NorthWes

Had a great dinner this week with friends from Albuquerque NM who'd flown up to Anchorage AK to see their son before his unit (4/25 - 4th Brigade [Airborne] 25th Inf Div) deploys next week from Alaska to Afghanistan. My friend & I earned our Eagle rank in the early 70's and this young man earned his Eagle just after the turn of this century (geez we're old!). As we chatted across what the young soldier has been doing to prepare for deployment it was obvious he had learned land navigation, leadership, and woodcraft skills on the journey to his Eagle rank - and that paid off when he joined up. That night I saw and heard self-confidence based on achievement as a Scout. It may seem 'wimpy' to some folks, but this soldier's remarks made clear that as the Army taught him warfighting skills he was already secure in his ability to take charge, find the route, arrive and settle in for the night in the wilderness. His choice of jobs in the Army on coming out of boot camp? 19D - Cavalry Scout (with Airborne qualification) - because it looked like where the action would be. He's been geocaching with me a bit, and is looking forward to doing more here when he's back from this tour of duty. Perhaps he'll come across CavScout one day as well...

Epic. That's a testimony to earnestly asking permission, eh? What a grand place - those photos belong on the photo contest thread.

Here in the Anchorage, if it's too cold for the Sportsman's Whse pen (from my shirt pocket) to write, I use a pencil. I carry a fine tip sharpie as well, which is good on tyvek or damp logs - which aren't pretty at subzero temps in any case. Pencils are great at any temp and the cache owner should leave a pencil as well as a pen in the cache with the logbook in our area. I prefer the simple #2 pencil or a carpenters pencil - easy to sharpen with the always-carried pocket knife; with my handwriting a fine point isn't as important as having any smudge at all! I usually only cache when it's warm enough for the dogs to be along for a good walk (which means no caching when it's colder than -15F).

Land managers (park rangers etc) will sometimes place downed timber across the entrance to what they perceive to be 'social trails'. It's done to discourage folks from leaving a 'main trail.' It's a particular habit (using larger timber) where single-track bike riding off established trails is a problem. Otherwise, I think marking a cache is rare. I've seen it, but rarely.

Pugil sticks - competitors wear helmets & chest pads, using sticks with big padded 'balls' on the end, stand on surfboards (or similar) in a pool, and see who gets knocked down first... Or just skip the pool and floats & go for the gusto Marine Corps boot camp-style!

Snow! The JOY of SNOW! It does complicate the cache hunt... but it's another reason to love ammocans hidden in the woods. Unlike my compatriot Ladybug Kids (who straps himself to skis and then hooks himself to trail-crazy skijor hounds...) I fire up the 'old iron' for the back-country benchmarking and cache hunts when there's lots of snow on the ground. Aaaahhhh - the smell of two-stroke exhaust on crisp dark pre-dawn mornings... A benchmark hunt a few dozen miles due south of Denali (Mt McKinley, at right) and Foraker. Cygnet Springs, site of a Ladybug Kids geocache north-northwest of Talkeetna, Alaska. An awesome journey in search of the hide makes about any cache a memorable one... I will grant that snow is a devilment when searching for micro or small cache placements (either in the woods or the urban jungle), but it provides an awesome opportunity for backcountry travel!

While searching for UW6278 this BLM cadastral survey mark was spotted one mile north of our target during the climb up the ridge. It was quite easy to spot up there above timberline, thanks to its tall pipe-mount. Fortunately for me the wind atop this ridge had swept it pretty clean of snow. I had to ease the snowmobile along carefully, and exhort my riding partner to take care not to get frostbit in the subzero wind chill. Our final destination's disk was missing, but the drill hole was easy to find as the wires from the original station occupation 'triangulated' its location perfectly in the glacially-striated bedrock atop the ridge.

One of my customers at the sign shop where I work is the Alaska Railroad (ARR). Bridge marker signs on the ARR are numbered to reference their milepost location on the line (where Seward is mile zero). A quick call to their engineering shop confirmed my suspicion that such numbering is common all across the country. Best way to mark a structure's location for railroad workers... However, those milepost references from old descriptions can be markedly affected by track realignment projects which shorten or lengthen the track mileage from a designated zero point. And, as noted, new construction can alter the landscape beyond recognition relative to the original description.

Oh - and the TACMARS thing? Not. Do you think your government is so well-organized it can set up that kind of marking system? Shoot - the installation sticker is supposed to be installed at lower right corner of the backside. If the fairly low-paid state highway worker gets it on 'square' it's amazing. If the contractor gets it on the lower right it's amazing. To think there's a secret marking code on 'em is even more amazing. Anyone who's ever had to navigate the parking lot of a public school to pick up or drop off kids knows for certain there's no way the same designer of that sort of dysfunctional rat maze could coordinate the installation of a TACMARS signal system. Simply - not - possible. However, if it was left to geocachers... I'm sure it could be done!

