Not Looking, Found Benchmark Disc - A Little Help Please

[MWsidewing]

My husband and I are new to geocaching and hadn't planned to add benchmark hunting for awhile. We were on vacation in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado standing at one of the scenic overlooks, when my husband look down. The ground felt uneven and when he looked down, to his surprise, he was standing on a benchmark disk. Now we thought to take pictures of it, but not to run back and get our gps, so we don't have coordinates and assume we can't claim it. We would like to find out if its listed, though, just to satisfy our curiosity. We're not sure how to do that without the coordinates.

 

Can someone help us?

 

Thanks,

W (Wendy)

of MWsidewing

[foxtrot_xray]

My husband and I are new to geocaching and hadn't planned to add benchmark hunting for awhile. We were on vacation in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado standing at one of the scenic overlooks, when my husband look down. The ground felt uneven and when he looked down, to his surprise, he was standing on a benchmark disk. Now we thought to take pictures of it, but not to run back and get our gps, so we don't have coordinates and assume we can't claim it. We would like to find out if its listed, though, just to satisfy our curiosity. We're not sure how to do that without the coordinates.

 

The easiest way would be to find a map (topozone.com, for example) and find where you might have been, and then do a lat/lon search on GC. If you don't know exactly where you were standing, you can probably find someplace nearby (a road where you parked, etc) and go from there...

 

Good find, tho..!

Me.

[68-eldo]

My husband and I are new to geocaching and hadn't planned to add benchmark hunting for awhile. We were on vacation in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado standing at one of the scenic overlooks, when my husband look down. The ground felt uneven and when he looked down, to his surprise, he was standing on a benchmark disk. Now we thought to take pictures of it, but not to run back and get our gps, so we don't have coordinates and assume we can't claim it. We would like to find out if its listed, though, just to satisfy our curiosity. We're not sure how to do that without the coordinates.

 

The easiest way would be to find a map (topozone.com, for example) and find where you might have been, and then do a lat/lon search on GC. If you don't know exactly where you were standing, you can probably find someplace nearby (a road where you parked, etc) and go from there...

 

Good find, tho..!

Me.

 

Another way would be to search by designation. There should be a name such as R 3 or GILBERT on the disk. Search for it on this page.

 

If that does not work or you cant find the designation, then post the picture somewhere on the web and then make a link to it on this thread. Someone here can then search for it and send you the results.

 

Just be aware that many of these disk are not in the GC.com database.

[MWsidewing]

Thank you for the replies. At least now we have some ideas on how to go about this. We'll pull the pictures, they were pretty clear, to see if we find a name on it.

 

If anyone else has suggestions we'll keep an eye on this thread.

 

Thanks again!!!

 

W

[kgbinmo]

You may want to start by bringing up JL0848

This is the east portal of the park.

You can research other marks from there.

Hope this helps.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

MWsidewing -

 

There are thousands of benchmark disks that are not in the database we use. Hopefully when you do what's been suggested here, you will find it in the database, but there's only about a 50% probability that the disk you found is included in the database.

[MWsidewing]

I Just want to thank everyone on behalf of M and myself!!! We found it! The benchmark is out in the database!

 

W

[Wintertime]

I Just want to thank everyone on behalf of M and myself!!! We found it! The benchmark is out in the database!

Well? Well...?? Don't keep us in suspense! Which one is it?

 

Patty

[GH55]

I Just want to thank everyone on behalf of M and myself!!! We found it! The benchmark is out in the database!

 

W

 

Your log is for the staion "JONES" yet that is not the disk you have pictured.

 

I would suggest you take a look at the "Me First" FAQ's at the top of this forum and about ADJUSTED coordinates. Those coordinates are more accurate than the resolution of your handheld GPS receiver. From previous geocacher logs of this disk, we see that the station JL0850 "Jones" is 0.455 minutes west of this disk and 1.305 minutes north. and at about 500 feet higher elevation. That is about 1.5 miles away.

 

The real disk should say "JONES" and it should be set in a boulder. It is hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like the one you and others found at the overlook is set in concrete. Is that right?

 

It appears that this is a popular mistake for geocachers to make. If you want to log it correctly, you may want to try the Waymarking Page and be the first to log your find correctly!

Edited July 30, 2006 by GH55

[MWsidewing]

YOU"RE RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, we'll remove our post and take your advice. We'll see if we can't get this right!

 

In our excitement we accepted what seemed a "sure thing". And then, when other pictures looked like ours, well.... Anyway, back to the "drawing board" so to speak.

 

Thank you for the correction and direction!

 

M & W