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This happens all the time and nobody does anything about it. NGS doesn't have funds to send crews out for this stuff. The "right" way is for a local surveyor to go through the NGS official RESET process to preserve a related elevation on a nearby new mark. That takes time $$ and knowledge that isn't going to happen very often. NGS officially says you should send in a destroyed disk, but that doesn't happen often either. Lots of people have souvenirs. We just hope they don't end up on eBay to encourage people to grab ones that weren't already destroyed. And then there is the upcoming redefinition of elevation NATRF2022 that should be released by 2025, after which all new work should use that, with GPS corrected for gravity variations, instead of physical disks. So the old disks will only be of use for finishing work in progress or checking historical work. Don't think your past recovery reports have been in vain. Many of the old disks were used to check whether the new datum was coming out consistent, via the GPSonBM program, so knowing which markers were still there helped guide the collection of the check data.

Currently I do chose the categories I list here by my own submissions waiting for over a week. I do not want to let someone else's submission sit there for too long, so this reveals mostly categories where I am active in posting myself. This time I have identified three more. They are all more global than the last one. and not really difficult. So there is no reasson to limit the candidates. Except for the usual stuff, of course. People who constantly try to ignore category requirements and/or always try to get away with the least possible effort will not become good officers. I believe that is fact, not opinion. Let's start with the easist one of them: Hydroelectric Power Stations. Things to look for: We are looking for the site where the generators are, not dams or lakes. The picture requirements ask for pictures of the machine house and the water supply. If possible. There are stations where one or the other are underground. We try to welcome these as well, but then we expect that the submission adapted to the special situation and impossible requirements are not just dropped without any replacement. Special cases need special quality. They can be abandoned, but there must be recognizable relics. And here Hydroelectric means: Water + Gravity = Electricity. No hot water, geothermal energy is not covered by this category. Who's interested?

Dayton-Harris Gravity Disk Death Valley https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=GS0206

Thanks for posting that, Ernmark. I'm gonna try that Android App. Though I don't plan on going back to the US anytime soon, I'm hoping it may be of some use with Border Monuments in the future. And while we're at it here are my most used Canadian Benchmark URLs: Passive Control Networks - Canada wide map of all Canadian Benchmarks. Lots of other tools, options and links on this page. Gravity Network - Canadian Gravity Network stations PROVINCIAL NETWORKS - Portal to all provincial networks within Canada Alberta Geodetic Control Unit - pointer to Alberta benchmarks and survey markers of all types. Lotsa stuff to wade through here, but INVALUABLE in discovering thousands of markers not catalogued anywhere else. SPIN - Alberta Spatial Information Network - land titles data products, registered survey plans, township images, survey control markers Geodiscover Alberta - The essential Alberta map. Instructions on how to use are in a pane on the left. MASCOT Home - British Columbia's portal to BC survey markers, including Canadian Benchmarks. International Boundary Report - For the more adventurous Benchmark Hunters, a very interesting 1937 Report by the International Boundary Commission. It includes information on boundary monuments, as well as information on now obscure Benchmarks related to border monuments. Other than by serendipity, few would likely find many of these benchmarks without the aid of this book.

bugcrowd2022_36 Category Name Waymarks Visited Birdwatching Locations 4 Histoires de France (French historical markers) 1 Vortexes, Mystery Spots, and Gravity Hills 1 Off-Leash Dog Areas 1 Washington Historical Markers 1 Vortexes, Mystery Spots, and Gravity Hills is my waymark and when I try to view it, I get this message: Please login with valid credenitals: Username: Password: However, I am able to edit it. I have tried to delete the visits, I am unable to remove them. bugcrowd2022_36 Visits

