Unusual Logbooks

[+JL_HSTRE]

From the Guidelines:

For all physical caches, there must be a logbook for geocachers to record their visit. The logbook must be:

• Physical
• Replaceable
• Easy to sign
• Enclosed within a container

Examples: Notebook, paper scroll.

 

Most geocache physical logs are pretty straightforward: classically a small notebook of some kind if the container can hold one, otherwise a folded or rolled piece of paper (often in a small ziplock or other inner container to promote dryness). There are various minor variations on this. Notepads, oversized logsheets in large containers, loose scraps of paper, makeshift logsheets from an old receipt. Rite In Rain paper being probably the best variant. But none of these is really that different from the others. As long as they're in decent condition, pretty much any pen or pencil will be sufficient to sign.

 

Has anyone seen unorthodox i.e. non-paper logs used in geocaches?

 

The only example I can think of is a certain a prolific hider that has taken to using pink surveyor tape for his logsheets since they are essentially waterproof. I'm not sure that classifies as "easy to sign" since many pens don't mark it effectively; you really need a Sharpie.

[+ecanderson]

Have also seen a couple of what were (once) freebie Harbor Freight 25' tape measures used similarly to the surveyor tape you mentioned.

 

[+cerberus1]

I've signed a wooden "log" (in an ammo can, and part of the hollowed stump), a couple of t-shirts, a divers slate,  a metal sign blank,  and a roll of tyvek. 

None that I know of are still in play.  IIRC the metal sign got zapped shortly after I FTF it, because it didn't have a container.

We signed a lot of odd stuff at events, but we didn't need to sign them...   

[+HunterandSamuel]

46 minutes ago, JL_HSTRE said:

Has anyone seen unorthodox i.e. non-paper logs used in geocaches?

 

 

A picture of our feet next to a dinosaur footprint fossil. 

 

 

 

 

[+niraD]

30 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

We signed a lot of odd stuff at events, but we didn't need to sign them...   

If we're counting event logs, I've signed a number of trash bags that were used as logs for CITO events.

[+The Jester]

I remember a couple of caches that had rolls of soft metal sheets that wouldn't take ink but the metal would dent under the pen/pencil/twig/matchstick/etc. and leave an impression of the signature.

[+Max and 99]

Pinewood Derby car and a DVD inside a case.

[Darwin473]

I saw on another site someone found a cache where the log was a series of clothes pegs attached to a string, with the finders encouraged to sign each peg. Can't find the link now though, will keep looking.

[+CAVinoGal]

We found a gadget cache once with marbles; you had to figure out how to get enough of them out to get to the wooden ones hidden more deeply and then sign one of the wooden marbles.

 

Another was a yardstick inside a chain link fence post.

[+SamLowrey]

11 minutes ago, CAVinoGal said:

 

 

Another was a yardstick inside a chain link fence post.

That's a neat idea.

[+barefootjeff]

One of my hides, The Other Birthplace of Federation, is themed on the birth of the Australian federation so I used a printout of the Australian Constitution as the logbook - thankfully it's a relatively short document of about 30 pages.

 

 

At the end of the document I replaced the official Oath and Affirmation with the Geocacher's Creed:

 

 

Following that are the signatories to the constitution which is where the finders sign.

 

[+ecanderson]

One of the most interesting required us to take a shoelace and comb through a bucket of lettered beads to spell our caching handle.  After completing and knotting, we were then to use a tack to add it to the corkboard with all of the other finders names.  Yes, it was a pretty big cache.

[+LizzyRN]

Painters tape and masking tape (easy to replace), a piece of bark, a rock, the container itself.

[+The Jester]

4 hours ago, LizzyRN said:

Painters tape and masking tape (easy to replace), a piece of bark, a rock, the container itself.

I'v done a couple like that, one an over-sized (walk-in) 'ammo can' that you signed the walls, another was a small SUV in the woods - sign the vehicle or logbook in glovebox.

[+Goldenwattle]

A piece of metal with an engraver supplied.

[+Viajero Perdido]

The inside wall of a room of an abandoned mountaintop spy station, with a fluorescent marker to sign your name.  (At this point, you'll be holding a powerful UV light that makes the signatures - and other fascinating things enroute - glow in the dark.)

 

Best cache in Asia, while it lasted.

