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We went back out today, and found the 1936 station we didn't have time for the other day. It was way too easy, I'm sure many people have seen it, just no one has reported it to NGS since it was monumented. It was a "great"* day to be out there, though, temps in the upper 60s, partly cloudy -- not bad for December. We took my brother's dog, a 12 yr old Brittany, and we all enjoyed a lunch before taking the walk out to the station CG1066 Unfortunately, the location is obviously a popular relaxing spot for the open-range cattle, so it was impossible to get location shots without a lot of ... stuff... in them *station name = GREAT, located above the town of Greaterville.

That should work out ok for some caching, too. Lots of locals like to take their visiting relatives to places like the Desert Museum, it is world famous after all There are some fairly easy caches along Kinney Rd, Gates Pass Rd, and the McCain Loop. For a central location of the area, try this cache and check out nearby caches. Many of the ones that are 1 or 1.5 are less than 500 ft round trip, and on fairly level ground. If you've never seen the desert in person, this will get you out to see some scenery and some cactus. There are many urban caches, I can't help much on those as I prefer to get out of the city.

well, I decided to check with the boss to see if I could possibly make this one. I asked if there were any blocked dates (I can't be gone at the same time she is - she makes the schedule so of course she gets first choice) The first date she mentioned was weekend of April 17. so, guess I'll just have to wish you all a good time, have fun and be safe.

Here is one that I saw on vacation this summer. It's located at a place called Lands End, on the western end of Grand Mesa in Colorado. Quite a view from up there. Location is approximately N 37 01.522 W 108 13.469 View southward, lots of haze unfortunately. Yes, I know, I didn't clean off the debris, sorry

Hi I don't know of any events in Tucson in the near future, there are a couple of get-togethers in the Phoenix metro area in the next couple of weeks. Some questions to narrow things down a bit: When and how long will you be here ? How limited are you for walking? Will you have a vehicle and what kind ? Do you prefer urban caches or do you want to get as far from the city as possible ? Do you just want to stay local, or will you be touring Southern Arizona some (Tombstone, Bisbee, etc)? Quick suggestions, Mt Lemmon on the north side of Tucson, there is a good paved road up the mountains with a lot of great views of the valleys on both sides of the range. There are several easier caches along the road, including a couple of EarthCaches. It's a scenic drive . There is a small chance of road closure if we happen to get a winter storm. This is a fee area, but if you have the National Parks pass, it covers it. Tucson Mountain Park on the west side has a lot of caches, you can get out and enjoy the desert scenery. If you're interested in something a little touristy, and able, there is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Old Tucson Studios in that same area.

It does sound like fun. Maybe I'll just have to get up some nerve and come meet some of you... depending on time off and if I still even have a job... Really, I had the impression that you all have known each other for years, the way you all get along and everything. I kind of feel like the new kid in town

Congratulations ! It's great to find those older marks that haven't been found in a while. Someday soon I hope to try for one that hasn't been found since it was monumented in '36.

Hey Southpawaz, it's probably a good thing you weren't out there looking for this today. View from the Santa Catalina Mtns on the northern edge of Tucson, around 50 straight line miles away. Winter Storm warnings above 5000 ft.

Speaking as one of the AZ part-time benchmark hunters, I haven't even started thinking about time off work next year yet - I still have to survive the holidays (I work retail) Also, I'm a bit shy around new people and mostly a loner, while you all seem to be long-time friends. It does sound interesting, just something I'd need to think about. As for the quiz, I got 18 out of 20, but much of it was remembered trivia - I have the original Trivial Pursuit board game around here somewhere LOL I'm good with trivia, not so good with important things.

Finally got back out into the "hills" for a day off, I hadn't downloaded any benchmarks so we drove right past one - had to go back a few days later and find it It hasn't been officially logged since it was monumented in 1936, but had been logged at GS. There is a summit log, with dates back to 97 I think, so plenty of visitors. The description on the datasheet is outdated, but I don't have distances in my log, CG1049 Would this description be useful for the report as is? minus the personal comments, of course. We were going to try to find another one, not logged since 36, but decided to find out where a road went and ran out of time.