An open letter to Groundspeak administration: In the early 2000s a fledgling company, looking to expand its product line and thereby increase its customer base, imported a database of benchmarks that its customers could search and log from what is now know as NOAA. Over time the customers provided the necessary additional products (geocaches) to allow the company to survive and grow. To Groundspeak’s administration benchmarks became a forgotten backwater as evidenced by the benign neglect that the platform has endured for many years. Now this same administration wants to remove benchmarking and its remarkable compendium of logs and photographs, one of the elements that helped the company survive its infancy. Let’s examine the reasons that they have stated for this wrongheaded decision: The game is global and benchmarking is a United States pursuit. As others have stated, there are multiple geocaching pursuits that are all or nearly all US based among them the APE cache(s), the original stash plaque and various events limited to HQ and environs. So “globalism” does not make a compelling argument. Very few people engage in benchmarking so it doesn’t make economic sense to support it. This should be entered in a dictionary of “self fulfilling prophesies” as a quintessential example. I can think of no other segment of the Groundspeak universe that has received as little marketing and promotion as benchmarking. For quite some time you have had to stumble over it to find it compared to everything else. I know some people that primarily looked for benchmarks during the early part of the pandemic before much was known about the virus’s survivability on caches or other surfaces. Imagine what a boost it would have been to the hobby if Groundspeak had actively promoted benchmarking during that time. The code is old and upkeep is costly. Who’s fault is that? I am certain that the code running the geocache part of the platform is not from 2002. I’ve lived through outages (that I fully understand) caused by multiple upgrades over the years. The ONLY reason we are at this juncture is because administration decided not to spend the money years ago to do the maintenance needed on the benchmarking side. Now we, the paying customer, will pay the price by losing part of the game. Shame on you, Groundspeak, for failing to spend our money wisely. Speaking of spending our money wisely, now I turn to the excuse that the benchmarking code is getting in the way of new and exciting projects. I have no idea what those are because no one has shared that information. Unlike some members of this board I have no faith, based on the last decade of “innovations” some of which have gone by the wayside, that I and many like me will find them a good trade for removing benchmarking. Imagine if the money lost on some of those “innovations” had been directed at upgrading the benchmarking code. Groundspeak likes to talk about the “Language of Location” The language of location in the United States was established by the survey crews that gradually established the network of horizontal and vertical locations that enabled the building of roads and bridges, homes and factories, canals and railroads, cities and towns that made the USA. This was often backbreaking work in inhospitable conditions. It required axe work and lugging surveying chains as often as using precision instruments like theodolites. These precisely measured locations (whether horizontal, vertical or both) are still used today, even in the era of the Global Positioning System, to make sure that water doesn’t flow in the wrong direction, houses aren’t built on the wrong property and for many other reasons. As benchmarkers we have helped find missing markers and reported those that have been destroyed. As august a presence as Dave Doyle, retired NGS chief geodetic surveyor, recently said in the Benchmarking forum “Many thanks to so many who have posted great pictures and hand-held positions that I've been able to harvest and improve the quality of tens of thousands of stations in the National Spatial Reference System.” Perhaps if Jeremy, Bryan, Elias or one of the more public facing lackeys had ever made the hike to station Buttermilk, (https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=LX4113) the oldest surviving triangulation station in the country, they might have experienced the same sense of awe and history that I did when I visited that site. But none of them did, despite traveling to many parts of the USA to promote Groundspeak and its activities (and, for many of the lackeys, to geocache.) They might have learned with a little research that Ferdinand Hassler, the first superindentent of the US Coast Survey, spent two weeks in June of 1833 with his wagon of instruments and his survey team setting this mark. I’ve been to the Original Stash Plaque and the Tunnel of Light APE cache. They are certainly historical but not remotely in the same class as finding Station Buttermilk. The only things that have come close are finding TU2116 (https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=TU2116) a benchmark placed by the Republic of Hawaii (check your history boys and girls) in 1896 and GS0206 (https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=GS0206) a gravity station in Death Valley (there are as many types of “benchmarks” as there are geocaches, some as rare as webcams.) None of the solutions that have been proposed on this forum have the same functionality as the current system. Waymaking does not have the database, NGS DataExplorer does not have the photographs and NOAA certaily does not want recovery notes every few months on the more popular and easily found stations. Finally, eliminating benchmarking from this site would be the equivilant of burning down a unique and valuable library, a library that has played a far more valuable civic role than any other aspect of this hobby. The current situation of low usage and old code is primarliy the result of decisions, conscious or subconscious, made by Groundspeak’s administration over the years. These same people can fix the problem by spending the money to revamp the system and market the activity. To rather spend money to move the hobby further from its roots toward more instant gratification may result in short term gain but long term loss. I urge reconsideration of this decision. Benchmarking is this community’s connection to the history of geolocation. Let’s strengthen that connection, not lose it. Michaelcycle and Susancycle