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Viajero Perdido

[+TmdAndGG]

Probably the strangest log that we've encountered (As far as I can remember) was a wooden dowel. It was one of those bottle puzzles where you have to use a marble to unscrew a bolt in order to the dowel out. I believe it's called a Grecian Bottle Puzzle. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by TmdAndGG

[+K13]

Events allow for some added creativity, and I've done some different things for my Fish Fry events.  I have used a three-foot-long catfish pillow, a flounder-shaped platter, a box which held the fish in the store, a fish-shaped poster, among a few other fish-themed ideas.

 

In one cache themed to the "Toilet Paper Shortage", the log is the cardboard center from a roll of TP.

[+ecanderson]

2 hours ago, K13 said:

Events allow for some added creativity, and I've done some different things for my Fish Fry events.  I have used a three-foot-long catfish pillow, a flounder-shaped platter, a box which held the fish in the store, a fish-shaped poster, among a few other fish-themed ideas.

 

In one cache themed to the "Toilet Paper Shortage", the log is the cardboard center from a roll of TP.

You're going to write THAT post and not give us any photos???  C'mon!  Give!

[+cerberus1]

2 hours ago, K13 said:

In one cache themed to the "Toilet Paper Shortage", the log is the cardboard center from a roll of TP.

 

That's clever.     We peel the inner roll out, so we can squash a roll flat for hiking space.  A good amount of paper.

[+Joe_L]

I found a cache in which the container was a movie film cannister, and the log sheet was a long strip of paper wound around the reel inside the cannister.

[+niraD]

4 hours ago, K13 said:

Events allow for some added creativity, and I've done some different things for my Fish Fry events.  I have used a three-foot-long catfish pillow, a flounder-shaped platter, a box which held the fish in the store, a fish-shaped poster, among a few other fish-themed ideas.

I wasn't there, but I read about a "cache workshop" event where the log was an ammo can. The ammo can was then raffled off at the end of the event.

[+K13]

4 hours ago, ecanderson said:

You're going to write THAT post and not give us any photos???  C'mon!  Give!

I'll try to scare up some old pics. Or find the old logs & photo them.

[+Ringrat]

In addition to some already listed here, I've found a few with photographic film in a film canister as a log. Shocking, the original use of a film canister!

[+on4bam]

Dowel+ hammer to punch geocachename in a piece of metal, using a marker on a flag, umbrella, clothing, rock, needle and thread to sow our name, thread and plastic beads with letters, 2 meter long wooden stick (hidden in traffic sign pole).....

 

[+frostengel]

On 9/19/2020 at 8:28 PM, JL_HSTRE said:

From the Guidelines:

For all physical caches, there must be a logbook for geocachers to record their visit. The logbook must be:

• Physical
• Replaceable
• Easy to sign
• Enclosed within a container

 

You can add two log possibilities. The "official guideline" logbook in a box for those who just want the find. And a special logbook of any kind for others who are happy to see something special.

 

For example I own a metal sign high up in a climbing tree. While doing the multi cache the cachers find an UV marker to sign it. There's a normal box next to the sign for those who want a normal logbook - so far no one wanted. (The UV logs fit to the main theme of the puzzle, it's an unknown cache with multi cache part outside.)

 

I am using a white belt as logbook in one of my caches as this fits to the background story of the multi cache. This one fits into the ammo box very well.

 

At my first event I was the logbook itself. The cachers had to sign my (well-trained ;-)) body. That was fun - until I had to remove it later that night. :-)

 

There are so many possibilities and the mentioned are only those who I own - and I am not the most creative. I have seen many more. Be creative yourself, you can use almost anything. ;-)

[+terratin]

Stenciling. I've also found a rollup curtain as logbook once. Coincidentally in the same area.

[+TmdAndGG]

Now I remember another. At an event one time, we had to sign a picnic basket.  

[+CacheleyMariePS]

A gas station receipt two days after CO reported they added a new log...

[+JplusN2019]

Just came across one in New York that was a deck of playing cards.

[+DarkZen_EvilCowPie]

We had a geocache in some creepy woods. The log was a large plastic doll (about 3 feet tall) I put a sharpie in her hand so you could just sign right onto her body. When the marker died we placed a more traditional paper log in her hand. Got some interesting online logs at first. 

[+Smitherington]

Two that I remember are a log log and a tape measure log. 

[+Goldenwattle]

I've seen notice board logs in full sight. Sign up for some weird sport or something, or my favourite, a poster of a lost cat called muggles. The log was on the back of it.