Benchmarks found history (Attn: RogBarn)

[+beejay&esskay]

I think I might have missed some history updates. The last one I have recorded is 25,000 found (on 5/10/03?)

 

Roger-Can you fill in the missing history, and give a new estimate on some of the big ones coming up?

 

I'll guess 8/16 for 700,000 left to go.

(I'm saving a few thousand finds to report as needed to hit that date. )

 

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Current caching status

5 FTF

1 LTF

22 pending LTF

[+rogbarn]

I was waiting to hit 35,000 before posting an update but since you asked....

 

We hit an average of 100/day for a 7 day rolling average for the first time this year on March 13th. Since then, the 7-day rolling average has reached as high as 164 on July 13th. Rolling average is taking the average for the past seven days. The next day, one day rolls off one new day rolls in and the average is recomputed.

 

We hit 30,000 on 6/26. We've hit some other milestones during the spring and summer, but the big news is what is upcoming. We have three big milestones in a row coming soon. My estimates are:

 

fall under 700,000 remaining: Aug 3rd

hit 5% of the total (36,822): Aug 17th

hit 40,000: Sept. 12th

 

Considering that we hit 20,000 on March 25th, I think getting the next 20,000 in 5 months will be an accomplishment worthy of a celebration!

[+rogbarn]

Still anxiously waiting to hit 35,000.

Today the 7-day rolling average fell below 100 for the first time after 44 straight days over 100 (and 109 out of the last 136 days). Is summer getting too hot in too much of the country? Are benchmark hunters taking a vacation with the family? Will it pick up again soon or will it take a month or more? Inquiring minds want to know. Or are at least very curious...

[+geo_eclectic]

I laid off of hunting as of the 4th of July because of ticks, chiggers, mosquitos, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus.

 

After a warm and wet winter the bugs are making it no fun to be in the woods and fields around here.

 

I am so looking forward to cooler weather - so many benchmarks to log !!!

 

----- Fighting entropy one benchmark at a time. -----

[+beejay&esskay]

quote:

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Originally posted by RogBarn:

Is summer getting too hot in too much of the country? Are benchmark hunters taking a vacation with the family?

---

 

Frequently too hot after a hard day's work.

 

Most of the ones on the way home from work have been visited.

 

Trying to concentrate on caches to get to the 100/100 club before winter.

[+catcher24]

Too many bugs, as referenced above. Have been concentrating more on caches as my wife and daughter like to see what is in them. Hope to get some new BM's when weather cools a little, daughter is back in school, and DAD CAN GO ALONE!!

 

Catcher24

"You see, you spend a good deal of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." Jim Bouton

[+rogbarn]

We hit 35,000!

 

As of late afternoon on Tuesday Aug 5th, the benchmarking front page indicated that we went over 35,000 benchmarks found. In re-reading my post of July 18th, I realized that I made a couple of errors: The Aug 3rd was for hitting 35,000. The date for falling under 700,000 should have been Aug 14th. Also, I mentioned that we would go from 20,000 to 40,000 in 5 months, but I should have said 6 months (March to September). Since then, we have slowed down a little bit (but not much!). Here are my current estimates for the Big Three Milestones:

 

falling under 700,000: Aug 17th

5% of total (36,822) : Aug 20th

40,000 benchmks found: Sep 17th

 

Three big milestones within a month is a major acomplishment!

[+Colorado Papa]

quote:

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Originally posted by RogBarn:

Since then, we have slowed down a little bit (but not much!).

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I'd be interested in how many of us are really active in looking for benchmarks. As an ancient surveyor from back in the fifties, I almost forgot about all this stuff. Thought everything was done by GPS now. Was an active cacher until recently when I "discovered" this section and started doing some library research to help locate BMs that have long been unrecovered.

 

It send chills though my veins when I find a site where the last surveyor was there thirty of more years ago. Even if the marker is missing, I think "If only the trees and rocks could talk!"

 

Anyhow, the bug bit me, but I do want to do a thorough job and not jump to conclusions like I did couple weeks with JK1230. I do enjoy the research of old maps and pictures.

 

However, of the 700,000 plus, why isn't the number reduced by the ones that have been reported as destroyed? I really do believe credit should be given for ones that are reported as destroyed and have furnished proof such as JK0244.

 

1950 Surveyor

 

[This message was edited by Colorado Papa on August 08, 2003 at 09:43 PM.]

[+GeckoGeek]

quote:

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Originally posted by Colorado Papa:

Anyhow, the bug bit me, but I do want to do a thorough job and not jump to conclusions like I did couple weeks with http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=jk1230. I do enjoy the research of old maps and pictures.

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As a point of note, you may want to go back and edit your entries so that it's a single entry. Otherwise your stats are off and your erroneous information is still published.

 

quote:

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However, of the 700,000 plus, why isn't the number reduced by the ones that have been reported as destroyed? I really do believe credit should be given for ones that are reported as destroyed and have furnished proof such as http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=JK0244.

 

Is that one truly destroyed? If the pin is still there, then the location is still marked, just missing it's identification tag. It's my understanding that it's when a station's positional integrity is compromised is when it's considered destroyed. What bothers me are ones more like TU1183 or TU1177 or TU1178 where two entries show that the station is gone. For whatever reason the database shows them as "normal" when the text clearly indicates they should be "skull" stations.

[+Colorado Papa]

quote:

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Originally posted by GeckoGeek:

Is that one truly destroyed? If the pin is still there, then the location is still marked, just missing it's identification tag. It's my understanding that it's when a station's positional integrity is compromised is when it's considered destroyed.

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The following is from www.ngs.noaa.gov web site. Indicates to me if the disk is missing, the station is destroyed:

quote:

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1) If you have found the actual marker separated from its setting, you can report the point as destroyed. To do so please send the report on the destroyed mark as an email to Deb Brown (Deb.Brown@noaa.gov). If you send this email, please do not submit the current form, Deb Brown will submit the report for you. In addition, please submit proof of the mark's destruction via actual disk, rubbing, photo, or digital picture (preferred) to Deb Brown:

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1950 Surveyor

[+Black Dog Trackers]

quote:

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from NGS: If you have found the actual marker separated from its setting,

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I always thought that this wording is unclear. One could read it as either:

 

1. You FOUND OUT that the marker is separated from the setting; i.e. you saw the setting but did not find the actual marker at all. As in: "When I returned to my car, I found I had lost my car keys and couldn't unlock it."

 

2. You found the marker, you can read the designation on it, and it matches the description, and it is out of its setting. Either you found the disk lying near its setting, or you found the whole thing, disk, mounting, cement and all, on its side, out of its hole in the ground.

 

I believe that number 2 is what the NGS means by that phrase of theirs, not number 1.

[+beejay&esskay]

quote:

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Originally posted by RogBarn:

Here are my current estimates for the Big Three Milestones:

 

falling under 700,000: Aug 17th

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Rog hit it exactly:

36426 benchmarks recovered so far. Only 699999 to go!