I work for the private company which manufactures traffic signage for the State of Alaska. There's a reflective decal which is affixed to the back of the aluminum sign (.080 or .125 aluminum is required here at local/state/federal level - why use steel? It rusts...) which annotates installation date & thus the expected replacement date. For contractors installing such signs, if there's no decal the inspector won't certify the newly-installed sign as being worthy of payment. Most such traffic signs are either screenprinted on a reflective sheeting or made with a cut translucent vinyl applied to a reflective sheeting, which is then applied to the aluminum substrate with a pressure roller. Absolutely no ferrous material involved, until you get to the standard 2" or 2.5" square galvinized steel signpost used up here (wood rots too fast...). Based on case law, where folks have sued because they were involved in an accident which was thought to involve 'substandard' or 'nonstandard' traffic control signage, I wouldn't recommend putting anything on the sign itself. With a local price of $75.00 each for a 30" x 30" standard STOP sign I wouldn't want to be involved in a situation where the LEO might misinterpret your action as defacing public property either. The post offers lots of options for magnetic or wire-hook placements. Making & installing traffic signs in a place with variable winter driving conditions & a high percentage of DUI drivers is good business. Certain intersections are notorious & their stop signs don't survive the first snowfall. The most certain-to-die sign is the ignomious nine-dot diamond-shaped reflector sign which marks traffic islands & the end of travel on stub roads... they're candy for car bumpers!

I've carried a fine-tip Sharpie (brand name) felt-tip permanent marker in my cache bag that's conquered any wet paper that's not too soggy to unroll. Can't vouch for its survivability in hot weather (hey - I live in Southcentral Alaska - a hot day's about 75F in the summer). They make a 'stubby' version of it that's a dandy too. Works great in subzero temps. The basic #2 pencil's not a bad choice either, but doesn't do for wet paper.

WooHoo! I like the idea! Just a note of caution - the two snowmobiler clubs in your area (the Kenai Peninsula) mark their groomed trail system with a series of colored reflectors... so invest in the purchase of their trail maps so you conform to their system and don't create havoc on the groomed trail network. I make their signage/reflectors & am an avid snowmobile traveler (going later today up at Talkeetna, in fact). I'm amazed at how many folks who travel via 'snogo' have no navigation tools (map/compass/gps), or if they do - don't know how to use them. That's why the trail groomers set up color marker systems. In fact, up in Lake Louise country (near Glennallen) the green markers always show a route 'out' to the highway (not necessarily the spot you parked your auto ride, but at least you'd be at the only road up there...). So exercise caution with reflectors on groomed trails. The 'Snomads' (out of Homer) have a map with a legend that features Lat/Long coordinates for key intersections, destinations, and terrain features. I'm not sure if the central peninsula 'Cabin Hoppers' club has a published map (at least, I haven't made a sign with the map printed on it yet). I know you'll mark the cache as 'snowmobile needed'! Yup - build it, and I'll come chase it! There's several of the local guys who'd like to travel with me on a cache hunt of that sort. I'd like to get 'that one' mtboy cache in the back country down there you mentioned, and a few more snogo caches would tempt me into an overnight trip down to your neck of the woods. I'm already planning a run across the western base of the Kenai Mtns to Burnt Island (on Turnagain Arm) to search for a particular benchmark... so a long weekend run including a night cache would be fun.

Alaska... I have to say my home state of Alaska offers an exquisitely wide variety of caches. Very high density of caches within the Anchorage area (shoot - there's still over 500 on my 'to find' list within 20 miles of my house - but I've had to work too much to cache very often in the last 12 months) and an awesome number of those caches feature superb scenery coupled with delightful hikes on well-maintained trails. No poisonous bugs, no snakes, local cachers who'll actually take time off to cache with you (even if they've already found the caches you're after), a high percentage of winter-friendly hides (doh!), and a goodly number of summit-hike caches. Did I mention the scenery? Mountains, ocean, rainforest , dunes and lots & lots of superb parks and trails - and that's just within Anchorage city limits. A reasonably good shot at seeing a moose (OK - I'd about guarantee it in Anchorage - highest population density in the state thanks to suburban habitat) and a very very good to guaranteed chance of seeing bear sign in certain urban Anchorage locations outside of hibernation time (great for that primeval chill up the spine 'I am not alone in the woods' effect... ). Lots of caches within a couple of minutes' stroll of an espresso shop - so typical of Northwest Urban Caching. A nice mix of micros to ammocans across the entire city too - something for everyone (even the puzzle fanatics...). All that being said, I've found every state I've traveled since I started caching had hides with real 'wow' power in the scenic and crazy modes. From NYC's Central Park and the NJ Highlands (much wilder than I expected!) through New Orleans to the canyons of the southwest and the forests of the Northwest there are places where cachers have shown me the best their states have to offer. And yup - I agree with Snoogans about Las Vegas too!

