Test Online Travel Log

This is an experiment. Play around with it and let me know what you think. (Right-Click on "Evan's Travel Log" and choose "Duplicate Sheet" to make your own log.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoFlzCDJ45LIdEljYkd4TEFGUnh0SFhDeEtyWUJnR1E

 

Oh Evan this is going to add a whole new facination. I added a page for my travel log and a page for the food packing.
Thanks

 

Evan,
I forgot to say I just inserted a new page copied the data from my spreadsheet and pasted into the new page. Simple!

 

Evan, what Pat said! Copied and pasted from my excel spreadsheet and it worked perfectly. Anyone is free to lift it. Do you want to put any limit on the data? If enough people are interested (or OCD in this way), how about a separate forum thread? Kathy

 

Kathy, I cannot believe how close your list is to mine for packing. Pretty funny.
Is this OCD?

 

I choose to believe it's just brilliance!

PS, your travel plan indicates you're traveling west - where are you going?

 

Kathy we are going to start out by seeing friends in Colorado Springs then so far on our list Black Canyon of the Gunnison,CO; North and South rims of the Grand Canyon, Valley of Fire, Navada then depending on the weather stay in the rocky areas or head to the CA coast and take 1 north to Oregan. as you can see it is still developing and we do not want to make it too hard and fast. Last year we went up into WA and were too planned to just stop and stay. We loved our trip but felt we did not tarry long enough along the way.

 

Pat, by the end of June, I should have reviews on several campgrounds posted on the forum for our trip down the Oregon Coast through the Redwoods and into Petaluma/Sacremento.

Right now I have reservations for the following:
Cape Perpetua (OR)
Sunset Bay SP (OR)
Prairie Creek Campground (CA-Redwoods)
Hidden Springs Campground (CA-Humboldt Redwoods SP)
Patrick's Point (CA)
Harris Beach SP (OR)
Carter Lake (OR)
Cape Lookout SP (OR)

Might give you some ideas of places. I haven't stayed at any of these yet, but picked them based on lots of recommendations, as well as the activities in the area (tide pooling, hiking, etc). Not sure when you are planning to head out, but with summer, reservations are almost always needed (everyone gets out of the city it seems...especially on the weekends!). Plus, this is the time of year people all are heading North (when we have summer, the Northwest is pretty amazing).

We are also doing a weekend camping trip with some friends for the OMSI star party (our science center holds these campouts and teaches folks about the stars), where we will be staying at Stub Stewart SP at the end of June as well, in case you need something closer to Portland. If you have any questions about the Oregon part of your trip, let us know. Lots of folks here should be able to help!

 

Evan, I love spreadsheets, and this is pretty cool. Thanks for giving us a new tool to geek out with!

 

Please give feedback on the spreadsheet. It's a piece of cake to setup, and we could have one for trip logs and another for packing lists, etc...

 

Pat, hear you about finding a balance between making tracks and stopping to smell the roses. On our first "big trip" (tenting), we erred toward the former as we had commitments to be certain places at certain times. On the second "big trip" (w/TD), we still had commitments but kept them looser and made course corrections along the way. Of course, that trip was longer. This most recent trip to California, the first half was fairly predetermined but the second half was looser, enabling us to meet up with Jenn and some old friends. We need to get into the habit of just opening up the garage door, hooking up the TD and taking off to one of the very lovely places close by. We can get to the ocean in 2 hours - a real waste not to go there when we have a few days free.

Sarah, can't wait to hear your reviews of the Oregon SP's on your list. The only one of those we've stayed at is Cape Lookout (where, in the bathroom, I ran into someone who knows a friend who lives in Denver!)

Evan, like the idea of having places for different types of spreadsheets. I would imagine you could set up quick-links in the Forum Links box and keep them separate from the body of the threads; maybe with a place to alert readers to a new or edited spreadsheet.

 

Thanks for your help, Evan! Jim tried and tried, but just couldn't get the list to paste. We'll let you know if he continues to have problems with it.

Now we are part of the OCD club too!! We created our list a few months ago, when we finally got tired of always forgetting to pack one or two little "necessities". It is by no means, all inclusive. We left out most of the things that stay in the mcnugit, full time. It has made packing for an outing much easier.

 

Love, it, Jamie. A worthy "club" to belong to! Kathy

 

Evan,
I think it would be helpful to have separate ones for trip logs and packing and maybe a 3rd for cooking equipment and food packing. Thanks for working on this we use Google docs for some thing for our school but I did not realize you could connect them to a forum. Very cool.

 

Jim, the problem might be in how you select the columns and rows in your spreadsheet. I go to the bottom line and then to the field in the furthest column to the right and start my hightlighting there and move my cursor up to the top row. this will give you just the columns and rows you want to copy. Then when you go to the google spreadsheet Evan made use Insert new sheet and put your cursor in the square to the left of the first column and paste. Hope that helps if you have another spreadsheet. Thanks for the one you have now I will see if I can add anything to mine before I put it in.

 

Sarah thanks for the list of campground really helpful. We you say make reservations how far ahead do you think we have to make them? In Minnesota there are always some spots that are not reserable and are first come first serve. Is that true in Oregon? We hoped to not be so confined as to have to get to certain places at a specific time.

 

On the weekends, things were starting to fill up for June, and even though I usually camp in tent spots, I noticed, if you prefer power, those spots were already all gone. They do have first come first have, but in the past they have all been taken (on the weekends especially). Not sure when you are planning your trip, that might make a difference too. I will say, some of the lesser known sites, don't fill up as quickly as some of the state parks. If they are favorites though (places like Cape Lookout) you might be hard pressed. Especially on the northern coast. You should have better luck during the week.

Last year we wanted to head over for a couple of nights, on a weekend. We were looking at the Cannon Beach area, and there was nothing available 2-weeks out. We did find a spot in Newport and went there, but that is a difference of driving 1.5 hours and 3+ hours.

 

Sarah, this is good information. We have graduation June 9th and then we will probably take a couple of days to unwind and then head out. Last year doing the same thing we had no problem along the columbia and the olympic pennisula but it was a cold year. We do usually try to change camp sites Tues, Wed or Thur at the latest. So we will probably go on a hope and a prayer calling a week ahead. Life is so scheduled during the school year I feel the need to go as we can and not be on too tight a schedule.

 

Yah, it's pretty kewl... assuming one keeps it up todate..

You can list the years trips and then put a summary page of the things you want to review for the year, like number of nights, mileages etc..

Here's what I used, but haven't updated for a while heheh, see what I mean...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgTsQVZ_JT18dHl5aE11cHZSRGF4cm96Q1VuWEtVY0E

there's a summary page in there too..
Well, I guess it opens up to the Summary sheet, then scroll down to the bottom and look for the Lines next to the "+" Add sheet sign:
Lines:
----
----
----
----

Only smaller, click and click on the 2011 sheet..
(whoops just saw the tabs at the bottom, thought there was an easier way, click on the bottom tabs Summary or 2011

It also great to work with others to plan trips and update in the comments section...
fun..

I put the links into the cells and Use the Google Maps directions to (location) for the mileage figures, keeps it simple like

HTH

 

Like it, Frank. you've really made it helpful to others. Kathy