ddnutzy

This is a picture of PZ1173, on Caribou Mt. in Me. looking west toward Mt. Washington, N.H. which is right above the station with snow still on it.

I have a Maptech program that covers all of N.E. The Va. program has over 800 quads for $99.00. You can print any of the areas that you want with no problem. It has all the detail that you need on a search. These are the same maps that we use on searches for lost people.

Heaven forbid that you really have to do some work to find a benchmark. In most of New England there are no witness posts and a good portion of the stations are in bedrock or outcrops up on moutains, in deep woods covered with years of dirt and mulch. That is what makes it so interesting trying to find them.

Check out the prices at GPS Discount, Inc. The Foretrex 201 is $124.00 plus $7.00 3rd day shipping. It comes with a cable to connect to the computer at that price. I ordered one Sunday and it was shipped Mon. I should get it tomorrow according to Fedex. I have a 60cs and a Garmin gpsV also. This one is for the kayak and biking. Dave

Yesterday I went BM hunting and took 3 pics of all the marks. It took me forever to log everything in. I only went to the eighth grade, I type slow and I know very little about computers so this is hard on me. When I started ironworking a oldtimer gave me some advice. He said survey the situation, analysis it throughly, make a dision, abide by said dision, and keep it simple, stupid. Whats wrong with just two pictures, one a closeup and one from five feet or so? As it is now they like what we do without any photos, so why complicate everything with signs and all the infomation that is already on the data sheets. Dave

Thanks. I just figured it out. I thought he was just going in and getting the benchmark find count from the stats page. Instead, he's going thru all benchmark logs. It makes a big difference. But then, that's the point, isn't it? I wonder if WaldenRun is around. He has the highest finds that I know of that isn't on the list. As much as I love the numbers, I also totally agree with GH55 concerning the effect that this has on possible careless reporting to the NGS. Nice comment. Roger, Waldenrun is still alive and kicking. I was with him last Sunday. He has 2142 caches, 834 BM's and 1008 TB's. Not to shabby without a gps for most of them. Dave

Rob Rob, MY3686 (Waterbug) is a NGS Benchmark disk documented in 1887. This is the oldest disk that I have found so far. Dave

While I was going through my stats to log my finds to ngs I listed to old bm's I'd found from the 1800's. Some are pretty interesting. All but 2 were first finds. Four are states oldest The list, MZ1504 Hawes Hill 1832 4-6-04 MZ1702 Mt. Ester 1832 1-4-05 MY2666 Gumpus 1834 7-13-04 MY3617 Beaconpole Borden 1834 3-27-05 MZ1913 Jilson borden 1833 3-31-05 MZ1700 High Ridge 1837 1-4-05 MZ2040 Iron Bolt 1862 8-24-04 MY3836 Mason Barrett 1871 7-10-04 MY3840 Barrett Mt 1871 1871 7-10-04 MZ1868 Battlecock 1885 4-11-04 MZ1646 Mt Warner 1885 11-18-03 MZ1847 North Warner 1885 11-18-03 MY3686 Waterbug 1887 4-4-04 MZ1557 Peaked Mt2 1898 3-11-03

I'm from Sturbridge Ma. and if you want , maybe you can go benchmark hunting with me some weekend in the near future. There are still a few interesting bm's around the springfield area to be found. Dave Aho

I just finished submitting the last 51 of my older bm finds to the NGS as geocac. Anything that I log in from now on will be up to date. (DKA) Dave

Previously I've been submitting my BM finds to the NGS as an INDIV but today I started using geocac. I just finished posting 63 of my older bm finds. I'll try to get the rest of them submitted before the end of the month. Dave (DKA)

It works fine. I just finished loggin 43 finds. Dave

I have over 140 as INDIV (DKA)

Previous to today I'd already found the oldest BM's in Mass. and N.H. I didn't know that the one in Mass was the oldest until this web site came along for which I thank you. Black Dog Tracker turned me on to the oldest in N.H. so I went after that one with success. Today I found the oldest in RI.. The one in Ct. is destroyed so I'll have to get the second oldest there. Thanks for a great site. Dave

Today was the 1st hunt since early January because of the snow. I don't mind searching in the snow but I have to travel to find interesting bm's so I don't want to waste to much time. Anyway, I had nine bm's on the list and found them all including the oldest bm in RI. and the reset for same. Both are from the 1800's. I had to pack in for three of them and the rest were near the roadways. Eight were in RI. and the last was in Mass. Like PFF I do a lot of prep work for the search including printing my own maps with the bm's marked on them. I left the house at 7:00 AM, got back at 1:30 and put 108 miles on the speedo.

I have not been able to get into the NGS site today. I'm trying to log in some BM's with no luck. Is anyone else having this problem?

This picture is rm 4 for mz1557 (Peaked Mt.2) which was a tough one to find. I have spent a lot of time trying to find mz1556 ( Peaked Mt.) a drillhole that is supposed to be ten ft from mz1557. I now have access to a more powerfull gps that may help me in finding this bm.

I have found a few chiseled squares and triangles in my travels but I don't remember what the pids are for all of them. MZ0094 is one, MZ2784 is a drillhole w/triangle and my3693 has a rm with a square, hole and a arrow.

I use a White's Classic 3 metal detector that is kind of expensive. Without it I wouldn't have found quite a few of the more interesting bm's I've found. Bounty Hunter has a nice one for a little over a hundred dollars that has a discriminating feature that is handy. If you turn it up it does get rid of most of the trash signals. I've found bm's as far down as 18 inches with with my Whites and I think that the Bounty Hunter might be almost as good.

Here is a picture of the tools that I use minius the 15 inch lineup pin that I use as a probe and my food supply since most of the bm's that I look for don't have a McDonalds close by.

After reading the report I tried to update a recovery and got the same messages so I think they are having trouble with the website. I'll try again tommorow. The pid of mine was (my3638).

baby powder at work.

My grandaughter helped me post this picture. The first I've been able to do. This is from Mt. Katahdin

I just carry a small container of baby powder in my pack to highlight bm's that need it. It is also handy to make a mark or a arc when measuring from one point to another. It's not good in the snow though.

I took pictures of two cairn benchmarks on Mt. Katahdin in Maine last year plus one other cairn at the north end of the knife edge. The cairn bm on Baxter Peak is QG1450 and the cairn bm on South Peak is QG1447. Pamola is just a cairn at the other end of the knife edge. If I can't upload the pics here you'll have to check the pid's.