I almost hurt myself laughing at this post - good one, ArtMan! (OK - so I hold a wierd college degree - dual major in business & economics - it's a Bachelor of Science in Business Science - absolutely true! - so this really made my day!) The Depression-era benchmark series set (in part) along the nation's early highway network (such as the old federal highway between Las Vegas NV and St George UT, where there's more than a mark a mile in some sections) are a testament to the useful hard work made available to unemployed folks through economic recovery programs of the mid-thirties. CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) work projects are another lasting testimony to the craftsmanship and plain hard work folks were willing to undertake for a paycheck, which are still returning value today far in excess of the dollars spent on those projects so long ago. I appreciate the tongue in cheek humor, and the subtle reference to the contribution (however small some may see it as) made by volunteers out verifying the location of existing stations. I was only offended because I wasn't told when I'd be getting my check...

UW7714 Microwave Tower - only one leg foundation is left (triangular mass at center left) but the 10am view eastward down Cook Inlet's Turnagain Arm was spectacular. The station's about 140 feet above the highway/railway route. DH4693 AKDOTPF GPS24 (in the NGS database, but not geocaching.com) (and often mistaken by geocachers for TT0446 while seeking the nearby cache). Couldn't resist the 11am 'sunrise' shot across the mark and the ice-clogged waters of Turnagain Arm. It was a balmy 28 degrees F with a mild 15mph breeze out of the east - pretty calm at 'Windy Corner'.

I use Firefox 3. I downloaded the app, installed, reopened my browser session (all the earthcaches in the Moab Utah area - a nice feature of Firefox is that it 'remembers' and reloads on request your open tabs) and spent the next hour cruising some awesome photography on our website! Great tool, especially for planning travel-related caching. I'll be able to find those caches which motivate the finders to post photos of awesome places to visit... my kind of geocache. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, MissJenn.

Oh my - Picacho and Promontory (on the Mogollon Rim) look so warm and inviting. Nice photos! It's going to drop as low as zero here tonight... I'm missing Arizona...

OOPS! My comment referring to the CGS monumentation meant the towers were seconded into their role as elevation stations following the construction of the towers themselves. Airway navigation was first and foremost their reason for being. But - why not take a five-plex of three-hundred foot towers and put them to a secondary use that they're coincidentally quite well-suited to? Of late engineering projects up here seem to take the approach that they should be invisible - absurdly so at times. Wasn't the case back in the war years. And - I got out my old airway chart (I gave up flying back in the early '80s after damaging my sinuses - the least bit of ear blockage and I think I'm in a descending right-hand turn) which still showed the towers. Not very precisely marked - but there was no doubt you were to avoid the area! This conversation reinforces one aspect of benchmarking that I really enjoy - stations map our development - even when the development has been superseded or removed (towers and trains come to immediate mind).

And again - thanks for the kind and considerate approach to my confusion, folks!

I'm erring on the side of caution, and in agreement with Paul's analysis. Despite the ease of establishing the 'center of base' (yes - the center base structure is dead-center in each of the five tower foundations) the CGS's purpose in establishing the stations in 1944 appears to have been to provide a readily-visible aerial intersection point that could be seen throughout the upper reaches of Cook Inlet. As a measure of how visible these 300' tall towers would be, nearby station PETERS E BASE (located one mile west of the towers on a flat marshy area without any brush or trees in any direction for more than two hundred yards) has a view on a clear day of the top of Mount McKinley 123 miles to the NNW, and the team establishing the PETERS E BASE station used UW6181 Mount Susitna Southern Spur (more than 45 miles west of this point) as a reference object. The five towers provided a readily-visible and usable reference point in an area covering as much as a thousand square miles - an extra 'aid to navigation' for the general public, beyond the airway navigation services the tower complex provided for aviators. Thanks again for the discussion of how the original monumentation write-up (method of establishing the point versus 'type' of point - 'Tower') impacts how we should view these stations today. It does appear the intent was to provide five aerial intersection points, which were established using Station RADIO via measurements to the center of the base of the tower structures. That the foundations and center base remain in place today for these destroyed towers doesn't seem to meet what the original purpose in establishing the aerial intersection stations would have been. I'll leave them logged as 'destroyed' on geocaching.com's website.

Ha! Great photo of a skijor dog and owner that Klemmer & TeddyBearMamma posted. Shown here is Daddy Ladybugs behind teammates Ingrid, Mons, & Jack in a Skijor Race at Creamers Field in Fairbanks Alaska (in a photo I use on the cache page at GCRQGT Skijor! - a nice cache in a dogpark/loon nesting zone/swamp/moose sanctuary near the house here). Ladybug Kids takes the sport to a top competitive level... and speed! He's in a step turn in this photo, as the hounds take the corner at top speed in 4x4 drive... But since this is about benchmarks, here's Victor & Mesa (the two hounds that went up with Ladybug Kids after UW7827 HUGH), drinking from the hole left behind at HUGH's RM1. Taking the concept of benchmarking as a refreshing pastime to a whole new level, I'd say! No wonder he takes these guys along when looking for high marks! Ok - I'm over the frivolity. It also looks like I'm over benchmarking around here for a bit, as the first inch of the first snow of winter has piled up on my back deck in the past hour... and the NWS is forecasting another 4-6 inches over the next two days!

