2009 Settings Contest Congratulations & Discussion

[TillaMurphs]

We really enjoyed this contest. We learned a lot about settings – something we previously didn’t pay very much attention to. You educated us.

 

UNK1, you obviously put quite a bit of planning into this. Point accumulation methods were well balanced. The contest duration was just right. It gave us time to catch up after a late start but it wasn’t overly long. (If it was much longer we would have run out of gas and energy. Alas, now there is no longer an excuse not to mow the lawn.)

 

UNK1, and the judges – THANK YOU.

 

To the other competitors – GOOD JOB.

 

So… who won the autographed picture of the HOPI benchmark paperweight!

 

 

It looks like no one was able to find the following settings:

21

33

55

57

58

60

I wonder why we all had such a tough time with those? - not many ever set? disappeared over the years? too new?

 

We saw a setting 10 on the scoreboard – just wondered what that setting was?

 

Thanks

Edited June 21, 2009 by TillaMurphs

[+_dxd_]

Echoing TillaMurphs - many thanks to UNK1 for planning and holding the contest, to the judges for all their time and effort in checking the entries, and to the other competitors for keeping me going

 

I found some new areas which I will be exploring further, learned a little history, and was saddened to learn of "history" that's been lost due to construction and/or thievery.

 

As for the rare settings, I think southpawaz discovered that there was only one #21 in AZ, but it's now destroyed. I'm sure soil conditions have a lot of impact on what settings are used . The ground around here will corrode a copper/zinc penny in short time so tough on metals, and then there is the caliche, which is like concrete, so driving in a rod would be ... difficult, but it probably would have great stability once in there. In my county, more than 55% of the markers are setting #7, and a large percent of the rest are #30 or #36 - which seem to be used for almost all of the 30-something settings no matter what they were.

[+billwallace]

This contest was a great intro for me. I had found a few stations without a GPS and knew about the datasheets but didn't know that it was a sport till my cousin introduced me to geocaching (his son got him a gps for xmas but but my cousin had to wrestle it away from him to use it ). Anyway I had gotten my gps just before this contest started. After the contest I have a new acronym for myself - RTDS (Read The DataSheet!!!). Thnx UNK1 for setting this up and keeping tabs.

 

I'm looking forward to some leisurely day hikes to horizontal controls in high places -

 

There are NO setting 57's in the great state of California; there are only two each of settings 55 & 58 and all but two of the setting 33 descriptions sound like intersection stations.

[foxtrot_xray]

I had fun too! Many thanks, everyone! I started out strong but kinda died, due to job loss. (Finding a job is hard work!)

 

Good job, everyone! Was fun, een if I didn't win last place!

[TillaMurphs]

As for the rare settings, I think southpawaz discovered that there was only one #21 in AZ, but it's now destroyed.

We actually found a type 21. It was clear from visual inspection that it and RM2 were indeed a setting 21 (see RD1443). However, the snapshotted Geocaching datasheet for some reason said it was a type 7. The up-to-date NGS datasheet does call it a 21.

 

In my county, more than 55% of the markers are setting #7, and a large percent of the rest are #30 or #36 - which seem to be used for almost all of the 30-something settings no matter what they were.

Here also, 7's, 30's and 36's make up a large percentage of the total.

 

We struggled with the type 65. We went after one that we could not find. Two others were too far down a road that had been closed for us to hike in the time we had available. One we thought we were going to be able to find was on private property. We talked to the owner and believed we were going to gain access because, as we explained what we were looking for, the owner started to get very interested. In fact, he got too interested. He ended up getting so interested that he said HE wanted to find it on his own without our help. He felt it would be much more fun if he found it all on his own. He did say he would call us after he found it.

 

We are also going to continue looking for a #33 - we are curious to see one.

[southpawaz]

Let me add my thanks too, both to UNK1 for running the show and providing the great prizes, and also to those prodigious Arizona benchmark hunters (you know who you are ) whose prior logs on so many marks were a great help in keeping me focused on findable marks and not spending much time on DNFs.

 

In looking over to the scoreboard thread, I notice that the mysterious setting 10 mentioned above by TillaMurphs fell in my found column. Looks like it was a typo in the scoring process from my last submission (which was a Setting 45 for 10 points), as the 45 is not reflected in the final scoreboard posting.

 

As for the tough settings, from my notes there are no 33, 48, 50, 55, 56, 58 or 60s in Arizona. There is one 57 (CZ1500) but it's apparently inside a locked Tucson Water facility, so I didn't look into it any further, and also just the one 21 which was a bit out of my range. There are a number of 65s but most were further than I wanted to go, and I had already found the one that was most accessible and not too far from another distant mark I went after for the contest.

 

Once again, thanks, and congratulations to all the other winners.

[UNK1]

In looking over to the scoreboard thread, I notice that the mysterious setting 10 mentioned above by TillaMurphs fell in my found column. Looks like it was a typo in the scoring process from my last submission (which was a Setting 45 for 10 points), as the 45 is not reflected in the final scoreboard posting.

 

 

I deny anything and everything with that mysterious setting #10. I never saw it and don't know anything about it. It couldn't have been me, cause I perfect and never make any misteaks.

 

UNK1

 

Glad everyone enjoyed themselves and had funn.

