10 Miles from Home - Or - How about setting a goal...

[+PI Joe]

The geocaching benchmark search results page lists all the BM's within 10 miles of a given target. What does your results page look like? Has someone tried to visit all of the BM's listed yet? There are several geocachers in my area that look for BM's. My goal is for every BM to be visited by a geocacher and logged - found, not found, whatever. I've finished all the BM's in that 10 mile radius so now I'm working on all the BM's in my county.

 

TxHiPowr

[+beejay&esskay]

There are about 165 benchmarks within 10 miles of ZIP code 47374.

 

Currently, 6 are reported as destroyed, 13 found and 1 not found.

 

I intend to fill the page [exceptions noted below]...but since I'm the only one logging in this area (with the exception of some geocachers who came through last July), it will probably take awhile.

 

[i guess there are some locations that I won't be able to log...not even a "not found". If I'm denied access to private property, I'm not sure "not found" applies.]

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

I started out with the goal of 100 Bench Marks. I am now at 196.It's addictive so if you have aa addictive personality have fun..............Change to a search of 50,then 100 miles.Some of mine are hundreds of miles away.When I plan a trip I usually look for Bench Marks in the area as well.Some I have wanted some where to log for years Thanks to this site we can now go back and get those found all over the Western 1/2 of the U.S.

From Another *LONE STAR*

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS *GEOTRYAGAIN* http://www.msnusers.com/MissouriTrails

[+Black Dog Trackers]

thxipowr -

 

I agree that it's an excellent goal for us to visit and label all BMs. I have tried to do a good job of logging all my not-founds. I have several from yesterday that I need to put in. I got 1 find out of about 7.

 

I must admit, however, that there are many that I don't bother to visit. I filter the ones I read and decide which to try. Really old ones that read like a farm tour whose location is now deep in suburbia are hopeless, as are the ones along what was once a 2-lane country road and is now a 6-lane highway.

 

So, these remain blank in the listing with no benchmarker symbols, even though at least this benchmarker (and possibly the others in my area) has already studied (and rejected) the BM's description. I've thought of putting a "Post a note" for them, but think that posting notes for ones I haven't even visited is a bad idea so I haven't done it. It would save other benchmarkers some reading time, but it would also tend to prevent some benchmarks from being found that really are findable.

 

I hate to bring up anothe possible category of marking (pretty hopeless), but there I go. That category would be just too subjective, I think.

 

There are some that I've visited that were mounted vertically on a building that I found no longer exists, so I did post a note on them.

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

There are 143 within 10 miles of my home. Can I just log them all as not found and be done with it?

 

Just kidding...

 

In many cases, that may be the easiest way to do it though. The railroads came through here more than 120 years ago and the USGS & USC&GS both used much of the survey control network that the railroads had along their tracks. As the railroads got bought, sold, rebuilt, raised, lowered, and moved, much of the survey control got lost or wiped out, but the NGS still has record of it. Often times the control may not have been destroyed, but only covered by 3-5 feet of railroad bed. (Probably not a good idea to dig for it either.)

 

I like the idea of trying to find them all. For now, I'm the only active benchmarker within about 60 miles in any direction. That should keep me busy for a while.

 

As far as what my results page looks like: I've haven't found very many nearby my home. I usually find them near (or sometimes on) my jobsites, and I tend to look for benchmarks that are on roads that I travel frequently or marks that are nearby to caches I'm hunting for. I've found them all over the County and in other states as well.

 

Keep on Caching!

- Kewaneh

[rusty0101]

... just enter zip code 55406 into the search form, and

 

wait...

 

just a bit more...

 

Yes, your browser is still working...

 

It's only about 1000 markers. Most of them ready for the picking. With the temps comming up over the next week I may even be able to pluck a few.

 

-Rusty

[+rogbarn]

There are 164 benchmark in my list. Exactly half (82) have been found. 18 are not found and 3 have notes. That leaves 61 (37.2%) still to be dealt with. There is one other very active benchmarker in my area (many of our finds overlap) and a few others that have found a few.

[+rogbarn]

quote:

---

Originally posted by rusty0101:

It's only about 1000 markers.

-Rusty

---

 

Wow, my benchmark hunting friend (happycycler) who lives on his bicycle (well, not literally), would love your area. You need to use the "&dist=" parameter except instead of increasing from 10, go down. Try to find a distance that lists 100 to 200 and then report.

 

For those who are not aware, after you search, append "&dist=xx" to the url to provide a list up to 30 miles. xx can be anything from 1 (I'm guessing it can go that low) to 30.

[rusty0101]

With what passes for warm weather today, I hit up seven of the 50 or so markers within 2 miles, found three, didn't find three. One looks like it has been paved over, two I couldn't find because of the snow. I will revisit the two that look findable because of snow later this month. One of the seven I believe is destroyed, too much new construction over the past couple of years.