Uh... the Alaska state gem is Jade. I think I know how to work up an EarthCache for that one. However, the Alaska state mineral is gold. Now there's a problem... although the 2008 Alaska Geocoin (featuring a Polar Bear) had a special issue edition of ten coins struck at the Alaska Mint in gold - a one ounce solid gold geocoin. And no - they weren't made as FTF prizes!

Thanks, folks! Now - would these log as 'not found' at NGS, or 'destroyed'? It seems obvious the 'destroyed' log stands at geocaching.com for each of the five towers. Part of Tower 5 is lying on the ground as wreckage... I suppose it qualifies as 'destroyed' for sure.

This kind of discussion is a lot more interesting than the usual Monday morning quarterbacking session here at work! Seventhing's analysis raises an interesting point - 'center of base'. Chiknlips45 & I strolled around to each of the five towers' locations and confirmed that not only the center structures were in place (all of which were identical in construction to the photograph in the orginal post), but all of the towers' leg foundations are in place as well (including the bolts). So, if the towers' "base" is the four foundation corners, then those corners exist for each of the five towers (in such good condition that most of the them could be reused without even cleaning the bolt threads). We were so intrigued by this question that we forgot to look for RADIO's reference marks! Chiknlips45 found this archive photo of the towers in a local historic photo online database. The photo was taken by Maynard C. Dahlstrom sometime in 1950, showing all towers (and the wild purple lilies which the Eklutna Flats are locally well-known for producing in profusion). This photo shows the southwest corner tower foundation. On each tower, one leg was torched off (as shown here) and the other three were 'unbolted'. Of additional interest, apparently this tower (#5) made such a deep impression in the ground when it fell that it couldn't be completely salvaged. There is a three-hundred-foot long double line of steel supports sticking up out of the ground in line away from the bases, tapering towards each other away from the foundations. The supports were torched off about a foot above ground level. Makes an interesting hazard pattern in the grass - wouldn't want to find them at speed on a snowmobile! Measurements were consistent at all five towers - the bases were 60' apart with the center structure located right in the middle. Each tower's center of base is 498' from the adjacent towers' centers, forming a pentagonal shape with the line between towers 2 & 3 roughly perpendicular to magnetic north. Love to hear more thoughts on this question...

A cluster of 5 towers (300 foot tall, four-legged, red/white steel towers) were once a prominent landmark on the northern highway approach to Anchorage AK. Operated as a low-frequency radio facility by the Civil Aeronautics Administration since at least 1944 (when they were first monumented by the CGS) the towers were removed in the latter part of the 1980s as more modern technology rendered them obsolete. I logged the five towers on the geocaching.com site as 'destroyed' in June 2006, confident that the marks were gone. After all, the towers had been torn down... and the setting was listed on the NGS datasheets as 'MARKER: 43 = RADIO/TV TOWER'... so I reasoned 'no tower - no mark'. As I didn't have photographs of destroyed towers to send in, I didn't submit a report to the NGS. Last Saturday I found myself wandering through the tower field with fellow benchmarker chiknlips 45 in search of UV4382 RADIO, a survey disk placed in the southwest corner of the 5-tower pentagonally-shaped antenna field. As we talked about the destroyed towers he remarked 'you know, the data sheet says "POINT OBSERVED UPON AND TRAVERSED TO IS THE CENTER OF BASE" - even though the setting is described as "MARKER: 43 = RADIO/TV TOWER". I was mortified - had my inaccurate read of the datasheet led me to list these five towers as 'destroyed' prematurely? We found RADIO and dumped our gear there for a closer look at nearby UV4382 TOWER 5. The first tower artifact we stumbled across was one of the four corner foundations. Just over forty feet away (in the center of the 60' square formed by the tower's four foundations) we saw a massive object - a concrete cube with a double-Ibeam pulley mount in its center. The GPS units zeroed out on this center base using the adjusted coordinates for TOWER 5. A search of all five tower locations turned up exactly the same pattern of four bases and a concrete monolith in the dead center of the square with Ibeams protruding. So... is the mark the tower (destroyed) or the center base (as shown in the photo below)? We laughed over my angst, as chiknlips45 said 'hey - this could be five easy new finds!'... but I'd feel bad if my earlier logs were in error because of my careless read of the datasheets. Regardless of my angst - what's the mark for this station?