Arizona also benefits from southpawaz having made it a mission to fill in the map, I think The last two counties to be "filled in" only have 204 and 169 marks in the database, and many of those may no longer exist -- destroyed or buried by Interstate highway construction, metro expansion, and so on -- so that will make those two counties a little more difficult.

congratulations ! Very cool find

In other words, they did a very good job of building a level bridge ? Seems to me they could have come up with something else to use as a designation - but I guess maybe later surveyors would go by coordinates first and worry about disc stampings later if at all ?

Yup, two creatures. The smaller black one is probably just some harmless beetle thing. The other one is the one that got me spooked. It's a giant centipede. The bite is supposed to be quite painful, but only deadly if you're allergic or very old or very young. I don't know if I'm allergic and don't want to find out the hard way. I think it's understandable that I was a little startled again at a cache I found about half an hour later - the CO had attached a large black spider with fishing line to the underside of the lid of the cache. Open it up, and the spider "jumps" out of the cache...

I believe those are supposed to be for the year, the person stamping the disc is supposed to add in the last two digits when set. Many of the AZ Highway Dept discs that I've found don't have them, makes it a little hard to date things. In another area, I was trying to figure out when a particular road was from, but all the discs were like this, just had 19. example of dated disc

Found two benchmarks today, one at each end of a bridge, stamped exactly the same. On the NGS datasheets, one is designated 3985.51, and the other is A 3985.51. I wonder why they didn't stamp the A on the disc? Anyway, I almost had a baaad day benchmarking.

I'm using a Pathtag, as Jeep4Two described. Mine is pictured in my avatar. Another nice thing about them, you can re-order with just a color change for the same price as a regular refill, so you could change to a new color for a new year if you want.

There are a couple of other 1934 marks between there, H11 and H12, at 1.9 miles and 3.7 miles from J52. Maybe they just used those to fill in the gap, since they were there ? J52 does seem out of place when you look at all of them plotted like that. I was searching around a little for any historic maps online. I came across a Fredonia township plat map from 1939 - but it times out before it ever connects. It was cool looking at a 1927 Rand McNally road atlas for AZ and comparing it to the current highways and towns

oops. not to confuse things, I meant I saw the old highway mentioned in other recovery reports from 54. So, parts of it have been re-routed anyway. I wonder why they had F, G, H, J, K, L, and M but no I ? I did a radial search, even for destroyed marks, but nothing comes up.

Is it possible that back in the 30s, Hwy 89 was along Juniper or Maurice up to Pratt, then a right turn on Main ? I think a lot of highways just took over older existing roads, then as time passed they were rebuilt to improve the flow of traffic. Looking at a topo map of the area, it does show two ditches, one on each side of Maurice Ave, and that would make sense for a culvert. It would be interesting to see a 1930s map of the area, showing where the old highway was. I see it mentioned in the 1954 reports of some of the nearby benchmarks.

And this one, NGS called it Poor back in 1962... probably because it leans a little ? CZ0649

Finally getting around to submitting a few reports to NGS, and wasn't too sure on this one. I'm guessing Poor ? I suppose it's doubtful that anyone would ever use it for anything anyway, but is an oddity for a benchmarker to find CZ0592

I received my pin today, what a cool design. Thanks again, GeorgeL, for having the contest and giving out these prizes.

Mega Scooter, thanks for posting that photo. I was there a few years ago, but of course the day I was there, you couldn't really even see the bottom of the Gorge right below due to foggy hazy conditions. that was before I learned about geocaching or benchmarks, too. I need to go back.

Thanks for the contest George Congratulations to the winners. I'd like to come across some of the discs pictured, almost all the ones I've found are just the "same old discs" (and most of them are setting #7, too ) Guess I'll have to keep looking.