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Geocaching
and Benchmarking
I
spend a lot of my free time taking part in the hobby of geocaching.
Simply put, Geocaching involves using multimillion dollar satellite
technology (GPS) to hunt for boxes in the woods. Really, that's
what it is. The Geocaching
Website has an excellent FAQ
section on the subject. There are additional sites
similar to geocaching, such as Navicache, Waymarking, and Terracaching.
Here
are links to my profiles:
 
Benchmarking
is an offshoot of Geocaching that involves the use of GPS technology
to search for survey markers. There are a variety of agencies which
place survey markers; USGS, NGS, and NOAA to name a few. Removing
a benchmark is punishable by fines and jail time, but discovering
them can be quite fun. Many of them are decades old.
The
USGS has a database of over 700,000 survey markers. The information
needed to find survey marks is available on datasheets. Here is
a link to a typical
data sheet. The ScaredyCatFilms Benchmark
Viewer is a Google
Maps Mashup that I have written to display survey markers accross
the United States.
Visit
the Downloads page for software that will convert data sheets to
a condensed version that is easier to read on a Palm. |
