Ernmark

..actually, if it looks like there is "evidence" of the former towers, grabbing a pic is not a bad idea (assuming they are not in a "sensitive" area) - if you get hooked on the benchmarking part of GC [i find hunting for the disks more fun than towers, etc (intersection stations)], you may actually want to eventually submit the pics to the National Geodetic Survey & they may remove them from their database as "destroyed"(although it's a good idea to wait awhile to do that - that's the "real" database that CG pulled the info in from). If you browse thru the forums, you'll find a lot of info on logging, etc (check the pinned threads @ the top first) + if you haven't already, check out the FAQ's on Geoaching's Benchmarking home page...

... when you're out hunting for marks, don't forget the camera to post in the logs for the gallery - we benchmark hunters live vicariously thru each other's exploits !

Hey we've got an E. BER-lin in PA (& we even actually pronounce it the same way!) edit - wait! actually we pronounce it 'Bur-Lynn'

I was always partial to "East". Are there suburbs? Like "North East"? What about "West East"? Talk about getting confusion directions for the station... "15 miles west of east".. Me. No, but get this - my hometown has a North St., East St., South St. & West St. ...so we have addresses such as 10 West South, 10 South West, 10 South East etc, etc. ...I almost can understand why our mailpeson could "go Postal" !

from Google, it doesn't look like there are any 4 or 6 legged structures nearby. Looks like a newer "1 legged" structure in between, however... Appears to be disturbed ground in both of your marked locations...I wonder if they've been torn down..... ..it's always good to double check your descriptions - these towers are often replaced w/ more modern structures..

...so - how are you all doing out there with your detectors ?

.. I think I mentioned that to him awhile back - the Eastern Shore towns are awash with tidal benchmarks! Also if you like self-abuse, there are tri-stations in the middle of mud flats only accessible by canoe or kayak ! Of course, a lot of the marks may have already been submitted to the NGS by GEOCAC (we've saved some of the hard ones in the flats!) ..also in shore towns, you can drop off the non-believing spouse at a shop named "Gull Things Considered" or similar while you hunt... ...from looking @ the maps - a vacation in North Dakota may be in order!

..don't tell him about the names of some of those towns east of Lancaster ! ..speaking of water - 10 years or so ago I drove thru Death Valley by myself with nothing but 2 liters of Dr. Pepper & a bag of Sun Chips! (ok, it WAS a brand new rental & it was Feb...but still!)* * off-topic, but example of youthful (30's) indiscretion..

..can you bring your gas grill? We may have to wait until he erects a 60-foot tower to clear all lines...

O.K. - I'll amend post #8 - we give mloser a Garmin Rino & send him up the mtn w/ check-ins every 5 min, while the rest of us set up base camp at the bottom of the ridge & guard the 12-packs... ..and that's just in town !

...did you say (ulp) banjos? O.K. DEFINITELY gonna need the bullet-proof vests (in blaze orange, preferably)... ...has the USPSQD been up there yet ?

Alright - let's find this one..we'll pull in everybody w/in a 1500 mi radius - mloser will lead the expedition, I'll bring the 100' tape & McDonalds burgers, PFF can drive up w/ RadioShack 3300s, 2200s, & 1100's, GEO* can bring excavation gear, Z15 a 12-pack (better make it 2), jwahl orienteering equip. ...hmm - upon re-reading mloser's last post, we may need bullet-proof vests also... ...while we're doing this, why doesn't eveyone take a month off & we'll just head westward in a more or less straight line, county by county, submitting NGS recoveries - would look real cool on holographs maps!

Ok - I'll add one (other than the wife who threatens bodily harm if I do one more pullover on a shopping trip). I headed out to do a tri-station after work "up in the mountains" but right off the road...went in about 6 miles in on an unpaved road in a small valley between 2 mountains - o.k no problem so far. I found the side road to head up the mountain (gated but open)..looked a little rough, but doable. So I zig zagged around small rocks in the road at about 1 mph (with thoughts of returning to find the gate locked in my head) & made it up 2 switchbacks...until about a 1/2 mi from the summit & the station where I find a ridge of rocks across the road projecting about 2 feet. So about this time I find myself saying (out loud)(alone) "Im not doin' this!" and begin backing my Mitsbishi Mirage sedan down the mountain...no place to turn around until the bottom switchback. I get home at 8:30 pm w/ absolutely nothing to show for it but a sore neck & a car that now looks like it should've been a Jeep commercial!

I'd be interested in 2 in antique brass - thanks !

..I get the impression that the logger was in a "3 days from retirement" mindset.. ...regarding submissions 'holding' periods - I wonder how that works myself. I've seen one or 2 recoveries show up almost immediately & some take a while....

...just out of curiosity - who won the drawing for the last contest prize (the BM) ?

Can you really get these? ..I hear that you get one after your 1000th recovery submission ...along with a triangulation station set & named in your honor !

..... 22) It's 6:30 pm - you're about 65 miles out from home & on top of a mountain (alone of coure), having hiked in about 1.5 miles - you've just measured out 38.2 meters from the tri-station to RM2 with your in./ft.-only tape measure.... and the hair stands up on the back of your neck ..as you realize...that today's your wedding anniversary!

