skillett Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 (edited) Found my first official one today. it was an easy one but way cool. i became interested in benchmarks by a happy accident. i used to fly r/c planes when i lived near atlanta,ga our flying field was called dynamite hill. (used to store explosives there) our run way was at the top of the hill. one day another pilot lost control of his plane and we went searching for it. we topped another hill where there was a great view. and started looking around. i happened to notice a peice of concrete sticking out of the ground and investigated. it was a benchmark disk it had the elevation and other stuff on it . it struck me as something pretty neat. and i have been looking at the usgs site ever since but never went looking for one till now. this geocaching and benchmark hunting is pretty addictive! Edited January 1, 2005 by rbezell Quote Link to comment
rescue557 Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 this geocaching and benchmark hunting is pretty addictive! Welcome to your new obsession, err um... hobby. Quote Link to comment
Bill93 Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Congratulations and welcome. It will be educational to read the FAQ at www.geocaching.com/mark and some of the threads on this forum. One of the things you will learn is that you were quite lucky if your gps led you to it. This is a mark with SCALED location, meaning that its location is only approximately known, and its elevation is ADJUSTED, meaning measured and calculated and corrected to very good accuracy. Scaled locations are routinely off by hundreds of feet in many places, although you can sometimes catch on to the trend in your area, and occasionally they are off by tenths of miles. Other marks will have ADJUSTED locations, which are more accurate than you need to check the functioning of your gps receiver. Quote Link to comment
skillett Posted January 1, 2005 Author Share Posted January 1, 2005 Congratulations and welcome. It will be educational to read the FAQ at www.geocaching.com/mark and some of the threads on this forum. One of the things you will learn is that you were quite lucky if your gps led you to it. This is a mark with SCALED location, meaning that its location is only approximately known, and its elevation is ADJUSTED, meaning measured and calculated and corrected to very good accuracy. Scaled locations are routinely off by hundreds of feet in many places, although you can sometimes catch on to the trend in your area, and occasionally they are off by tenths of miles. Other marks will have ADJUSTED locations, which are more accurate than you need to check the functioning of your gps receiver. Maybe I should qualify this find. it was REALLY! easy as a matter of fact you can pretty much guess where it is from about 300 ft away! it is surrounded by flat level ground , mowed grass, perched on top of a mound about the size of a pitchers mound with a 3 ft wooden stake with surveyors ribbon on it . once i got in the ballpark with the gps i quit looking and beelined right for it . But thanks for the advice though. there is another one close to this one with a pretty complicated description . I will probably go for it next. Thanks to your advice it will be interesting to see where the gps takes me. Quote Link to comment
+BilboB Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Welcome to the club! Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Congrats on your first benchmark. One of the enjoyable aspects of this hobby is the variety of benchmarks and how they were placed. After you get going you will find there are some benchmarks that you will go back several times trying to find. You may even start dreaming about those tough ones, but when you finally do find that mark it makes you feel so great. Be sure to let us know how the one with the complicated description turns out. If you need any help or suggestions, just ask and we will try our best to help you out. Enjoy, John Quote Link to comment
+GEO*Trailblazer 1 Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Keep up the good work. A good way to start the new year. Congrats. Quote Link to comment
+Mastifflover Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Congratulations! Just as a warning though I never thought looking for little metal disks would be so addicting. I'm starting to think that I like finding them as much as geocaches. Quote Link to comment
+seventhings Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 rbezell - Welcome aboard. I hope you have the opportunity to find a great many more easy ones. But I really hope that you have the opportunity to find many hard ones. There's nothing more satisfying than slogging through several hundred yards of swamp and brambles to find a station that no one else has found since 1932. Also, I hope you develop the attitude (as many of us veterans have) that a thorough search resulting in a NOT FOUND is just as good (well, almost just as good) as a FOUND. And the 2oldfarts are right - if you have any questions let us know. The accumulated experience and expertise of the community is awesome, especially among the professional surveyors who lurk here. Will Quote Link to comment
mrh - terre haute Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 2oldfarts made reference to my favorite designation - NFY (NOT FOUND - YET) Enjoy the hunt. mrh Quote Link to comment
+Colorado Papa Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 2oldfarts made reference to my favorite designation - NFY (NOT FOUND - YET) Yep, shoulda used this designation last year for AB1180. Came back this year with a metal detector and found it under the grass. New description submitted to NGS should make it easier to locate in the future without special equipment. Quote Link to comment
+4leafclover Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Congratulations! Just as a warning though I never thought looking for little metal disks would be so addicting. I'm starting to think that I like finding them as much as geocaches. Same here...but I cannot explain why...except that so far, I have not been near lobotomized searching for a benchmark in a pile of scrub. Quote Link to comment
+GEO*Trailblazer 1 Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Hm I do have more benchmarks than caches????? Quote Link to comment
+Rattlingcrew Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 This is a pretty addictive game on both sides. I found Salina Base East and Salina Base West set in the 1890s. The descriptions list them as rods and the rod is set in the middle of a concrete slab with a cross and.... you can look for yourself I guess. Glen* http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=JF1012 GeoidChaser, it is good to see you are still kicking. Glen aka RattlingCrew Quote Link to comment
+GEO*Trailblazer 1 Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 This is a pretty addictive game on both sides. I found Salina Base East and Salina Base West set in the 1890s. The descriptions list them as rods and the rod is set in the middle of a concrete slab with a cross and.... you can look for yourself I guess. Glen* http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=JF1012 GeoidChaser, it is good to see you are still kicking. Glen aka RattlingCrew Glad you are finding some nice one's as well. Geoidchaser,you caught me eh. Quote Link to comment
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