NorthWes

Spent all of Monday evening as part of a team carefully packaging the first orders for these mint-quality geocoins. There are three large boxes of packaged orders in my vehicle, on their way to the post office today as part of the order fulfillment process. It was pretty amazing to see the volume of orders from all over the world and from across the entire USA that have already arrived & been filled.

I'm in for one of the Prince of Wales versions... lovely handcrafted geocoin!

I really enjoy reading about these kinds of journeys & seeing the accompanying photos. A photo or two (or more) of the paddle approach to the Wash would be pretty fun to see... and not off topic!

That's pretty cool - the moth is way easier to see than the mark!

I love your desert photos! Benchmarking is the most fun I can possibly have when we have to visit Las Vegas for classes...

A trip to the Moab region almost always had a sky feature in view somewhere... The oft-found GO0510 near 4 Corners, with a thunderhead afar off... There were pieces of the old tower here at San Juan Grand (JM0578), as well as one of those summer evening stormy sky scenes... Montezuma NP's PARK POINT 8572.31 (HM0502) had a flock of butterflies overhead - several of which made it into this photo... I couldn't resist a photo of Mesa County CO's K 153 (KM0059) with the 100-yr-old Loma School to the west - now abandoned to the pigeons... My employer is Alaska's distributor for Carsonite posts - it's a good thing to see 'em doubled up like that!

Neat find, student camper! There's hundreds like this along Alaska's coast waiting to be recovered. You are able to add additional photos to the log; go to your current log (visit the listing and then click on your log - then select 'upload picture'). Get those area photos on the page too with marks like this, for several reason - first of course is to help validate the bolt against the area, but as important as that may be there's a whole bunch of us out here watching the benchmark gallery page for photos of the 'eye candy' settings that some marks are found in - and an Alaskan coastal mark in Ketchikan's coastal waters can't not be 'eye candy'!

If I make a find where others have logged in error, unless I know the cacher I simply post my log as I feel it's correct (with photos - I'm so not able to validate accuracy months or years later on a 'find' when I don't have a photo) and let that stand in the log for the mark. If I know the cacher, I email them privately and discuss the issue before I post (much kinder to find out that way for whichever party ends up being in error). Navaids are tricky for several reasons - first and foremost is that the finder may have no experience with inland or coastal waterway navaids, and have absolutely no idea what they're seeing or should expect to see. I run a skiff in coastal waters in Prince Wm Sound, and have a copy of the Pacific Guide to lights & Navaids' appropriate section for the area I travel so I'm equipped to actually travel the coast and use the navaids. I've been to USCG small boat school where we had to learn to recognize what they mean. So, when I see a 'range light' or another odd description I'm pretty ready for what to expect. Secondly, although these were seen from a cruise ship, if you're an experienced compass/GPS user it's a snap to take a bearing on the navaid (which has adjusted coordinates) and be pretty sure that regardless of the angle of view you've got the right one. I'm inclined to think after viewing the photos and my charts for that area that the photos are of the correct mark. You - being 'on the ground' so to speak - can validate the finds by driving up to the navaid from the land side and confirming the background of the photos in question! I see the same several utility poles along the roadway, for example - but from different angles of bearing on the mark. And lastly, at least one of the prior finders is a pretty experienced surveying professional whom I trust would've gotten the mark right based on a bearing method. This is an excellent question - and for where you live one that is beyond the average cacher's opportunity & ability to observe as an action item. I primarily am concerned with making sure I get it right, and dont worry too much about other logs until I'm ready to compare my conclusions against them. If they differ, then I triplecheck my work to ensure it's not me in error (because too often it has been!)

I suppose I should 'fully disclose' that I'm a 'member at large' of the board of directors of GeocacheAlaska!, Inc., to help you understand why I'm so passionate about advocating your visit to our website for educational purposes...

GeocacheAlaska!, Inc (Alaska's statewide "local" geocaching organization) has purposed to host at least a half-dozen 'EDUvents' per calendar year. These are education events aimed specifically at developing geocachers' skill sets related to one particular topic or aspect of the geocaching game. On this first round of EDUvents the topical teaching has focused on an introductory level approach. Because of the distances involved, events are hosted at widely scattered locations around the state with the actual presentation being 'webcast' from one of the sites. While numbers of persons involved aren't huge by 'outside' standards, it's thus far been very successful here at meeting our educational goals. On April 15 2010 I was the presenter for the EarthCache FUNdamental EDUvent. Here in Alaska our geologic landscape is rich in opportunities for EarthCaches. Our goal at this event was to introduce and explain EarthCaches, as well as exhort cachers to model excellence in developing new EarthCaches. All of our EDUvent presentations are posted to the Education Page of our website as a resource for geocachers. You're welcome to visit that page and peruse the presentations. What is not shown on the education page is the photo slideshow some presenters run during the Q&A session, which amplify and illustrate the concepts presented (or just provide delightful geocaching eye-candy!) If you'd like to use the powerpoint presentation (rather than the PDF seen on the website) please contact me directly from my profile page via email. GeocacheAlaska!, Inc asks that anyone using materials from their website contact the webmaster for permission (usually cheerfully granted), and credit GeocacheAlaska!, Inc as the source.

