Astro_D

Well, I would love to find and place coins in caches, but the problem in my area is that most caches are micros and are just too small to hold coins or TBs. So that really limits placing these movers.

OMG!!! Thank you for the laugh to start my day!! Where do you people live that you get all the weird stuff???

What an interesting thread as my family and I are preparing for our vacation in Washington DC next month. We are very much looking forward to touring this city via geocaching and benchmark hunting. While I understand the heightened security, I am still a free citizen visiting public places and will not be deterred from doing something legal.

I hve to say I completely agree with you. There is an event in our area planned for October... I heard that the local reviewer is reserving all the spots for their caches (They are going to be permenant or so I was told). We are talking about 20-30 spots. (It's some "road rally" event that requires teams and driving between cities to find caches along specified routes). Things like this really make me dislike geocaching more and more.

Add AstroD to the list. We still suck at poker, but have fun finding BMs.

Add me to the list of not reporting others finds to the NGS. While the intention is good, it can lead to lots of SNAFUs. I admit, we have found several BMs that have not been reported to the NGS in some time, if ever. We genreally do not report them either. It's not because we don't want to give the information (we do), but because we don't feel competent enough to report them (measurements, directions might be a bit off or something). There have been some cases where we have reported a recovery. The most recent being this BM - QM0666.

Not that I know of. Most of my caching friends have Palms..I've used theirs and could not see a difference. Go with whatever fits in your budget. Either one will do the job well.

We use a 2003 iPac Pocket PC loaded with Cachemate for benchmarking. I have about 18 counties downloaded on it and am quite happy. Of course, we do not load the GC.com pages for benchmarking, but rather the NGS county records as they tend to offer lots more detail.

All I can ask is what happened to responsibility for one's self? I distinctly remember reading Geocaching disclaimer that Cache seekers assume all risks involved in seeking a cache. would take this to include personsal health risks as well as physical risks. I know my health limitations. Therefore, it's up to me to decide if the cache is safe enough to hunt, not the cache owner's responsibility to make it safe for me. In fairness, would it be beneficial to list what type of container is used on the cache page? No question it would. But by doing so, it might well give away part of the fun of finding the cache.

I'm complaining about those cachers who put out caches with a theme and state on the cache page many times in no uncertain terms that you MUST trade according to the theme. Why are others trying to dictate what I must now trade at caches? This mentality makes me dislike the cachers in question enough to refuse to find their caches; or, more likely, find their caches and fill em with non-theme related crap. Thank you for letting me vent.

Katrina, There is *always* LADY LUCK where no Old bluff is needed... Just find 'em and log 'em and (on paper) put a check mark beside which hand they might be used for...then when you have the best hand going...post it. No ProblemO. Shirley~ LOL. boy you guys find some great markers. Looking forward to the challenge. Even if we don't do well, we'll still have all the fun of finding benchmarks. That's the main thing.

oh good god! I read and re-read the point set up and i'm still scratching my head. Guess i gotta go learn a new game. I still think teaching kids about rocketry is a heck of a lot simpler. Well, looking forward to seeing how poorly we're gonna do in this one. I can't play the game and I sure and hell can't bluff.

:

But...but...I absolutely suck at poker!!! Looking forward to seeing what devious plans your minds have come up with now. I think.

OOhhh......is there a database for these objects?? We can combine out two favorite hobbies...benchmarking AND astronomy!! DaveD - were these instruments only manufactured by Troughton & Simms in the UK? Or were there any other companies that made them? A friend of ours owns a similiar scope from 1891. But I don't think it was from the company you mentioned.

I enjoy the tough caches. The only ignored caches on my list are any type of puzzle caches. Just don't want to be bothered wasting hours in my house trying to deciphrer coordinates when that time could well be used to be OUT and about.

Just recently, we have been running pocket queries that ignore any and all micro containers. We've been all the happier for it. Will we miss a great micro hide or two doing this? Sure, no doubt about it. But really, with working, a family and other responsibilities, I just don't have the time to sift through pages and pages of micro hides to find the one or two that may just stand out as being worthy of hunting.

Thanks all for this lively (to me anyway) intro to benchmarks... (is benchmarking a word?) And in honor of all this talk (and thanks to the holoscenes map link) I went out today and found my first benchmark FTF!!!! (KK0555) It seems Colorado does have a lot already discovered, but then again with all the mountainy goodness here, I would assume we have probably more Benchmarks here than most places?? Thanks to all... greg greg1701@comcast.net www.denvertvguy.com LOL Yes. benchmarking IS a word. We use it all the time. CONGRATS on your first benchmark FTF!!! Here's to many more.

Wow, I've never seen two side by side markers like that before. Geez, Wisconsin must be brutal as they seem to enjoy ripping out the NGS marks and setting their own on top of the original. I've yet to come across any destroyed reports either. I see cachers that insist on logging the WIDOT as the the NGS benchmark even though we posted otherwise. Seems the prevailing theory is that if the coordinates bring you to a marker, its the right one to log.

We encounter this question at least once everytime we go out looking. I found a proactive approach works very well. If there are people out, we approach them and explain that we are looking for survey markers, that all we want to do is verify if its around, grab a picture or two, get updated coordinates with our GPSr and be on our way. It certainly doesn't hurt to ask if they are aware of a survey markers around. If we know its on public property and know one has a clue about any survey markers, we say something to the effect, you don't mind if we search around for a bit if we stay off private property? We always get a sure go ahead type response..and most of the time we get permission to roam on private property as well. Other times when there is no one around and we are looking and we get stopped, we just explain that we looking for a survey marker to verify its existence and get updated coordinates for it. Most of the time people will wander away quite quickly or there'll be the folks who will tell you where it is and give you their life stories. Which is kind of neat. I guess, just be honest about what you are doing, don't misrepresent yourself (you do not work for any gov't agency), and be respectful of people's property. We find that most people don't really care anyways.

Hi Greg! I cannot speak for everyone, but here in my area, many geocachers don't care to hunt benchmarks because finding them does not up their find count. Some of the blatently obvious marks that are near caches get logged quite a bit, but most of the time when we go out, we are in virgin territory. Which can be both fun and very frustrating. If you have lots of marks in your area that haven't been found, have fun and give it a go. If there are some that ahve been found look for them anyways. Sometimes you may just come across one that has been logged incorrectly. And well, its fun to set the record straight.

Got it! Is there a place on the web that you would recommend to place your photos to be used on the forums. I use photobucket to upload all my pixs to the different forums I'm on. It is free and you can upload tons of photos and its simple to use. http://www.photobucket.com just a thought...... In our area, we are coming across WIDOT benchmarks in the locations of the NGS benchmarks. Especially after a road has been widened or intersections redone. Very frustrating to think we found a marker only to discover a WIDOT disk there instead.

Holy Carp!!! What an absolutely cool find!!! *is extremely jealous* Thanks for sharing all the pixs! I have never seen one of these before. I really enjoy all the extra history that comes from BMing.

Ha! you'd never get me to go for this one. I'm afraid of heights (unless I'm in a plane which is completely different) and completely terrified by water.

WOW!! Why don't I have anything like these pixs?? Wisconsin really is a boring state (the parts we hunted in anyways). Here's one of our favorites, although the pix really doesn't do it justice.... PM0129 - Manitowoc County, WI