Thanks for Participating! (updated March 16, 2003)
Thanks to everyone who took the time out of their busy
schedules for Benchmarking 101. I really enjoyed watching
everone looking at their GPSrs, reading and re-reading the
descriptions, and looking around everywhere. The thrill
of the hunt is what it's all about.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me.
I'll do my best to answer any questions, and any I
don't know the answer to we can post to the Benchmarking
Forums to see what other Benchmark hunters think. Also
remember that if you find any sources for old maps, please
let me know.
Here's a list of the links I had on the handout. You
can click on these links to save yourself from having
to type them in:
One point I forgot to make was that the database that is used by Geocaching.com is a couple of years old. That is why you may want to go directly to NOAA - updates to their database usually take place within a couple weeks of submission. Therefore the NOAA database is going to be the most up-to-date source of information. Before submitting a "recovery" note to NOAA, you should view the latest datasheet on the NOAA website to make sure no one else has.
Benchmarking 101:
Join us for an afternoon of discussing Benchmarking at 2:00 PM at the
South Side branch of the Public Library of Des Moines. After discussing what Benchmarking is and how to go about doing it, we will go on a trek to find a couple of Benchmarks in the Des Moines area. If you have an FRS radio, bring it along so we can stay in communication while travelling from one Benchmark site to the next.
Learn your GPS Workshop:
If you have a GPS receiver and would like assistance in learning how to use it, bring your GPS receiver and the manual at 1:00 PM (before Benchmarking 101) and I will do my best to help you out.
How to get there:
The address for the South Side Des Moines Library is 1111 Porter Avenue, Des Moines, IA. The coordinates at the top of this page are for the library entrance. The entrance to the parking lot is on Porter Avenue, about 600 feet West of SW 9th Street.