After returning home to Alaska I realized it hadn't snowed on southcentral Alaska's Glenn Highway yet, south of Denali Park. A work crew just finished cutting back brush for a hundred yards on both sides of one long stretch of the highway - making the benchmarks in that area easy pickings (albeit ugly easy pickings). On 10-23-10 I drove a 325 mile loop to look for a few good caches and fistfuls of benchmarks. Here's two that had somewhat redeeming backgrounds to their settings (PGrig will understand this subtle pun). Temperature hovered at 38 for the whole drive all day long, and I found lots to log (but not much that was purty). I logged a note on my search for TT1429 P 104, as the only mark found in this area was a GPS-set mark stamped as P104 RESET. It's the only mark of the day which provided a decent background shot to include Denali, about 75 miles distant... Just a few hundred yards south of the Talkeetna turnoff on the Glenn Hwy sits a little white Baptist Church. I stopped in to say hi to the pastor (an acquaintance of mine) and asked if he'd mind if I dug up benchmark TT1429 L 105 in the church's front yard. He was thrilled to see what had been lurking under the duff and detritus - and so was I! Here's a fantastic view of Mt Foraker & Denali, taken from the GC20ZP6 Denali Panorama Cache. Denali is about 45 miles away here and the Chulitna River is visible below...

For everyone who wants to be fishing this afternoon: RB1412 TRANS, looking to the McNary Dam on the Columbia River, east of Umatilla OR on the WA side of the river... I was pleased to be able to verify the presence of RB1417 and RB1416 - McNary Front and Rear Range Lights. The front range marker is actually visible to the naked eye in this photo...

Another viewpoint - this is looking roughly north across SV1268 STEPTOE out onto the vastness of the Palouse grasslands.

During a quick trip to Pullman WA I found myself with a day available to wander the area. This picture was taken at the overlook on the Washington state side, before driving down the hill to Lewiston ID. We're looking across RZ0919 D23 southwest to the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers at Lewiston. It's a stopping point on the Lewis & Clark trail with one of the commemorative markers; we of course visited there as well as at the historic 1873 RZ1586 station. There's three other PIDs within a hundred yards or so of this marker, plus as an earthcache and several other caches scattered along the descent into the river bottom. It was a 'sweet spot' to stop on our mid-October journey across the SE corner of Washington state. I unfortunately didn't have time to search for any of the marks located on the switchbacks of the Old Spiral Highway seen in this photo...

Got mine, and I love 'em. I used them for a recent trip to SE Washington state, where I was able to carefully plan my very limited hunting time and driving routes to both maximize previously-validated elevation stations (the benchmark hunting equivalent of a numbers run) and interesting/scenic/historic locations. I flipped the target counties into GSAK, and sampled PIDS along the known routes of travel. As this is an area of the country several of this forum's regular contributors have worked and traveled extensively, it was nice to see what they thought were notable recoveries (for example, thanks to CallawayMT for his excellent photos of the 1873 RZ1586; they interested us enough that my wife came with me down to visit that site). It saved me tons of legwork in performing downloads etc. This was also my first 'run' using a Colorad0 450; I can't say enough about how this device makes benchmark hunting more efficient. Using GSAK and the GPX files from these CDs, I can go in the field with one device showing recovery logs, datasheets (and with a little extra effort, even prior recovery photos) - all in one tool. On tri-stations it even loads out the reference marks as 'child waypoints'. Thanks for your hard work on these - I'm delighted with them.

I found an interesting variation of a USLS disk at QK0513 - a reference mark type not shown on your paper. When I first stumbled over it, I assumed it was an azimuth mark from the stamping. Subsequent measurements and perusal of the data sheet led me to conclude it's RM2. You're welcome to use any of the photos involved. I may have higher-resolution photos off-line. Recovery of nearby QK0568 (from 1851) was our primary reason for traveling this portion of the Lake Huron shoreline. The location is a PID-rich site; we found 5 in 45 minutes time searching one cedar thicket. It's a great memory... Here's a picture of RM2 at MAST S 1909 (QK0513)... note how it's stamped at bottom center 1940 S

That matches the description for TT1488, which for some reasons is not in the geocaching.com database. What's interesting is how clean and fresh the concrete looks for a 1923 benchmark in Chitina, Alaska!

Kurt, welcome to rural Alaska! Down here in Anchorage it's much more cosmopolitan. Neat photos & I hope your time goes well out there & the weather's kind to you... So nice to see you've turned another Alaska borough red - too cool!