After conversations w/ several of you over the past few weeks, I have developed a realization that avid Benchmark Hunters (including myself) may actually suffer from a medical condition. Now, I have no medical training, but from exhaustive research in medical websites as well as in Groundspeak Forums – I believe that we may actually suffer from what most accurately could be defined as Obsessive Compulsive Benchmarking Disorder – OCBD for short. Rather than attempting to formulate the medical description of OCBD, I think it would be best to list the more obvious symptoms to allow us to diagnose ourselves – from my research, if you have experienced the following symptoms, I believe that you too may suffer from OCBD: 1.) You talk to yourself while standing alone in the middle of the woods with a GPS in one hand, a datasheet and camera in the other, & holding a metal detector between your knees. 2.) You experience sleepless nights between the day that the NGS updates its database & the appearance of new stats & maps on holoscenes.com. 3.) You actually create extremely detailed lists of statistics & cool maps. 4.) You disappear for weeks at a time, driving thru the west & return to upload 400 photographs at one time. 5.) Your spouse shakes you awake at 2am as you are in a cold sweat and shouting “I HAVE to find RM 2!!!” 6.) You’ve “recovered” a tuna can…..or discovered that someone else actually has…or even worse – ‘found’ its datasheet! 7.) You’ve actually looked for HU1492. 8.) You have to stop hunting so you can catch up on uploading. 9.) You really wish you had a SQUARE CONCRETE MONUMENT PROJECTING ABOUT 4 INCHES in your front yard. 10.) You’ve actually set a SQUARE CONCRETE MONUMENT PROJECTING ABOUT 4 INCHES in your front yard. 11.) You carry a gps-enabled laptop w/ a wireless cellular network card with you into the woods. 12 ) There are no unlogged marks within a 100-mile radius of where you live. 13.) You’ve actually begun Waymarking because you’ve collected 500mb worth of no-PID disk pictures on your last 5 hunts. 14.) You drive past an 11’ x 15’ boulder along the road & think to yourself “ Man, that’d be a good place for a benchmark”…or, worse yet, say it out loud...to others in the car! 15.) You get a call from a friend about taking a trip to (insert destination here) and you say “hang on” & do a quick search of the area on CG.com (or worse yet, use the NGS interactive map retrieval) before saying yes or no. 16.) You have an 8x10 glossy of Deb from NGS in your cube @ work. 17.) You’ve returned more than once to a previously logged mark “just to make sure it’s allright”. 18.) Someone asks you for directions & you say “start at FA2395, turn left & proceed at 179° to FA4571, then proceed ESE for 4.3 miles to the mall on the left, 242 feet from the centerline of the road.” 19.) You click on either or (worse yet) both of the links above. 20.) You are looking forward to a future Benchmarking Convention which will take place in a field with pre-buried tri-stations, tipped RM’s, 3 mi distant AZs, and where you will be provided with deliberately vague instructions, a wood 6-inch ruler, and a metal detector from Toys-R-Us. ..gosh - #20’s starting to sound good…but then I think I suffer from OCBD as well !

Here's a pic: ...does that one look familiar ? ...actually it was KW1976 There's rust on top of the rails, but someone I know gets yelled at by the RR "bulls" (or the local business who is serviced by the RR) every time she walks her dog by the tracks ..for PennDOT - couldn't they occupy & adjust one of the NGS marks for their own use?...or not because since its in the NGS db, that is the "official" info... yeah, guess it'd be easier to set their own (why oh why didn't they want to set one in front of MY lawn?!...although the 'monuments' consist of low grade cement poured into a small dug hole - nice 3.5" bronze disk tho') ..as for PFF's question, the closest thing I saw to a chance meeting was a mark in the gallery where 2 people did actually find it seperately on the same day....

I'm not tellin' ! ..actually it's the line that once ran from Carlisle to Gettysburg (1st 6 mi. are gone) ..I've left a few holes thanks to not getting it done before this year's crop of poison ivy sprang to life. The car? - a 4-door, I think ...all I remember is the rack in the back window containing 2 metal detectors, a really long 2-tine camping fork, a rake & shovel, & the large white GPS antenna mounted on the roof... ...I of course was "embellishing" a tad... - I did find my link to what I think may have been the project - http://www.penndotpams.org/pams/pams.nsf/p...viewer?openform (for all I know, I may have gotten the link from here) - the interesting thing is that they've set about a 1/2 dozen marks in the area & didn't seem to have used some perfectly good ones in the NGS database that are in the same area..

..I've run across the PA Dept. of Transportation (affectionately known as PennDOT) occupying the same station on 2 different days - the 2nd time time I stopped & had a conversation about recoveries, etc & took a slew of pix (one of which is my avatar & looked a lot better full-size) - they're currently working on a big statewide mapping project. I DO remember about 6 months back, I was working an old Reading RR line for MIA bolts from the 50's & at the end of the evening as I retraced my route back homeward - as I zoomed past one of the first spots which was visible from the road & saw an empty car parked at the EXACT same spot where I had parked (in the middle of nowhere, mind you) and was positive that I had just had an mloser sighting (it WAS a RR) - I thought 'nah' but I must admit firing up the PC as soon as I got in the house! Could have been one of those cache things nearby ..never checked on that tho'... PS - turns out nobody else has visited the line I was working on since... - good reason - I think it's now known as the Poison Ivy Line!

..did you happen to get the coords? There are thousands of benchmarks that aren't in the database that GC obtained from NGS, so you could have found one of them - If you have a pic you could upload so people here could take a look at any other add'l stamping, etc...

Recieved my pins today - they look great! Thanks !

...this is the same situation I've encountered as I mentioned in an earlier thread (although I haven't submitted destruction info to the NGS yet). During a recent visit to a local USGS office, the person there said they still must have the disk ...although I know others here have been told differently (I think my area office wants to beef up their lobby display)..