Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Benchmarking?

Survey Marker
When I started Geocaching I hadn't been looking for the swag in the woods, but rather a way to easily mark a location for others to find. The initial goal had been to create a podio book (an audiobook delivered like a podcast) for history tours of rail-trails. I'll be looking to Wherigo to finally fulfill this mission, but back in 2005 there hadn't been anything to solve the problem well. So I looked to Geocaching and Benchmarking as inspiration for a great idea that could solve the problem. I began by hauling out the Meridan GPS and attempting to find a couple of benchmarks. That was interesting, particularly the discovery of these markers I'd driven, rode, and walked past without noticing before. It just didn't seem to have much appeal to me (then again, neither did Geocaching initially). Since I've really started Geocaching I haven't pursued the Benchmarking though, and I'm thinking that I'd like to give it a try again. The problem is that there's no good method I've hear or seen to give me that paperless caching experience. I know there are better websites though than Geocaching.com for those looking to go Benchmarking, but I've not really spent anytime looking at those. Does anyone go Benchmarking and where are you getting your information?

1 comment:

Christopher said...

We enjoy hunting benchmarks on occasion and I've some helpful information at these websites:

http://dw4ff3.blogspot.com/search/label/Benchmarking

(scroll to the bottom of the page for other states)

http://www.holoscenes.com/cgi-bin/extreme_st.cgi?s=AR&t=all

Hope that helps. Good luck with your project.