Back in 2016 I attended an event hosted by The Maryland Society of Surveyors that was a presentation/Q&A session about benchmarks. I learned a lot about benchmarks, but the most important thing that stuck out to me was how the NGS (National Geodetic Survey) was using the information submitted by Geocachers to help update their database. To see this in action consider one of the benchmarks I found recently: HV0059. The originally imported datasheet on Geocaching list scaled coordinates of 38 46 29 (N) 076 04 35 (W). Scaled coordinates means before the days of GPS someone tried to line the description up with a map and made their best guess. Now compare that to the current datasheet. It has handheld coordinates of 38 46 29.00 (N) 076 04 36.54 (W) and look at who made the last recovery note. This is common when looking at the updated datasheets. Just like CITO this is a way Geocaching has given back to the community, and soon it will be gone. NGS still has their own program for citizen submission, but it is hard to imagine they will obtain the same amount of information without benchmark logging integrated into the Geocaching site. Perhaps it is an extreme long shot, but have you even contacted NGS for the potential for some amount of funding or at the very least for their comments on this decision? You say their is no one to perform maintenance on them. Did you try to find volunteers like there are for reviewing Geocaches? You say they are only available in the US. This does not have to be so! The UK has trigpoints you could add. And look how cool they are. It was a choice not to try to extend the concept to other countries. You say only few people log them, but they seem almost intentionally hidden. How were new members to even learn they existed? It is so disheartening to be powerless to a constant barrage of short sighted money based decisions (including but not just at Geocaching) to make the internet worse than it was or could be. The memories I have from benchmarks are up there with the rest of the memories from Geocaching. The time I hung off the side of a bridge with one arm to get a picture without being in traffic. The one and only time I was able to find an azimuth disk. Taking the time to look for all the reference marks. And there was so much I was still looking forward to. Trying to get the rare gravity and magnetic types of disks. Trying to convince this building to let me on their roof. Something to log on mountains where Geocaches aren't allowed to be placed. At least I never bought a metal detector like I had been planning...

What "kills" most caches are water and sunlight and not being closed. An easy to close waterproof container, placed in a "sheltered from the elements" location and not in direct contact with the ground is your best bet for longevity. Any placement that gravity can affect benefits from a tether. Hiding well off the beaten path where possible is the best defense against muggle discovery. No guarantee, but higher terrain placements increase the chances that finds will be made by folks who are more likely to actually close the container properly. As noted: ammo cans, plastic boxes with sturdy gaskets and latches, and lock& locks are some of the best containers. I've also had pretty good luck with lock&locks loosely wrapped up in piece of plastic tarp: the tarp sheds water and snow and keeps out the sunlight while the lock and lock keeps stuff dry. Most folks can open and close a lock&lock and rewrap a piece of tarp...

By the most commonly understood definition, this shouldn't be acceptable in Preserved Machines on Public Display. Machine, from Wordnik: "A device consisting of fixed and moving parts that modifies mechanical energy and transmits it in a more useful form." Yet, by another definition, from the same source, it could, while broadly interpreting said definition, become acceptable, "A system or device, such as a computer, that performs or assists in the performance of a human task" , as it assists in performing what would otherwise be a human task, that of providing water to steam powered locomotives. A pretty loose interpretation of the general understanding of the word "machine", I'll admit, but potentially applicable, nonetheless. Also, strictly speaking, this isn't a "water pump", as the pumping of the water occurs underground, likely accomplished by an electrically driven pump. This is simply an elaborate spigot, hydrant, outlet, etc. - can't think of a proper definition for it. Keith Edit: Despite the fact that I once Waymarked a STOP Sign, one of our legendary Waymarkers (which one I no longer recall) once stated that: "Not everything needs to be Waymarked". Edit #2 - Looking once again at the photo, it appears that the spigot, hydrant, outlet, etc. stands beside what may well be a water tower, making this a gravity-fed spigot, hydrant, outlet, etc., and the water tower Waymarkable.

NGS is working on an update to the vertical datum. Just as NGVD29 was replaced by NAVD88 and NAD27 replaced by NAD83 when much better data became available, now there will be new horizontal and vertical datums labeled NAPGD2022, but unfortunately delayed somewhat beyond that year by funding and COVID. When the new vertical datum is released, elevations will change by some amount from the NAVD88 datum values. It has been found that NAVD has about a meter of tilt across the country. Three feet in 3000 miles isn't too bad, but they can now do better. Most importantly, as we know bench marks tend to go away and you are lucky if 1/4 of them are left in your area. The 2022 vertical values will be defined as what is measured by GPS (GNSS?) plus a geoid value, so that projects are no longer dependent on having a physical mark nearby. We have seen a series of geoid updates to better model the gravity, but those "hybrid" geoids still hold the old NAVD88 elevations on the marks in the data base, and only provide more accurate interpolation between those points. The 2022 datum will change all elevations to be more self-consistent across the country, using the best new geoid model they can make without depending just on old leveled benchmark values. For this they have been working on the GRAV-D project to get aerial measurement of gravity across the country and some gravity measurements on the ground. NGS needs a tool to allow people to convert NAVD88 elevations they have to good estimates of 2022 elevations. To check and refine the conversion model, they are using comparisons of GPS measurements versus NAVD88 values on good bench marks. Most of this data is being submitted by state DOT or DNR agencies, with some from various other sources including individual surveyors or researchers with the required equipment, submitted as OPUS Share data (see map of submissions). Look up the GPSonBM project for details. I hope that explanation helps, and is sufficiently clear. DaveD can correct me if I misstated anything.

