Who actually does this?

candy123 · Newbie

Who actually does this?

grnbrg · Senior Member

candy123 wrote:
Who here use paperless geocaching?
I was wondering if it was worth it or not?

It's nice if you're going for caches in large volumes, or are just 'Going caching' without a particular cache in mind.

I've got all the caches in Manitoba (around 500) loaded into my GPSr and Palm Pilot. If I happen to be driving by one and have some time, I may stop and try to get it.

Also quite useful if you're travelling and don't know where you'll be.

I use the Pocket Queries from Groundspeak, which I convert with GPSBabel to load into my GPSr, and into an ebook format I can use on my palm.

grnbrg.

1queenand4jokers · Senior Member

We did it on our trip to the Maritimes. We loaded hundreds of caches based on several cities onto our PDA through GSAK. Then as we travelled I'd load in a few caches around our next destination manually onto our GPSr. It worked well except that we lost some notes midway through.

polarbeardiggers · Veteran Member

I have all manitoba's caches listed in my palm by ebook format,i get regular queary results twice a week,especially when so many caches are coming out,but i still like the paper as for keeping in my binders,i can't wait to use the palm tx more in the field on longer trips,.

Lizardo · Senior Member

Paperless caching is the only way for me. If I'm off geocaching, I carry my GPSr, my iPAQ, and my Blackberry. Before I leave on a caching day or at least on a weekly basis, I load pocket queries from gc.com to GSAK. Then I export the html pages to my iPAQ with all the logs and then push all of the relavent waypoints into my GPSr. If I ever need more info in the field, the html covers everything but pictures. So I just go to gc.com on the bberry for caches like Patriot Game.

winnipegk5 · Veteran Member

I also always go paperless. I use cachemate on my palm and have caches for Manitoba, NW Ontario, Minnesota and North Dakota loaded on it right now. I update it weekly or just before I leave on a big trip. I also carry my laptop on certain big trips with all my Mapsource maps for the area loaded c/w the caches in the area.

dutch53 · Veteran Member

We started using paperless on our road trip last Sept/Oct and enjoyed it. Now we down load our queries just before going geocahing and use it all the time. Setting up your queries correctly will give you exactly what you are looking for.

Peter and Gloria · Senior Member

I use GSAK to manage all our cache info. It easy to transfer needed caches into our GPSr and into our palm with Cachemate. Usually we just have unfound caches with 160 km in our GPSr, but we have all Manitoba, some NW Ont, some NE ND & some NW MN caches in the palm. With GSAK and Cachemate, it's easy to have lots of past logs to read in case we have trouble finding a cache.

Now if I can only find a good way to manage pictures needed for caches like Patriot Game.

dani_carriere · Senior Member

The key to this is that you must have a PDA of some sort to do paperless geocaching.

You may want to modify your poll to add: No, but I would if I had a PDA

Which would be my answer, but otherwise I'm stuck with the 20th century version.

TASKForce3 · Member

I am not sure if anyone has seen this yet or not, but it looks like anyone with a WAP capable cell phone can get most of the information you would want about a cache from anywhere that you can get phone service.

Check out this site with either your web browser or your web capable phone.

http://wap.geocaching.com/

TurdleEggs · Senior Member

There's some more discussion on the WAP topic here TASKForce3.

TASKForce3 · Member

Thanks for the info TurdleEggs, but it would appear that I'm not special enough to access that link. It appears to be a private forum thread.

No biggie, I'm pretty resourceful so I'm sure I'll be able to dig up more info on my own.

FoodNinja · Veteran Member

Foodninja never goes paperless,,, what if nature calls. I have a explorer 200 and it doesnt have data cable capability so I enter in all caches by hand...some day .... I will have a beter gps.

TurdleEggs · Senior Member

My apologies for the tease TASKForce3. Sometimes there's a little lag between signing up at the MBGA and forum and having access granted to the Manitoba Geocaching Association threads, so I’m sure you’ll have access soon.

dutch53 · Veteran Member

We wouldn't go back to paper if we have a choice. All the info is right there. No lost pages or ink running because it is damp (or wet). The best reason is that you can have a large number of cache site info pages with you at all times in a small package and not have a large binder of paper. It is the only way to go!

grnbrg · Senior Member

dutch53 wrote:
The best reason is that you can have a large number of cache site info pages with you at all times in a small package and not have a large binder of paper.

I'll second that. I have every unfound cache from Regina to Thunder Bay, and from Churchill to Grand Forks (around 1200 caches) loaded into my PDA and GPSr. If I'm targetting a specific cache (particularly if it's a puzzle of some sort) I may print it out. But for the most part I just fire up the GPS and see "what's close".

grnbrg.

Dragonfreys · Senior Member

grnbrg wrote:

If I'm targetting a specific cache (particularly if it's a puzzle of some sort) I may print it out.

I thought you didn't like puzzles . Is this going to be like the strong stance on micros? Before we know it you will have a puzzle cache out... oops. Something tells me that printing your puzzle won't help much.

Back on topic: we agree you can't beat paperless, unless you are out of batteries. I've watched paper dissolve where a PDA carried on collecting field data.

Cheers, Dragonfreys