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Muzikman

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Everything posted by Muzikman

  1. Yeah, East Pittsburgh isn't going to be cache wealthy, but there are a good bit of Benchmarks in your area. Most are probably non accessable because they are all on RR tracks, but I'll be finding out soon.
  2. Well, my idea really isn't about geocaching, but about a different way to play paintball. I am very involved in the paintball industry and have many more paintball resources and friends than geocaching. So in my mind this is a paintball event, and will be advertised as so. If people who are into geocaching would like to come, but I think they might find the fact that it's not really geocaching. If I can come up a concept that people like, I might even present it to one of the larger paintball event promoters such as MXS or Blackcat Productions.
  3. Cool, welcome to the geocaching and Benchmark hunting. I myself and kind of new here, although I joined back in 2001:) I am from Penn Hills to be exact (if you didn't already plot the coords on a map:))
  4. Well, I'll tell ya, I might be stealing your idea. I have been running it past a few people and am getting a feeling in the paintball world as to what they would like to see. I am thinking that I might hold a paintball event next summer with this idea, if so, you should come out. Check out this link for a paintballers opinions on the idea. http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?t=152884
  5. I am still a noob when it comes to Benchmarking. Have you done a search to see if it's listed in the Geocaching or NGS database?
  6. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6120401880&rd=1 I was just browsing ebay and ran into this and kinda chuckled.
  7. No, but if a user of the forum gets out of hand, the mods get to ban them. So in a discussion forum, moderating, isn't about the BM or cache it's self, but about keeping order in the forums. Moderating is a tough job, and anyone that does it on a volunteer basis I give a lot f credit to.
  8. It's kind of interesting. I found out about Geocaching back in the spring of 2001. Although I have not been active in either the discussion forums or even hunting caches or benchmarks (I only have 4 BM finds, and all were in a 2 day period:)) I also only have 21 cache finds (most of which were in the past month). I do find benchmarks to be more interesting, especially in the discussion side. I only have a handfull of posts, but most so far have been in the Benchmark forum.
  9. Having been involved with the sport of paintball for over 12 years, I would not even do this on private land, and I would not even call it geocaching. The two are both fun activities, but playing paintball even on private land with permission can be dangerous. In the industry it is what we call "outlaw ball". Lot of people do it, and some people are safe about it, but many are not. I would arrange with an established paintball field to hold this event.
  10. Ok, I got an idea. This would have nothing to do with Geocaching.com, but could still prove to be interesting in combining paintball and caching. This would require a big game type field (ie. large woods field). In the morning before the game starts each team hunts out locations to hide a cache. Each team hides say 4 caches on the field. They then come back and give the coords to the event organizer. The organizer then gives these coords to everyone. Now, the object of the game, instead of capture the flag (or holding a flag station, as in many big games) is for each team to find these 4 caches and return them to their "base". The first team to get all 4 back to their base wins.
  11. Ok, I got an idea. This would have nothing to do with Geocaching.com, but could still prove to be interesting in combining paintball and caching. This would require a big game type field (ie. large woods field). In the morning before the game starts each team hunts out locations to hide a cache. Each team hides say 4 caches on the field. They then come back and give the coords to the event organizer. The organizer then gives these coords to everyone. Now, the object of the game, instead of capture the flag (or holding a flag station, as in many big games) is for each team to find these 4 caches and return them to their "base". The first team to get all 4 back to their base wins.