If you hold a normal compass (mine is an old Boy Scout compass) flat the arrow points to Magnetic North. You then rotate the base to point towards your waypoint to set the bearing. All works fine, but if you tilt the compass it will display corrupted information. The same could be true for GPSr units, however... On my GPSr I display the heading arrow and the actual bearing to the next waypoint. The bearing is determined by the GPS signal, but the heading is determined by either motion (>1.5 mph) or, if no motion, magnetometers. Just like my BSA compass, tilting the GPSr will corrupt the heading unless corrected. Older GPSr used a bubble level to fix the compass’ orientation but now most GPSrs use accelerometers. There are three accelerometers that are used to orient GPSrs by determining which way is down (center of the earth) by measuring the acceleration forces in 3-space (XYZ). Gravity is an acceleration force. Magnetometers are constantly changing as the GPSr moves through local lines of magnetic flux. Accelerometers are calibrated once (unless they become corrupted) so the GPSr knows how it is oriented. If tilted the GPSr can mathematically reorient itself to find the center of the earth. It should be noted, magnetic compasses don’t necessarily point to Magnetic North. They align themselves to the local lines of force which generally point to Magnetic North. These lines of force are subject to local disturbances that may bend them and throw off the compass needle.

The planned service life of WISA Woodsat is approximately 2 years but if all goes well, it might be significantly longer. The time on orbit is estimated to be 7-10 years. During that time the velocity will slow down so much that gravity will start pulling the satellite from the orbit. As WISA Woodsat is small and made of wood instead of e.g. aluminum, it will turn into gas (it will not burn due to the lack of oxygen).

Please bring back the "Wear Your Best Suit" photo goal. I've just completed the goal and now I see it has just been archived. Why? Just because someone thinks its not daring or death defying enough?? As my log stated, "Everyone likes getting dressed up now and then, and these days we don't seem to get enough opportunities to put our glad rags on. " This is what photo goals used to be about, just doing something and having fun, didn't have to be an ‘eye rolling’ thing or a ‘Dare You’ thing. Getting really dressed up IS doing something, especially if it’s for an important occasion. The Past Activity page makes interesting reading, so many Declines then Approves then Declines again, for the same goal, it looks like no-one knows what they're doing! Wear Your Best Suit was one of those, approved and now gone, PLEASE bring it back for good!

In the Interesting, Yet Not Permanent category I submit the following: Much of the interest here lies in the snowman's gravity defying properties. However, he could never be considered permanent, however much we might wish him to be. While he is a couple of months old, he once was much more robust. The weather of the past couple of weeks has trimmed him down considerably and he is due to do a face plant in the ground any moment now.

I, too have heard that story and told it more than once. I remember as a kid in the 60's seeing the TV commercials for the "Space Pen" that would write upside down or in weightlessness!! Wow!! But, this, from Wikipedia's entry on "Writing in Space": <Quote> "A common misconception states that, faced with the fact that ball-point pens would not write in zero-gravity, the Fisher Space Pen was devised as the result of millions of dollars of unnecessary spending on NASA's part when the Soviet Union took the simpler and cheaper route of just using pencils. In reality, the space pen was independently developed by Paul C. Fisher, founder of the Fisher Pen Company, with $1 million of his own funds.[1][2][3][4] NASA tested and approved the pen for space use, then purchased 400 pens at $6 per pen.[5] The Soviet Union subsequently also purchased the space pen for its Soyuz spaceflights." </Quote>