Yup - it was the old bridge - and the realignment's more obvious when you stand on the old bridge. It was just last year. My dad & I were in town for the EAA Airventure Show (airshows aren't fun on rainy days, so we'd gone benchmarking/geocaching). Like a knucklehead the only thing I left in the rental car was the camera, thanks to the intensity of the rain at that moment. I had my GPS and the license plate I was using as a scraper tool - and what I remember vividly is driving off in the pouring rain but leaving my GPS on the bridge corner post... which was duly noticed about two minutes after leaving the area. GPS was still there on return. My dad remembers worrying I'd fallen into the stream, as I went down out of sight behind the bridge pillar post in my search - for several minutes' time. I made written notes on the recovery in my logbook when I got back to the car as "Found - stamp matches"... and have no photo to show for it - the only absent disk photo of the day. This clearly illustrates (no pun intended) why a good closeup photo is a must - especially when you've gone and reported it to the NGS as a recovery. My normal routine was disrupted, and now I'm hoping glorkar (Jeremy) can come up with a photo to validate my recovery report, logbook & memories of the spot.

I still miss my 1978 CJ5. It was an excellent backcountry rig. There's simply no substitute for a Jeep, unless you've got a MOD Land Rover (about a 101 or shorter). As far as fuel goes - well... I'm sure something can be sacrificed in the family budget so the fuel bill for geocaching can be met. Besides, based on the photos it looks like you've mastered the fine art of throttle / brake control! Moose Mob - Be safe over there while driving the MRAP... Let me know if there's any cache support we folks from GeocacheAlaska can send your way while you're there.

And I see someone's added the Aleutians East Borough to the new recoveries map! I know a commercial fisherman who geocaches out that way, including Dutch Harbor. He's done a few really remote benchmark recoveries... I wonder if those are his, or someone else's logs?

Howdy! I suspect that cadastral mark isn't in the database at all, as most Alaskan disks with that stamp are simply land boundary markers placed during a survey. Along the Russian River trail there's four different major land owners in the first three miles of the trail (each managing their massive parcels to a slightly different outcome), so I suspect this was set sometime after the 1980 passage of ANILCA (Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act). ANILCA in part changed over 100 million acres of land designation to wilderness or conservation use in Alaska, which of course meant it had to be surveyed so as to protect the land out to its very boundaries. While that means the average Alaskan now has a crazy quilt pattern of land ownership/land usage regulations to deal with, it also means there's a need to delineate the borders and boundaries of that 100 million plus acres - thus, the profusion of cadastral survey marks set across the landscape here in Alaska in the mid-80s (this, in addition to the already existing sets of cadastral markers outlining prior land usage/ownership boundaries). If you'd like to learn more about ''benchmarking' (with a special focus on Alaska), be sure to attend GC2AJN "Benchmarking FUNdamentals - Central Kenai Peninsula Event" on July 22nd. It's one of GeocacheAlaska Inc's ongoing series of 'EduVents' - education events designed to present a particular aspect of the geocaching game in a 30 minute fast-paced presentation, followed by a question/answer session. The events have thus far been hosted out of the Anchorage site and simultaneously webcast into local events in the central Kenai Peninsula, Homer, the Matanuska/Susitna Valley and Valdez. This particular event seeks to equip geocachers with basic knowledge about geodetic survey marks, mostly using the outline presented on geocaching.com's Introduction to Benchmark Hunting - arguably the best place to start learning about this aspect of the great 'game of location' geocachers are playing. Hope to hear you 'log in' on July 22nd!

I've run up that very stretch of abandoned highway, and seen those markers you're referencing (that's a great 'hunting ground'). I'm with Bill; I'd assumed they were the right of way (ROW) boundary stones. I've seen them here in Alaska with ROW cast on their sides, as well as similar markers in other states. An Alaska DOT ROW enforcement officer told me 'in the old days' that was the marking methodology used to give landowners a guideline for the required setback from the highway. Now, of course, a surveyed as-built drawing is required to ensure the setback is met. In our sign business, the ROW setback is a critical line to be aware of when executing sign installations along the state highways.

Range lights are meant to be seen on a particular line of approach as a 'light' - and are often masked from view unless you're on the range approach. This seems to be a front range light, which is seen lower than the corresponding rear range light. The actual 'light' appears to be the small object atop the concrete bastion in the center of your photo. Of course, I wasn't there on site to make the observation, but that's what I would've been looking for. I get to make navigation signs for 'private aids to navigation' up here, so have had to read up on the whole USCG navigation light & sign system. There's actually an online listing of Coast Guard-maintained lights on the East & West Coasts.

This is a pretty incredible snapshot of the growth of caching in various areas. I'm looking for some of Monaco's 9 caches next month... Hmmm... if we left the vast tracts of land designated "wilderness" by the federal govt (and therefore off limits to cache placements) out of the calculations, I wonder what Alaska's caches per km^2 standing would be...