Team Red Oak

Thanks Art Man. I am looking forward to more benchmark searching. There are several within a few miles of my house. I actually live in Anne Arundel County, I work in PG county (just corrected profile). I've looked at other threads and pictures of other types of bench marks both in the US and Europe. I've discovered while living in Gemrany, I came across many benchmarks I mistook for a mason's mark in the stone of older buildings. If only I had known.

Thanks for your reply, now I have one more question. Since this one will be marked as did not find do I report it to Deb Brown? If I've understood her posting the answer would be no because I have no proof its been destoyed and I have no proof it's still intact. I just want to make sure I'm doing this right.

I just got my GPS for Mother's Day and last night my husband and I went looking for our first cache and our first benchmark. We found the witness post just as described in the datasheet, the marker should have been 2 feet NW of the post. However, there was a hole in the ground where we believe the marker should have been. We don't have a metal detector to find the marker if by some chance it sank into the dirt and was covered by grass. My husband had his leatherman and he pulled out the blade and started sticking it in the ground, both in the hole and around the hole but everything he hit was a rock. This marker is supposed to be 1 inch above the ground. Is this enough evidence and searching to declare the marker gone?

I'm new too and my definition of a game is something fun and last night I found my very first cache and benchmark (although the benchmark was gone, I'm positive I was in the right spot). Then I went home and lost at a game of monopoly! I had a great time searching for and finding the cache, much more fun than monopoly and I can't wait until Saturday to get out and find even more caches and I'm going to search for another benchmark. Since I had fun, I guess it's a game. I'm looking forward to learning how to download maps to my GPS and I'm looking forward to the day when I don't have to carry the users manual with me when I go out.

Thanks- I haven't even finished reading the instruction booklet yet but I've entered co-ordinates manually. My GPS can download from the computer but I haven't read that far yet and I'm still on dial-up at home (for another 2 months until we move into a new house). Currently I'm just having fun figuring out this web site and how everything works and getting information on cache sites near my sister's house which is near Hawk Mountain, PA. I can't wait to make my first find! Dawn

I think it's a great idea. I would have the log book separate from the sketch book so people who don't draw can sign-in if they just wanted to look at what others have drawn.

I'm so excited, I found the Geocaching web site a few months ago and thought it would be a fun thing to do so I told my husband all about it and for Mother's Day he bought me a GPS. I've already looked up some cache sites in our area that seem easy, and we are going to try it out this weekend (if I can wait that long). Looking for benchmarks sounds fun too. Dawn