Ran a query on my database (which is valid and complete as of NGS's archive at the beginning of this month (Aug 1st), and here is an interesting breakdown of the number of station types. The 'CDE' column is the 1 or 2 letter/digit marker type as seen on datasheets. The 'IN?' is wither it's a Intersection or not (1 - yes, 0 - no), and the # is the number of datasheets that list that as a marker type: CDE IN? # MARKER TYPE DESCRIPTION J 0 2 Earthenware jug Y 0 3 Drill hole in brick 23 1 3 VOR antenna 24 1 3 REN antenna 69 1 4 Regulatory sign 95 1 4 Rooftop blockhouse DK 0 5 Gravity reference mark disk DP 0 5 Base line pier disk 68 1 9 Commercial sign 05 1 11 Rock awash 28 1 11 LORAN mast 88 1 13 Observatory dome 93 1 13 Microwave antenna on building 17 1 17 Flag tower E 0 18 Earthenware pot L 0 22 Gravity plug 74 1 28 Large cross 18 1 30 Signal mast 84 1 39 Lightning rod 92 1 44 Antenna on roof 25 1 45 Radar antenna 26 1 46 Spherical radome 94 1 51 Rooftop ventilator 64 1 57 Silo DW 0 60 NOS hydrographic survey disk DA 0 61 Astro pier disk 27 1 63 Radio range mast 01 1 71 Lone tree M 0 76 Ammo shell casing 56 1 78 Skeleton tower 70 1 84 Monument 67 1 85 Oil derrick 12 1 88 Dolphin T 0 95 Chiseled triangle 11 1 96 Piling 58 1 150 Control tower G 0 150 Glass bottle K 0 156 Clay tile pipe 54 1 169 Water tower 02 1 176 Conspicuous rock 75 1 195 Belfry 41 1 223 Antenna mast DM 0 231 Magnetic station disk 82 1 242 Finial O 0 252 Chiseled circle DG 0 256 Gravity station disk 04 1 272 Rock pinnacle U 0 333 Concrete post (without other marks) 66 1 349 Windmill 89 1 357 Spire 61 1 363 Pole 83 1 387 Flagstaff DQ 0 416 Calibration base line disk 73 1 462 Lookout house 71 1 478 Boundary monument 87 1 542 Dome 65 1 560 Grain elevator 81 1 598 Gable W 0 606 Unmonumented 44 1 634 Microwave mast 72 1 636 Cairn V 0 670 Stone monument 13 1 698 Lighthouse 16 1 701 Daybeacon 21 1 724 Airport beacon 03 1 745 Mountain peak DU 0 780 Boundary marker 45 1 823 Microwave tower 91 1 824 Church cross 62 1 887 Flagpole 15 1 958 Range marker 43 1 1081 Radio/TV tower 86 1 1090 Cupola 22 1 1147 Airway beacon 52 1 1263 Standpipe tank 85 1 1321 Chimney A 0 1411 Aluminum marker other than a disk included elsewhere in table 55 1 1545 Tower C 0 1601 Cap of cap-and-bolt pair S 0 2036 Spike X 0 2107 Chiseled cross DT 0 2192 Topographic station disk 51 1 2626 Tank 57 1 2719 Lookout tower H 0 2806 Drill hole 90 1 3255 Church spire N 0 3469 Nail 63 1 3479 Stack 14 1 3916 Navigation light 42 1 3980 Radio/TV mast DJ 0 4356 Tidal station disk Q 0 5266 Chiseled square B 0 7676 Bolt DO 0 7827 Disk not specified (see description) R 0 8413 Rivet P 0 8743 Pipe cap 53 1 9769 Elevated tank DZ 0 10900 Azimuth mark disk F 0 17623 Flange-encased rod DH 0 18746 Horizontal control disk DE 0 19119 Traverse station disk Z 0 20695 See description DV 0 24159 Vertical control disk I 0 33163 Metal rod DR 0 33680 Reference mark disk DS 0 78967 Triangulation station disk DD 0 158147 Survey disk (other agency) DB 0 328935 Bench mark disk Not listed above are the just under 44k datasheets that have no marker type specified.

The one I placed had a horizontal post hole. If I were to drill my own, it might have a slight angle down, so gravity assists it staying in place. But I won't make anything for Geocaching that leaves a trace when I later remove the cache (makes some cache ideas tougher, sure), and I definitely won't ask to drill a hole, and I won't drill a hole in other people's property, for a host of reasons. I'll leave the hole drilling to the experts.

