Your Favorite Find

[JamesAG]

A lot of people are posting finds and pictures that are usually never noticed and are just simply lost in the depths of the gallery. I'll bet you had an interesting hunt but maybe you thought no one else would be interested in hearing about it. Well I'd like to know!

 

Tell us your favorite find or even just what it took to get there.

 

Feel free to list any that you have posted here before, there are probably a bunch of new people who missed them.

 

And don't worry about trying to top the last posting, I don't have any lighthouses, mountain tops, capital domes, or the oldest mark found either.

 

My favorite find is a train depot mark in a small town called West Liberty, Iowa. I fully expected the depot to be some rundown eye sore. It turns out the town restored it and made into a museum. It was just one of those little pleasant surprises that go along with benchmark hunting

 

Edited December 13, 2003 by dgarner

[+wray_clan]

Our benchmark found list has about 10 benchmaks on it, and we haven't logged any of them, but I do have two stories:

 

-We were hunting for a cache. The trail was pretty easy & went up to the top of a hill overlooking one of those beautiful southern California Freeways. (it was a pretty good view (if you turned around), but it was foggy) We got there, and there were four benchmarks, all within a hundred feet of each other.

 

-My grandpa once was a surveyor, so, before visiting him at his residence in Los Angeles, we printed out a short list of benchmarks. After having success with the first two or three, we got to one right next to a busy street. Somebody had planted grass over the benchmark. The funny part was, as my grandpa pointed out, he could legally dig out the grass to get to the benchmark. (or something like that)

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Finding these two benchmarks wasn't very hard to do. It's what we did afterwards that might be of interest.

 

We placed this cache --Lady -- right on top of one of the triangulation disks. Only one person who has logged the cache mentioned the benchmark.

 

We also placed this cache --HooDoos -- so people must step over the benchmark to get to the cache. It has help several people 'find' their first benchmark!

 

But the Benchmark we enjoyed the most was this mark Kanab South Cairn. It was monumented in 1871. It was about a mile one way cross country but it was worth it! The cairn is in great condition.

The scenery getting there and back is fantastic also.

 

John of 2oldfarts

[+Zhanna]

This is an excellent topic! I look forward to seeing more replies.

 

My choices, so far:

 

LASCO and DIETRICH

 

The story of these two marks has got to be my favorite. It isn't every day you meet someone mentioned in the benchmark description from 35 years ago!

 

LZ1848, DIETRICH

 

LZ1847, LASCO

 

GEORGE

 

This station has an interesting history as well. I tried twice on separate expeditions but due to snow cover was unable to find the mark. One weekend when I was unavailable, Rich hiked back to the area and did locate the mark—I suppose it was easy after the snow had melted. While I was waiting for Rich to log his find that night, what appeared on the benchmark page but the log of someone else's find just a few hours after Rich's. How bizarre it was that this geocacher, who's shown little interest in benchmarks before or since, happened to go for GEORGE on the very same day! Well, I did finally make my way to GEORGE, several months after my first attempt. The logs tell the complete story ...

 

LY2724, GEORGE

 

~Zhanna

[+Klemmer]

My favorite recovered so far is San Juan Hill (California, not Puerto Rico). It's in southern California, almost exactly on the Orange / San Bernardino County line. See DX4280. It is actually a MONUMENT! It's a large concrete structure, with posts for tripod supports. It dates from 1886! And, I was first to log it in GC.com. How cool! I wish I had taken more / better pictures, and looked for the other Reference Marker, but we were still 2+ hours from the car, and it was 2+ hours to sunset. I remember hearing / seeing lots of coyotes the last mile back to the car (not worried about them). Fun trip! I think the hike was about 8 miles round trip., and probably 2000 ft elevation gain / loss one way. Don't think you can do the trip in much less than that, unless you have "ranger" access to the fire roads. From the later post by Worker II (he is a CA State Park maintenance worker), I also take it that the Station is still in active use, even with all the fancy GPS gear in use!

 

 

Edited December 15, 2003 by Klemmer