Beginning with my last post "What is Letterboxing" I want to write about some of the hobbies that are related to or directly associated with Geocaching, yet many of us Geocachers don't know a whole lot about.
The next one I'll admit, once again, I knew little about before researching it for this post. What I'm talking about is "Benchmarking." Benchmarking is a hobby created by Groundspeak/Geocaching.com which consists of users finding survey markers which were placed in random locations throughout the U.S. (not by groundspeak or it's members, but by federal organizations) Most seem to be small metal discs in the ground like shown in the image to the left there. But from what I understand they can actually be big towers, churches and other large structures, similar to virtual caches.
I was going to read everything I could find about benchmarking, then try to explain it in layman's terms, but I quickly realized it wouldn't be doing anyone any service being that you can find everything you ever wanted or needed to know about benchmarking at the official Benchmarking page on the Geocaching website.
I've actually come across a few of these benchmarks in the past. I know I saw one the other day within a mile of my home when I was out running, but when I did a search on the Geocaching.com website it didn't show up... the closest is 2 miles away. I'm assuming that's because it's new and the database that Groundspeak uses is from 1999.
Anyway, it actually seems kind of fun to me. I plan on searching for a few in the very near future.
So what about you? Have you found any? Do you enjoy it? I would love to hear your thoughts so leave a comment below.
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