Aldrich Reference Mark Missing Traditional Geocache
Aldrich Reference Mark Missing
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Aldrich Butte is a nice short hike to a great view of Bonneville Dam & Munra Point, both of which have caches for you to find. To the north is Table Mountain which has several interesting caches. Aldrich Butte also has two loggable Benchmarks, ALDRICH RESET (RC2411) which I’ve found and ALDRICH RM1 (RC2410) which may be missing.
2/10/2017: Trail closed - Per the Bonneville Trails Foundation, the Dick Thomas Trailhead has been closed to public access. Access to Table Mountain is only via the Bonneville Trailhead
A little history:
1901 On the summit of a sharp peak directly opposite Bonneville. The station is marked 1 foot underground by a drill hole in a stone. There are 3 stones with crosses on them 6 feet from the station N, E, and S.
1938 Recovered and re-marked. Station is located about 1 & 3/4 miles NW of Bonneville Dam on the very top of a prominent lone peak with the S quarter encircled by white bluffs and about 1100 feet elevation. Station is marked by a standard bronze disk set in concrete. Reference marks are standard bronze disks in outcropping bedrock.
1948 Station and reference marks were recovered in good condition as described in 1938.
1957 The station and reference marks were recovered and in good condition. But a U.S. Forest Service Lookout house is now over the station mark, and the mark is centered directly under the structure. Darn the bad luck. To eliminate numerous eccentric setups, because of the lookout legs and diagonals, Reference Mark 1 was used for all observations. This must be what makes reference mark 1 a loggable benchmark, if you can find it. The lookout house is a wooden structure, 15 ft square at the ground, and the floor of the house is about 10 ft above the ground.
1975 Reference Mark #1 and Reference Mark #2 were recovered in good condition, but the Station Mark was destroyed by some irresponsible Party. A new station Mark was established from the distance, and direction from the reference marks. The station is now on the highest part of a northeast-southwest ridge, at the site of the former Aldrich lookout tower. The station mark is a standard disk in a 10 inch square of concrete monument and is stamped “ALDRICH 1901 1975”. Reference Mark #1 is a standard disk cemented in a drill hole in an outcropping bedrock that projects 8 inches and is stamped “ALDRICH NO 1 1938”. This would be the loggable one that appears to be missing. Reference Mark #2 is a standard disk cemented in a drill hole in bedrock that projects 5 inches and is stamped “ALDRICH NO 2 1938”. This one also appears to be missing.
The Azimuth Mark “VX 44” (RC1807), is also loggable but is a little more than a stones throw away. If you do log this one, watch out for trains.
I’ve looked for the reference marks several times with no success. I’ve searched with the GPSr, used a compass tape measure, and even tried a metal detector which brought me some old bailing wire. On one of our many adventures we (my hiking partner, Irish and I) found a brown metal cookie tin on top of Aldrich Butte. We decided this would make a good cache contained and decided to put it up on Aldrich Butte. My thought was that if I could entice more people to come, maybe someone would find the missing reference marks, or not.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe “NYQEVPU EZ 1” naq lbh’yy gevc bire vg.