I'm not sure I follow, you might have to spoon feed it to me. I think your answer and quote doesn't apply to my question 1) and 4), just to my 2) and 3). I think you're saying it could have been a different marker and updated with Horiz later, so it might not have a triangle? That wouldn't be mentioned in the records? If I understand correctly about the symbol: since the records don't mention magnetism, or gravity, it's definitely not marking the tide, it's not a reference mark, and not a state mark, that eliminates a bunch of possibilities. On page 12, figure 28, that leaves: triangulation, and maybe these 4: azimuth, traverse, geodetic, topographic. So a triangle with a dot or maybe: crossed arrow, larger triangle with a dot, crossed line, or empty circle. (I'm not sure all of those disks existed in 1930 though.) A crossed line does closer match the questionable description of "cross hairs." Thanks for that tip, as I noticed PB&PP marks with a triangle on them say "$250 fine for disturbing" whereas those with a circle say "$250 fine for disturbing benchmark." That could be important. Is there any way to reverse engineer what the original symbol was? Regarding Azimuth, reference marks, long RM marks: would those all be documented and in the NGS database and come up in a search? Or could there be some undocumented azimuth/rm disks kicking around in the same area and I'm barking up the wrong tree with HV4826? If they are 1/4 mile away from triangulation stations, maybe the mystery marker is a reference marker for BOWEN, or maybe CIA TANK. Though BOWEN's paperwork listed 2 RMs about 75 feet away, not 1/4 mile. Thanks!

I've been using one for almost exactly a year now (it was on such a good offer back then I upgraded from a perfectly decent etrex20) . The only issue I've had is the tiny sliding/pivoting metal memory card door, which somehow got itself loose and fell out when I was changing AA cells in the field ... as I've only ever opened the memory card door once ( to install a card with osm maps on when I got the device) the only way I can imagine this happened is if some time earlier I dropped the device when no cells were in place, jarring the memory card door at just the right angle to partially open by itself, then next time I opened the back to change the cells the flap was at a position to finish opening and gravity did the rest ... I got it back in, but it doesn't hold the card tight against the contacts any more , so there is a tiny square of paper folded up and between the AAs and the metal holder now to keep it snug, without that my maps (which I have on that card ) are unavailable, but the device works fine otherwise. So I'll be very careful in the future with how I treat that tiny metal door ! Apart from that small mechanical problem, I've had no issues , it's quietly steered me to around 1000 geocaches.

I used a Galaxy s5 until it got in a gravity storm, and currently an older LG of some type. I set my phone's Location Service to use GPS only. This makes a huge difference in areas where I am on the edge of a cell tower's coverage. Try doing this before you spend the $ on a new phone that may perform no differently.

Buttermilk--the thrill of something so old and linked to the earliest days of US History, https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=LX4113 Dayton Harris Gravity Station--the rarest kind of disk, and it's in the middle of Death Valley! I was FTF on a benchmarking challenge (find 10 of the 11 kinds of disks), but darn it I just didn't want to find them all even though I'd already completed the challenge! I had a great trip to Nevada and California and explored Death Valley just so I could find that benchmark, https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=GS0206

or maybe Waymark Code: WMJPFQ Icarus, whose official name is MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1, is the farthest individual star ever seen. It is only visible because it is being magnified by the gravity of a massive galaxy cluster, located about 5 billion light-years from Earth.

False "Found" online logs really does take the fun from the game and defying to purpose of the game by getting outdoors. My logs are embarrassing for the time I joined in '15 till now, with only 106 finds. I am not one to falsify logs just to collect smileys. I always record my DNF for the reason that might tell the co that the cache might have been moved by the last finder or the cache might be stolen. Or I may just be to stupid to find it. As for logs, I do check against my online logs compared to written logs. There were a couple I had suspicions on. Found some did actually sign the log. Found one that hit all four of my caches, plus both of my geo partner's caches in one day including another cache over 100 miles away. He logs on the computer but never signed any of the physical paper logs. I also found where finders signed the paper log but haven't logged it on computer. However, Some finds, signs the paper log, then record it on computer a week or two later. I notice 2 finders did that just this morning.

it all depends on those involved really. I've seen a CO host an event "under that tree" so that one person could shimmy up and pass the log around below. I've seen a CO volunteer to meet potential seekers AT the cache WITH equipment. I've also seen ominous warnings on the cache page that the only way to get your name on the log legally was to do the climb --- of course this isn't really enforceable at all as I've been both the climber/signer and person on ground. of course, I have been the CO in one instance and caught someone signing for another person who was clearly 500 miles away at the same time. most of my T5s are boat anyway as gravity has a greater effect on me, so I'm more apt to trade a puzzle solution for a tree climber.... to each their own. of the higher d/t combos, most seem to come by challenge caches at this point in the numbers, so at this point many of our stats are skewed to show us much more physically inclined than we really are.

There are a number of antipodean/reflection/gravity train puzzles, where the icon is as far away as the other side of the world. These all date from before the 2 mile limit was brought in.