  12. Hmm, doubt I could make that one...but sounds like an interesting idea. I found 4 while in Chicago for the Shatnerball 3 (Mobster Mash) game. I guess Geocaching and Paintball go hand in hand. A few years ago I actually ran into someone from Erie on here that I played with back around 95, and didn't realize it:)
  13. Yes, very common. Check out this thread. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=65913
  14. Interestingly I have been reading topo maps for most of my life and just always assumed the "X xxxx" was an elevation and that "X BMxxxx" was a benchmark. I assumed thay if there was no BM, that here were no actual mark (usually peaks of the higher elevated hills). Back when I was young I found a few bm's by just locating them on the map and going and looking for them. This was about 15 years ago and up until geocahing added BM database to the site, I didn't think anyone cared about BM's. Also never realized there were so many. I assumed that they were all on the map. The reason this even come up is because I am researching old coal mines in the town I grew up in. There are remains of what I think was a mine (and growing up my father always said it was a mine) but there is obviously no shaft opening any more. I found reference to four mines in the area. One of which the descrption states that it was .5 miles SE of BM1202. Not even thinking the 4 digit number was an elevation, I was trying to locate BM1202. Herold & Bowers Wagon Mine (ca.1884- ? ), located 1/2 mile SE of BM1202, Monroeville, Patton Twp., Allegheny Co., PA Owners: (ca.1884- ? ), ? (ca.1923- ? ), Herold & Bowers Company, Country Bank Mine (ca.1923- ? ), located 2 miles N. E. of Turtle Creek Borough, Patton Twp., Allegheny Co., PA Owners: (ca.1923- ? ), ? I have a feeling that the one above might be the one I am looking for, but wanted to rule out the "Herold & Bowerts Mine" before I dug any deeper into my research. I don't know if any of you saw this post a last month, but the remains of this BM is near what I think was the mine entrance.
  15. Good call, looking at the map that would be it. So, since that is tge case, there would be no way to use that number in hunt as there would be many bm's at around the same height. Ok, that answers my question, if i wanna find a bm listed on a topo, I just have to plot it.
  16. On most topo maps some benchmarks are listed. They appear as an "X" and then either the name or a BMxxxx (the xxxx being a 4 digit number). My queston is, what is an easy way to find these in the GC or NGS database. I only way I found (unless it was narked with the actual name) was to plot the coords and then search. This is kind of time consuming and figured it would be nice if there was a way to cross reference the BMxxxx label. If there is no way, what does the BMxxxx desigbation mean? I assume the BM means Benchmark, but the 4 digit number almost seems random.
  17. Well, in this case, if you had a ladder or even a step ladder, you could get to this. But just being a jump monkey, I could not. With a 25ft ladder, you could get to it from road level and with a 4 step (5ft) ladder you could have gotten down on to the landing next to the wall. I had actually climbed atop the wall, but if I would have jumped down to the landing, I would not have been able to get back up. In short, if they wanted to use this disk, they could, I just could not reach it with what I had on hand.
  18. Looking at a topo of the area near a friends house I noticed that there were a lot of BM's that were also in the NGS database. When I looked at the Geocaching database I noticed no one had recovered most of them. So we picked a few easy ones (or so they seemed) that were close by and set out yesterday to find them. hunting Benchmarks is something I have done many years ago, whith my only tool being a topo map, and the only BM's I knew about were listed on this map. I never took it seriously. When I found Geocaching a few years ago and then when I saw they added a database of benchmarks, this sparked the intrest again, though due to the lack of time, I never went searching. I would like to make this a semi-serious hobby as some of you have already done. I want to make sure that as I recover a BM, that I am gathering the correct information and this forum has helped me a lot. I expect as I find more my eye for detail gets better. I hope that some point soon, my detail is enough to submit the find to the NGS. Right now, I am just going to log them with the Geocaching database. Now, on to the question. One that I found (MB0362) was on top of a wall on a railroad bridge. I climbed to the top of the wall but could not safely get over to the disk to take a close-up or even read it. From where I was (about 5 ft) I could tell that the disks setting was solid and sound. I laid on the wall and got the GPS as close as I could to the mark (about 3 ft) to mark a waypoint. Now, my question is, should I mark this as a find even though I could not get close enough to the disk to read it. Or should I just note it as I have and leave it at that. Not that I am looking for "find numbers" but if I should run in to this situation again, I just want to make sure I log it correctly.
  19. Well, I had the cords, but would have to look through a bunch of way points to find it. It's not far from me so once the rain stops I will run back out and grab new cords. It is in the town of Monroeville, PA between Pitcairn Road and Stroscheine Road.
  20. Last year I went back to the woods I use to play in when I was kid. While walking along an old mining road I tripped over something, looking back, this is what i saw. What do you think? Look like a BM? here are a few more pics of it. http://pittsburgh-music.com/jbeam/Monroevi...es/IMG_0589.jpg http://pittsburgh-music.com/jbeam/Monroevi...es/IMG_0590.jpg http://pittsburgh-music.com/jbeam/Monroevi...es/IMG_0592.jpg http://pittsburgh-music.com/jbeam/Monroevi...es/IMG_0593.jpg
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