Thinking of Starting

[+The Leprechauns]

Hi, it's nice to post in a forum where I am a total NEWBIE. I have found many geocaches, and after two more trips, I'll have found all the caches within the metro area I live in. I've hidden five caches this month and organized an event cache to pass the time. I'm planning some long-distance caching trips for the summer.

 

But what to do when I feel like getting outside at 6 pm and hunting something with the GPS on the way home from work? I am thinking of starting to look for benchmarks. I would be very appreciative if more experienced benchmark hunters could answer the following questions, especially if they started out as cache hunters and still enjoy caches:

 

1. Is there enough "thrill of the hunt" when searching for benchmarks? I've read the stories about recovering a hard-to-find 80 year old mark in a remote area, or thrashing through underbrush, but what's the feeling when you find one in plain sight in a paved area or a county park?

 

2. Do you enjoy benchmarking less than, as much as or more than geocaching, and if so, why?

 

3. If someone else has already logged a mark, does it diminish your sense of accomplishment if you go and find the same mark? Caches are hidden, and everyone theoretically has the same challenge of finding the container.

 

OK, have at it, try to convert me. Thanks!

 

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[+chaosmanor]

Thrill of the hunt? You betcha!! And it doesn't make a difference to me whether it's on a curb in plain site, on the top of a hill, in the middle of the desert or wherever. Finding is finding; if I search for it, I get jazzed to find it, no question Do not worry about that part of it; you'll get a kick out of finding something that lots of other people probably never notice, and *you* will know what it is; that's pretty cool, IMHO.

 

As for enjoyment, it depends upon my mood, but I think they are equal. Of course, I have been interested in BMs since I was a kid, probably in part because my father was an architect. But I never hunted them or anything, I just knew what they were when I saw one. As I said above, the thrill is in finding something that others pass by without noticing, and knowing what it is: knowledge is power.

 

BTW: finding one that isn't in the listings here is even more fun: serendipity, you know! Of course, logging it is a pain, but...

 

Why would the fact that someone else has posted a log make a difference? Sure, being FTF on a BM is akin to being FTF on a cache, but if someone beats me to a cache, I don't give up the hunt! The same with a BM. I might have a perspective that the earlier poster(s) didn't, or maybe they didn't post a photo, or maybe only a shot of the disk but not an "in situ" shot of the thing in it's surroundings. There is always something to add, if only your story of your hunt. That's why BM hunting and geocaching are such natural partners.

 

In short, if you want to hunt 'em, go for 'em! Have fun and don't let the looks of the passers-by on the sidewalk bug you; you know something that they don't

 

So many caches; so few pairs of decent shoes

[+The Leprechauns]

Thanks for the reply!

 

I also just noticed that the "BENCHMARKING POLL - VOTE NOW" thread deals with the same basic question and was just brought to the top of the thread list, so I'll Markwell myself... I've read those responses, thanks. The thread title was not very descriptive, and was authored by the toxic Team 360, so I skipped it when I reviewed the forums before posting. Sorry for the redundancy.

 

But if there's any further feedback, it's most welcome!

 

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[+Black Dog Trackers]

Leprechauns -

 

1. I agree with chaos - finding is finding!

 

2. I very much prefer benchmarking to caching. I'm not sure exactly why. I think it boils down to looking for something real for society versus something contrived for a game. Benchmarks are an important part of knowing exactly where every property and building is. Although they are usually just little metal disks in the grass, they are serious items, not a box of toys.

 

3. In their own way, benchmarks are hidden too. One of the challenges to benchmarks is that many are not there anymore. The geocache is about 100% likely to be there, and the benchmark is about 50% likely to be there. This psychologically increases the thrill of the find - the powerful intermittent success thing like gambling. Yep, I generally avoid ones that someone else has been to before - I already know from that person that the benchmark is there.

 

Convert you? Nah! I will get to yours first!

