Your Strategy For Cave Exploration

[Captain_indecisive]

Personally, I always put my torches on the left wall. That way, I know when I see torches to the left I'm heading further in, and torches on the right mean that I'm leaving the cave system. It gets a little weird when I encounter a tunnel that doubles back, but I always make it out eventually without teleporting.

So, what does everyone else do to keep from getting lost in a cave?

[Spamarian]

I just go in. If I see Iron, I stay. If I dont, I move further.
Sometimes, I remove some blocks while I am passing, to uncover possible Iron that is 1-2 blocks behind.
I dont really explore caves. I havent done it 3 months now, because I have dug all the underground area..
If I move to another are in the map, I'll see.

[DavidJerk]

I rarely explore caves anymore and don't get lost anymore in them anyway. After playing for so long, it eventually becomes second nature. I tend to branch mine at bedrock now though. More efficient.

[Boshiwarrior]

Just go to a mine when I want to mine. Search for a hole and get in. If it is a big cave I stay. If it is little I only exlore it or leave it.

[lLLEGAL]

Damn! Didn't think of that method capt!
Excellent, I'll try it soon, because I always get lost in caves xD

[Myskillzownu]

I've never though to put torched exclusively on the left side; thanks for the idea!

And typically what I do is "/sethome" when I find an area that branches off/looks promising.
After I explore one section, I just "/home" back to the previous section.
However, I have three friends (two of which I live with), that play Minecraft as well. Because of that, only one of us needs to have their home set at any given time.

I haven't explored a cave on single player since I purhcased Minecraft, and back then I always lost my home.
(It was before I knew about compasses and coordinates; I would always make a lava tower though, so I could find it from a semi-far distance.)
But if I were to do that again, I can imagine I would bring down a chest and put some planks and sticks in it for signs.
From there I would just use them as place-markers and seal off paths with cobble after I was certain I had explored them extensively.
I would be sure to mark my coordinates of origin though, and worse comes to worse I would just dig straight up and walk home when day hits.

[thedude114]

Place torches. Look for light to get out.

[ViperZeroOne]

I've got somewhat of a unique (at least I think) way of doing cave systems.  Normally I just place torches randomly to act as bread crumbs for my exit, but if I get to an opening where there are multiple directions one could go I'll drop an easily viewable sign pointing to the way I came in with the word EXIT on it.  That way I can backtrack to the exit sign, go another direction, backtrack, go another direction, and always keep track of my original path back to the entrance of the cave.  Then, once I've explored all the directions, I grab my signs on the way out.