A tapeworm

Muchas gracias! And all the winners are to be inducted into the PFR Hall of Fame!!! I'm preparing my speech!!!

You guys are ANIMALS! I hope the rock face isn't really as steep as it looks in the pics! It reminds me of those climbs on Mt. Desert Is. @ Acadia Nat'l Park - I get nauseated just thinking about them! [imagine barfing smilie here!]

3rd Round Hands: 2 pair N27 PL0272 + 5 old N167 NF0411 H27 PM0038 H168 NF0346 4 of a Kind J25 OL0025 + 5 old J26 OL0008 J158 NF0890 J172 NF0783 Straight Flush B321 PL0423 C321 PM0242 D321 PM0244 E321 PM0245 F321 PM0246 Royal Flush A381 PL0407 K318 OL0311 Q318 OL0284 J318 OL0303 T318 PM0287

Right-o !!! In addition to simply encouraging me to go hunting, I learned about & experimented with several programs/tools to make hunting easier. Thanks!

Straight P167 NF0412 Q96 OK0359 + 5 old R27 PL0310 S96 OK0364 T176 NF0847 Flush M317 OL0382 P317 NG0393 R317 NG0397 S317 NG0398 U317 NG0401 Full House F95 OK0446 + 5 old F116 NF0358 Y93 OK0424 Y96 OK0373 Y115 NF0345 + 25 for completion of hand

Royal Flush A 317 Reset OL0621 K 317 OL0375 Q 317 NG0396 J 317 OL0374 T 317 NG0399

Still is! How many finds can 2/3 Marine be posting?

3 of a Kind M168 NF0389 M169 NF0862 McDonald RM 2 OL0309 +5 old

Now THAT'S cool! Much more exciting than, for instance, OK0476, which is painted merely a disturbing shade of pink. Looks like a new contest topic: ninja hunting for camoflaged BMs!

... And he says that with a straight face!

That's essentially what I do, also. Some day when I grow up & graduate from my dial-up connection to a high-speed connection I'll download more of those other programs to use!

I haven't fussed much w/ GSAK, & there are others here with much more tech-savviness... but if I'm understanding your question correctly, there's an easy way to download lat/long data for a local area from the Geocaching.com site: From the GC page of any BM, click "Nearest Benchmarks". The page which opens is entitled "Listing Local Benchmarks - Searching Benchmarks". At the top there's a button labeled "Download all results to *.loc" - or check the boxes you want in the far right column & then click "Download Waypoint File" at the bottom left of the page. At this point, my download defaults to GSAK (I don't remember if I had to tell it to do so, once upon a time). Load the new info into your GSAK waypoint database, then send the PIDs & lat/long data to your GPSr using the "GPS" tab on the GSAK toolbar. Hope that made sense....

Because, with a day job & gas here at $2.97 / gal, *potential* is often the best I'll achieve!

4 of a Kind Q27 PL0309 + 5 for old Q167 NF0470 Q169 NF0350 Q343 AA8088 Pair L95 OK0452 + 5 for old L177 NF0873 + 5 for funny picture

2nd Round Hands 2 pair Dias RM2 NF0758 Dias 2 RM3 NF0759 88 WR AA8068 868 OK0311 +10 very old Straight Flush A95 OK0438 +5 old B95 OK0439 C95 OK0441 D95 OK0442 E95 OK0443

Yeah, like the rest of us, who are battling it out for ... like, 6th place or something!

Yeah, like the rest of us, who are battling it out for ... like, 6th place or something!

Somebody smarter than me is gonna have to explain how to determine such directions with your hand-held GPS unit. I've always found an orienteering compass much easier to use for such tasks. Basically, the first coordinate says: "Face due South, then turn 76 degrees, 22 min toward the East" so you're heading roughly ESE. The second, "Face N, turn 28 Deg, 31 min E" (heading NE). With a compass for the first coordinates: - Hold compass in its "ready position" - waist-high, squarely in front of you, as you'd use it for navigating. - Rotate the circular housing so the 180 Deg (South) mark lines up with the index mark on the compass base. - Rotate the housing 76 degrees 22 min easterly (clockwise) bringing the 90 Deg / East label closer to the index mark. i.e., 180 - 76 = 104 degrees -> the 104 Deg mark should be at the index mark. For practical purposes over short distances with hand-held compasses, getting within a degree or 2 (forgetting the fractions of degrees/ minutes) will get you close enough. - Keeping the compass base in its ready position, turn your body until the N needle is within the "gate" on the compass face. You should now be facing in the correct direction. For the second coordinates, step 2: rotate the housing so the 0 Deg (N) mark is at the index mark; then counterclockwise 28 degrees, bringing the 90 Deg / E mark closer to the index mark. Remember you'll need to consider declination correction of the compass, also - more important as you measure off farther distances than the 20' & 28' distances in your examples.

Pair M95 OK0453 M15 OK0476 very old +10 pts 2 Pair Z315 OL0333 Z314 PL0421 E316 OL0337 E17 OL0334 very old +10 pts 3 of a Kind J316 OL0342 J169 Reset NF1806 J27 PL0268 old +5 pts Straight R92 OK0416 old +5 pts S318 PM0288 T96 OK0365 U318 PM0286 V318 PM0285 Flush B316 OL0334 C316 OL0335 D316 OL0336 G316 OL0340 H316 OL0341 Full House L321 PM0251 L318 OL0329 B94 OK0434 old +5 pts B116 NF0354 Barry Center AA8075 4 of a Kind Dias 2 NF0757 Dias 2 RM4 NF0760 Dutton NF1641 D17 OK0333 very old +10 pts Straight Flush U315 OL0327 V315 OL0328 W315 OL0330 X315 OL0331 Y315 OL0332 Royal Flush A321 PL0422 K321 PM0250 Q321 PM0256 J321 PM0249 T321 PM0259 (Note urban sprawl, comparing 1994 NGS description!) +25 pts all hand bonus

Here in lower Michigan, there were apparently about a zillion of these placed starting in the 1980's: steel rod about 1/2" diameter, driven 10+ feet deep ("to resistance" is often noted on the NGS datasheets), then surrounded at the surface with a sheath 5" or so in diameter. Access to the rod is via a hinged cover (labeled "ACCESS COVER" to avoid any confusion!) The designation & date are stamped on the cover mount. See AH7939: Although they are apparently real stable surveying-wise, I find them rather unappealing as targets - rather like rivets - unless they're needed for poker fun runs, in which case they're really cool. They may also be a ploy by creationists to prove that with evolution things don't necessarily get better.

That is a cool idea, though - certainly worth bragging rights here. I've not introduced my wife to rivet hunting - she thinks disks are boring enough....

Don't tell your friends! Oh, pshaw. Someone built a nice two-track access road along the tracks - just for benchmark hunters, I presume - that allows one to drive to a few hundred yards from the mark. Could drive all the way with the Jeep my wife wouldn't let me buy, rather than the sedan we purchased....

You the man!

That's harsh. Bet you know how to spell infirmary, though. Maybe even knew how to spell it in 1958.

I dunno - there's only so many pixels around, and once they're all used up....