[+chaosmanor]

I dunno, BDT; just because someone else *says* that they found it, doesn't mean that they did (unless they have pictures, of course ). I still think hunting a previously found BM is worth the doing. Just this past weekend, I was FTF to a BM at Ballarat, in the Mojave Desert; would you ignore it should you find yourself out there, just because I saw it first? Would you ever be cheating yourself if you did! If I ever visit Falls Church, you can bet that I'll look for any BMs you might have found, simply because *I* won't have seen them!

 

So many caches; so few pairs of decent shoes

[rusty0101]

A couple of suggestions. While you can get highly precise GPS indications on data sheets, well over half the data sheets that I have worked with indicate the information is Scaled, and may be off by as much as 6 seconds of arc.

 

This is a bit more challenging than a GPS getting you to within 20 or 40 feet of a cache, and having to cast around for an orange 5 gallon pail with a lid on it marked geocaching. 6 seconds of arc is around 5-600 feet, and if the mark is a nail, good luck.

 

In almost all cases, it is better to use a GPS to confirm you are in the area of a benchmark, and use the description of the mark and it's suroundings to actually find the mark.

 

As noted elsewhere, just because you are not the first to find a mark doesn't change the thrill of finding it for yourself.

 

My own recomendation is to print off the first five marks closest to both home and work, then see what the experience is like either on a weekend, or for a bit of time preasure, during a lunch break.

 

If you have a favorite gas station between home and work, or use a bus or train station as part of your commute, get the gps coords for those locations, and pick a few marks around it, then look for them on the way to work, or on the way home.

 

Just a few ideas.

 

-Rusty

[+MountainMudbug]

I love searching for anything, so I'd say I like caching and benchmarking equally.

 

My success in marker-finding is less due to urban construction, but I find it equally interesting to compare the old area descriptions to the current lay of the land. I like riding by my local markers every day, glimpsing them in different seasons.... sometimes I wave at them as I pass

 

I hope to find markers with more history in the future, but I appreciate all the ones I locate. Been searching for a few in the Smoky Mtns from the early 1900s but with little luck so far.... but ANY trip to the Smokies is a treat for me.

 

Having a searching partner who is equally interested in the marker hunt would be a bonus - TigerShark HATES benchmarks, and only accompanies me for the safety factor. Oh well, maybe someday he'll see the light..... til then I have to hunt fast and not be too disappointed when I don't find it

[eahousley]

I think the best part about benchmarking (vrs cache hunting) is that when you set out, you don't really know if you're going to find it. And even if it's still there, you might have to search quite a while for it. I logged one last week that was hidden under the sod and had a bogus description. I spent almost an hour searching and was never more than 20 ft from it. Gives you more of a sense of accomplishment.

 

-- Its from aliens. I seen um. --

[NothingBetterToDo]

Some notes from a fellow first-timer...

 

I find BM hunting to be very enjoyable, particularly for benchmarks in more rural / remote areas, as opposed to one in the middle of a well-traveled downtown sidewalk. The reason for this.. and it's going to sound really cheesey, but it's just the way I am.. is to me, I found it to be like visiting a long lost friend. Here's this little guy, whose sole purpose in life is to be a benchmark.. an important but often terribly lonely job. It just gives me warm fuzzies to visit this object that hasn't been paid any attention to.. sometimes in many years.. and just say hi, clean it up a bit, and acknowledge its existence.

 

I haven't done it but once, but this is the kind of feeling I get when finding these out-of-the-way ones. I also look forward to finding some really old ones, just for the history aspect. I've geocached a few times, and finding them is fun, but with a few exceptions, there's not really any history to go with them, if you don't count the people visiting it in the last year. By history I'm referring to envisioning some guy, roaming out on the plains on horseback in the 20's or 30's, on an old neglected dirt road that has since become an interstate, putting in a benchmark for future generations to use, and the past surveyors who have used that mark in their work over the years.

 

There's also something to be said for the fun of just coming across one by accident; seeing that witness post on your drive home from work that's been there forever but you never noticed it before; or coming across one in the park on your way to a cache. A couple of our first finds were exactly that... "Cool! A witness post! Pull over!"

