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2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

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Everything posted by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

  1. We have never used anything on any of the marks we have found that would not be gone with the next rain. We found that a dusting with cornstarch brings out the letters and numbers just fine for a good picture and does not harm the experience of finding a mark for the next person. Other hunters have used chalk or flour - which takes a little longer to either blow or wash away but still with the thought in mind that it is not long lasting nor harmful to the mark. The idea of keeping a mark just like you found it is the best idea for the next finder. Also, there have been so many marks stolen and put up on E-bay for sale or just taken or destroyed for whatever reason, that I would not alter a mark with paint nor make it any more visible than when we found it. Remember, this is just our hobby and we are not professional surveyors, just love finding little bits and pieces of history. Our special finds were of the older and unique ones.... U 8, JO0308, chiseled square. GQ0323 KANAB SOUTH CAIRN A lot of good times and many miles.... I hope everyone has many more finds and special days....Happy Hunting Shirley - half of the 2OFs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  2. Unfortunately, GEO*Trailblazer 1 - the person who organized the overall project & had the GEOCAC benchmarks made - passed away a few years ago... I did not know about GEO passing away.... He was a great ole' boy. I have missed him being around. The following is in honor of him from one of our now archived LCs from somewhere else.... He was a great guy.... Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  3. If the mark is for elevation then the coordinates are scaled and the datum is of little importance. If the mark is a horizontal mark the the coordinates are very accurate and again the datum is of little importance. Almost all GPSr use WGS84 when you select NAD83 as the primary datum, so it makes no difference which you tell your GPSr to use. Reading the description is more important than the datum you select. John
  4. Hi Path Pacer, There is a very friendly bunch of benchmark hunters over in the Benchmarking Forum --> Benchmarking <-- You can ask any question and/or get lots of info from past threads. You can download info into your GPSr. The steps are in the pinned "Me First!" thread on the benchmarking forum. Have fun and good hunting. Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  5. 3" underground in 1933. 6" underground in 1934. Not logged since 1934. We haven't benchmarked in a while. Any advice on this one? Mr. Dolphin, Get a metal detector to use there. They were known to place many underground marks at that time. The detector is to check for a surface mark that may have been covered over through the years. As you know a great many triangulation stations had buried marks with a surface mark set directly over the buried mark. The coordinates should be very accurate if it is truly a triangulation station, hence the need for the metal detector. John
  6. +1 Agreed. Also, an an EC owner, if I start having to log in to check messages, I will most likely archive our three EC's. It is currently quick and easy to read the answers in the e-mail notification and if all is well, I'm done. We are a husband/wife team. Mr. Car54 has a smart phone and is a tech geek (writes code for a living). He has the paid app on his phone. I have a flip phone and use a handheld GPS and I plan to keep it that way. I am the one who uses the website - from a PC - to submit caches, plan our caching outings, create bookmark lists, submit PQ's, log caches, etc. The more you make it difficult for the PC user (me) to use the site, the less likely we are to use your services. No angst - just sayin'..... Mrs. Car54 +1 Agree totally. Except my hubby and I do not even use/own a smart phone. I am the one using the PC to do anything with caches and John will use his to deal with the benchmark hunting. The more difficult and time consuming you make it for the PC users (both of us) to use the site, the less likely we are to use your services and stick around with this hobby. No angst - just sayin'..... Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  7. Erica, all you need do is pick one of the people who frequent this forum, send them a PM or an e-mail. Anyone of us would be willing to let you tag along with us or plan a day to show you what our hobby is all about. All you need do is to reply here or contact one of us. We are really a friendly group of people. And we all take wonderful pictures, just check out any of our profiles and check out our benchmark finds or gallery. You just need to make the first move..... Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  8. The directions on how to find events by state using the new search are posted in multiple threads including one posted by a lackey. I also think it is in the FAQs linked in the release notes. To find upcoming events in a state leave the search box on the first page blank. That page resolves whatever you enter into a set of coordinates and centers a search there. On the second page clear all cache types, except for events. Then start to type your state into the box and select United States Connecticut. Depending on where you live though you may find it more satisfactory to use a saved pq that you preview since you might also be interested in events in RI. MA, or NY. Hi Planet, as Team Taran already mentioned...the statewide event search is indeed possible for Premium Members, so you should be able to find all events in Connecticut quite quickly. Team Taran's post describes how to do that, but sometimes a picture helps and so you can see a screenshot of searching for statewide events in this post. The linked results use North Carolina as an example, but you can replace your own state. Just make sure to select the state from the drop-down list that will appear when you start typing Connecticut. Here is what search results for Connecticut events look like, sorted by date: https://www.geocachi...rch?types=6&r=7 If this gives you results, then you can click "Change Filters" in the Results page and made adjustments to the filters (like selecting a different state or filtering to show only specific cache types), then click "Update Search". The search results can be viewed on a map by clicking "Map These Results" on the Results page. The link is in the lower right corner of the mountains image that spans the top of the page. As a PM, you also have the option of using a PQ to search events within a certain radius, so you might want to consider that option since there are several states near you. So, we have to use 'back door' ways that are so difficult to understand that we need pictures to navigate the site now. And if you are not PM members anymore, you cannot use the site at all? Gee, thank you very much for making a site that is hard to use where it used to be so simple and fun. Also, are the benchmark hunting links going to be put back onto the main page? No one is answering that question at all. Just wondering the "Why" of all of the changes that do not make things easier for the people who still want to play here.... Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  9. You all might want to go here to see my reply to thebruce0 in Release Notes - March 25, 2015. I might get bannanated for that one.... But, at least I feel better now.... Geesh, I am just getting too old.!.! Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  10. This. Neither the PQs or Bookmarks page have a link back to the 'top' level of its section. Well, aside from going 'back' by using the link in the Play dropdown menu... I think, intuitively, one would expect a link back to the PQ/Bookmark parent page when viewing or editing a child from the list. (it's the page navigation hierarchy line that has been removed) Thank you msrubble, The question is, how or where did you get to "here it is"? The link can also be found in the 'Search Options' block of your profile page (clicking your name in the upper right) as View nearby benchmarks. Thank you thebruce0, but that just takes you to the nearby benchmarks list which really does no good, if you have found other marks and want to log them. If you click on the link at the top of that link that says New Search - that takes you to the advanced search page for benchmarks and not the the Benchmark Hunting page where I would think a link should go to find a particular mark for logging. I think it was very simple and now if people have to search the entire site for what used to be at our fingertips, you might just push people away from our great hobby. Is that what you are trying to do? Or is it that you want new blood only and want to see all of the oldtimers go away? Just stop and think about ease of use instead of how pretty it all is.... Shirley - an oldtimer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  11. Than you msrubble, The question is, how or where did you get to "here it is"? Why is Find a Benchmark not in the dropdown for "Play" on the main page? Is GC going to do away with benchmark hunting? Hmmmm? Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Knowledge Base/Help Center page links to the benchmark Gallery. I cut off the file name gallery.aspx at the end of the URL. I wonder if GC wants only the younger people on their sight now and this is one way of pushing long term users of this site away? Oh, please do not change the forums into something new and not better also! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  12. Thank you msrubble, The question is, how or where did you get to "here it is"? Why is Find a Benchmark not in the dropdown for "Play" on the main page? Is GC going to do away with benchmark hunting? Hmmmm? Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  13. When you come into the "Geocache Types and Additional GPS Based Gameplay" forums subsection you will see this -- Please note the link that is still there. I hate to bring that to attention, as that might also go away.... Did anyone say anything to Moun10bike about all the links going away? Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  14. That is all right. You might want to look around here in Off Topic, it can be very enjoyable for some and extremely funny at times. I hope you get your answer. I find it best not to rock the boat and just let others play the way they want to, if it is not hurting anyone else. Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  15. This thread is caching related and not 'Off Topic' related. Would a mod please move it so it might get seen by entire caching community? Thank you. Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  16. Received it and sent you the three files. Hope you got them and you were able to use them.... Have fun in Arizona. John and Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ Glad 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) got you all fixed up. The benchmark forums have some of the best people. On an aside, if you need an "entire" state of datasheets (and not just individual counties), you can get the state in one swoop. Go here: http://www.ngs.noaa....n/datasheet.prl then archived datasheets --- monthly archives--- zip file of state you want The directory will show you the last time the state file was updated (I think all states have been updated to 2015), so you'll know how current the information in the zip file is. Don't let the word "archived" fool you. It is just a backup storage of all the active benchmarks at a given time...and not ones that have been put away or something. Once you download the file and unzip it, you'll have the entire state of your choosing....to use the data how you choose. Many people will need to convert the NGS datasheets to a gpx format before being able to import into programs like GSAK or similar, including GPS units. That's where NGS-GPX comes into play. http://ngs.tsqmadnes...sgpx/index.html I do not get a ZIP file when I go to the website. What am I doing wrong? You do not get a zip file when you go to the datasheet download page. After you select the datasheets you want, you then hit the "get datasheets" button and it will eventually show a list of all the requested datasheets as 1 long text file. You click on the file button on the menu bar and select "save as" and save the page as a "text" file. You then run the file through a GPX file generator. You then open the GPX file with GSAK. I use BMGPX to convert the text file to GPX. John
  17. I just tried doing a download and found it is very slow. Try selecting about 10 datasheets to download and see how long it takes and verify that it will pull up the datasheets you wanted. The more you try to download the longer it takes to get the datasheet list. Here is the link I used - http://www.ngs.noaa....n/datasheet.prl John
  18. One of the first things we figured out about scaled marks was to disregard the given coordinates and follow the description. We also learned that by following the description like "7.6 miles from the RR station" would get us close to where we should be and if we just opened our eyes we might see a block of concrete, or some pink flagging tape or even a witness post. A topo map has a great many marks indicated on it and and they are usually pretty accurate where they show the mark located. You may get lucky and the mark you are after will be one of those marked on the map. Be sure to get coordinates for where you find the mark. We usually set the GPSr right next to the mark and get a good clear picture of the mark and GPSr so when we log it we can post fresh coordinates and a picture so the next person who wishes to find/use the mark will know if we found the correct mark and have good coordinates to use to get to the mark. Again, it is not about how many you find, it is about being accurate in your find log, so others can quickly locate that mark and know up-front that you actually found and logged the correct mark. John
  19. I would start at the RR station (CRIPRR STATION) in Sayre and go 7.6 miles to the north. At that point I would pace 12 steps to the east from the center line of the road. If you do not immediately see the mark then look both N & S parallel to the road and see if there is an indication for the mark. You may need to use a metal detector if it has been covered up. If you have access to a topo map it may show where the mark is located. The distance from the tangent is only a secondary location indicator, with the primary being the distance from the RR station. Good luck, John
  20. With an extra Kudos for it being a white camo container..... ~~~~~~~~~~~~
  21. Here is an example of determination - GQ0012 - It took 2 years to finally recover this one and it had not been recovered since it was monumented in 1934. The area where it was placed had not been changed. The only change in the description was the highway had been leveled with fill to eliminate the rolling hills so the 18" culvert was not visible. I knew the mark would still be in a rock outcrop, it was just a matter of finding the correct outcrop. Man, there are a lot of outcrops in that area! John
  22. To maximize your finds you need to read the descriptions carefully and follow their directions. How long to look for a benchmark? I have been known to spend almost a full year searching for a single mark that I was sure was still there and Yes I did find it. Talk about satisfaction! It is not about the number of finds or the time spent, it is about deciphering the description and making the find. John
  23. Received it and sent you the three files. Hope you got them and you were able to use them.... Have fun in Arizona. John and Shirley~ ~~~~~~~~~~~
  24. Do you use GSAK? If so, I have all 3 databases, but they are about 10 years old. I could send you GPX files for those counties if I had your e-mail (via a PM). John We need your E-mail address sent to us, as the files cannot be attached through Groundspeak.
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