don't know what I am doing wrong or how to correct it.

I created the pocket query of my finds, saved it as a zip file without changing the name and then entered the location that it is saved into the INATN site. I tried it last week for the first time and had the same problem. I re-ran the query and tried again today with the same results. Any suggestions?

 

MyFinds is a zip file, so I don't understand saving it as a zip file. Go to the PQ page, near the middle is a box titled My Finds and a button labeled Add to Queue. This will generate a PQ that is emailed to the email address associated with your account. You detach this ZIP file and upload it to INATN. But of course if you just ran the real MyFinds your going to need to wait a week before you can run it again.

 

Jim

 

I don't know about INATN but GSAK understands zip files and will extract the GPX information from it. I also use the FindStatsGen macro. As of the end of October it tells me that my total cache to cache distance is 53437 Miles. With a total of 631 finds that's an average of just over 84 miles between caches (since Jan, 2007). Most of the caches I have found are between 10-20 miles from home (34% of them). I have also found 49 caches more than 1000 miles from home, including several in Europe and a couple in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

 

If you're must interested in how far you travel when searching for caches on a given day you can use the track log (if your GPS supports it).

Edited November 17, 2008 by NYPaddleCacher

[+trainlove]

All these ideas are approximations of course.

Unless you fly to each cache along a Great Circle Route, you are going to travel much farther than any of these methods will show you, perhaps 200%.

 

But one thing that none of these stipulate is how you cache. In a day you start out at home, or work, or somewhere, then you go to your first cache, then you go to the next cache... At the end of the day you end up at home most likely unless you are on a trip, and there you end up somewhere other than the last cache of that day. So of course the next day starts out from home or wherever, and not the previous cache.

 

I keep track of my mileage using EasyGPS with various 'home' coords.

Edited November 17, 2008 by trainlove

[+Prime Suspect]

Is there an easy way to track the distance that you have traveled while geocaching, from one cache to the next? It would be interesting to me to keep track of that.

I was thinking maybe there was a shareware program out there that would allow you to enter the lon/lat and compute the accumulated distances.

I also saw a TB that someone had set up to log in and out of each cache, but since I didn't do that in the beginning, I would need to post a note for 70+ caches. I really hate to clutter the logs of the caches with that. Any suggestions? Thanks!

There is only one method that will give you anything close to realistic number, and you have to start from day one. That's to use the odometer on your GPS, which you zero out as you head out the door, and record as soon as you get back home.

 

Every other method that relies on using a list of your cache finds, will just give you a number that will have little relationship to reality.

[+res2100]

Here's an Excel Spreadsheet that I have been using for 6 years now to track my geocaching mileage. It works really good and you can modify it to include whatever information you need.

 

http://ca.geocities.com/geocachingcanada/g...hing.html#files

 

Click on the above link and then the Mileage Spreadsheet to download it.

[+trainlove]

There is only one method that will give you anything close to realistic number, and you have to start from day one. That's to use the odometer on your GPS, which you zero out as you head out the door, and record as soon as you get back home.

Well, if my GPS were ON all the time this would be right, but I navigate to many places, by car, without the GPS being ON. And I navigate a lot of the way to many caches without it being ON also. But yes, this is the only method with any possibility of being correct for what the OP wants.