 

As for being FTF, there is definitely a little satisfaction in being able to be the first one to log a benchmark, as well as a small level of disappointment when the BM has clearly been recently visited by surveyors. Takes away a bit from that "lost lonely benchmark" idea. If you plan ahead, and use this site to build a list of marks to find on a given hunt, it's easy enough to see which ones have been found by fellow hunters, and which ones have not... you won't really know if it's been recently visited by surveyors until you get there.

[survey tech]

Nothing

Very well put and spoken like a born surveyor. That is exactly the way most of us in the business feel about them. All the most memorable ones I have visited have been in the most remote places. After all, its about the journey.

[+DustyJacket]

(1) When I find a Survey Marker that hsn't been recovered in 50-60 years, I feel that I am doing a service, as well as having fun.

 

(2) When benchmarking, I don't have to be stealthy. I can be as obvious as I want to. This is easier to explain to geomuggles, and gets you a lot less of "those" looks. Heck, the US Power Squadron does this to fulfill their community service requirements.

 

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

[+The Leprechauns]

Wow! Great responses! I will try hunting for a benchmark once I recover from putting on a CITO event cache next weekend for 60 people.

 

I think that my mindset will require some adjustment, knowing that part of the time, I will not find what I set out to look for. When I can't find a geocache, I go back later to clean it up (unless it's determined to be missing), and I've been known to take several hours over multiple trips to do it. So thanks for that warning.

 

I would especially like to thank "NothingBetterToDo" for his thoughtful essay. It got me thinking! What a great addition you are to our community.

 

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[+TEAM 360]

Eeeeeasy now...."toxic" TEAM 360 was hoping that all would be right with the world today...hey, Leprechauns, benchmarking is really cool, regardless of what you may still think of me...I like it because you don't have to worry about cache maintenance or trading or signing logs, and being the first in finding old benchmarks is a thrill. Hope you have a great day on the cache/benchmark trail.

 

"toxic" TEAM 360.

[+The Leprechauns]

Thanks for the feedback, TEAM 360, and welcome back!! Reading your story about finding a historic benchmark was one of the things that got me thinking about trying benchmarking.

 

Please understand that my comment about you was made on the assumption you were gone & not returning. I appreciate your taking it in good stride.

 

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[+TEAM 360]

"Please understand that my comment about you was made on the assumption you were gone & not returning. I appreciate your taking it in good stride."

 

It's alright, I deserved it after my little outburst there.

 

As one other geocacher told me, benchmarking is like traveling through the 4th dimension of time...you come across a really old benchmark, and wonder what the area was like back when it was placed, and just who placed it? Some of the ones I have tried to find were wiped out by construction a long time ago, but if you go outside of the cities or into the wilderness areas, chances are you will find 'em. Plus, every time you go get a cache, be sure to click on "Nearby Benchmarks", and you will get one that is close, no doubt. A 2-for-1 trip. Good Luck!

[+Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking]

We found our first benchmark after finding our first dozen caches. We hadn’t planned to look for any but we literally tripped over it, a pipe cap with a shiny brass cap. Eighty benchmarks later and the thrill is still there.

 

There is a difference in my attitude when we look for benchmarks. Looking for caches requires you to outthink the hider. Searching for benchmarks requires you to visualize old terrain and think of where something may be after the passage of many years. I’m a former archaeologist so there is the thrill of connecting to the past. Some of my favorite benchmarks are those I find on old buildings, or have some other connection to history. I’ve even tried to research some benchmarks. For example, there are some benchmarks dating from a military aerial survey that I am currently obsessed with. We found about 8 remaining benchmarks and I am trying to research their purpose. Elsewhere I found reference to an old WW II era military training base that virtually no one has heard of in our area. The base has a lot of benchmarks associated with it. We hope to find some of them. We also found a benchmark, unfortunately not in the database, from the original statehood survey…. How can you not be excited about benchmark hunting?

 

And yes we love looking for caches too, especially clever ones.

 

*****

 

Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes

On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated -- so:

"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges --

"Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

 

Rudyard Kipling , The Explorer 1898

[+embra]

If you poke around on some of the old topics in this forum, you'll find some unexpected directions that BM searching can take you. For example, this discussion on old airway beacons was something I found intriguing.

 

Max

Often wrong but seldom in doubt