[UNK1]

So… who won the autographed picture of the HOPI benchmark paperweight!

 

This is an offer from me to anyone who would like the autographed picture of the HOPI benchmark paperweight. Just send us your snail mail address and it will be sent posthaste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attention: I am not affiliated with the following link in any way. (I only wish I were...)

 

So, if you are interested in a certain benchmark paperweight of your very own, the link to a site where you might purchase one is below.

 

MountianClimb store.

 

UNK1

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Thanks to one and all alike.

 

I had a blast bot got very busy at the end doing another mapping project which took all my time.

 

Finally got it and the Event behind me with great cud o's on the maps.

 

GEO*

[UNK1]

I got to looking at the prizes and decided to keep some for myself!

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, 8 packages delivered to the Post Office. You should get your prizes in 3 to 5 days. Enjoy

 

UNK1

[foxtrot_xray]

I got to looking at the prizes and decided to keep some for myself!

Hah! How many points did you get in the contest again?

[+_dxd_]

Wow, that was quick ! USPS came through... Thank you, UNK1, just received my prize today, I really like it. I hadn't seen one of these before, good quality. I may just have to check out that website a little more.

 

And thanks again to you, and your helpers, for the contest

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Received my package today.

Awesome medal.

 

Now I will have to start a new collection.

 

Thanks again for everything.

[Team Fawlty]

It was a fun contest. Congratulations to everyone who stuck in til the end of the contest.

Every part of the country has it's own challenges. For us it was too cold in the beginning, then too rainy, then too hot, and then all the rain and heat had the weeds growing too tall.

We set out to get MF0230 but couldn't get to it. We should have gone for that one when it was still cold out.

Maybe we can use it in the next contest.

Thanks to UNK1 and all the judges.

Thanks to Klemmer for donating the Metal Detector. We are looking forward to using it.

 

Jo Ann

[southpawaz]

It was nice to find that package waiting for me when I picked up my mail this week. Now I may have to make a trip up to Zion so I have a visit to match the centennial coin. Not many GEOCAC logs in southern Utah, hmm...

 

Thanks again for the contest and prize!

Edited June 28, 2009 by southpawaz

[+chiknlips45]

Many thanks to UNK1 for running a great contest from beginning to end. I received my consolation prize Saturday. Of course I wish the outcome would have been a lot different but sometimes unforseen circumstances take precedence on our fun. Thanks again for taking your time to make the contest enjoyable to all the participants. Your efforts have not gone un-noticed.

[+Trucker Lee]

Unk, thanks for the contest, and congrats to the winners.

 

This was my first ever benchmark contest, but then I had only looked and wondered whenever I came across a disc until I began caching and got the opportunity to read what these were. The contest got me to go look for different types that I hadn't seen before, and took me to some locations that I normally wouldn't have visited. I truly enjoyed the new challenges that the contest gave me. Thanks to the planners and all participants.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Sorry that I didn't get more of a chance to compete, but life got in the way.

Really sorry that no one found a Setting 21! I want to see what one of them really looks like! There were more than a hundred set out, by boat, along the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers in NJ in the 1910's, but most were reported missing in the 1030's. Oh, well.

[foxtrot_xray]

UNK, thanks for the pin! Got it earlier this week, didn't check my PO Box until today. I like the little thing! It's like a tiny station disk!

 

I second it that it was a fun contest - I with I was still employed so I could have gotten more. (Boy.. that sounds odd..)

 

Thanks again!

[+billwallace]

My prize came yesterday - YEAY!! - Thanks again to everyone that helped run it. I haven't been out since my last contest run partly because I can't decide which one's to go get next so I guess the contest helped me focus my interest . I think I will continue to try and pick up the rest of the settings I missed in California and at some point look for the elusive setting #57. It seemed at times that the setting type listed in the datasheets were a bit arbitrary but one of my favorites (setting-wise) was this benchmark on a church - I wonder if the surveyor intended a double meaning when that setting type was chosen.

 

The prize is great - it's the one I wanted so i had to be real careful and not get too many points but keep my eyes on TillaMurphs there at the end with those 250+ point posts. The citation was a nice touch - In my case Luck and Time would be at the top of the attribute list.

[UNK1]

Thanks for the kind words. I am glad all had a good time and the winners like their prizes.

 

If there is another benchmark hunting contest, I will gladly offer my guidance and words of wisdom to those that run the contest.

 

Thank you,

 

UNK1

[TillaMurphs]

The TillaMurphs promptly received their award in the mail but we are late in posting our thanks for the paperweight and the plaque because we have been on vacation (more benchmarking).

 

So.. thanks again to UNK and his helpers. (We know that 2OldFarts were helping – not sure who the other helpers/judges were - but thanks to them also).

 

The paperweight is REALLY nice.

 

PS: Has anyone found a setting type 33? We would like to see one.

[+Harry Dolphin]

PS: Has anyone found a setting type 33? We would like to see one.

 

I found a few 'bolts in utility poles' KV3460, but they're listed as

KV3460_MARKER: B = BOLT

KV3460_SETTING: 30 = UTILITY POLE

KV3460_STABILITY: D = MARK OF QUESTIONABLE OR UNKNOWN STABILITY