One of the things that we like about recovering benchmarks is that it forces us to seek out places that we wouldn't necessarily put on our list of hikes we want to do. An example of just such a hike is Graff Benchmark. Ordinarily we wouldn't hike a non-descript peak such as this one . . . there wasn't anything "crying out" to us to come hike this peak other than we knew there was a benchmark on top of it. So, looking for something to do that was fairly close to home, we decided to head towards Hamilton Fort and check out this little hill.
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| If you wanted to, it would be possible to drive to the top of this peak . . . we opted for some exercise! |
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Nearing the top and looking back towards where we started . . .
That's Graff Peak on the skyline . . . it looks interesting . . . another hike for another day! |
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It wasn't long until we had located the benchmark
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| Graff Benchmark . . . placed here in 1948 |
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This wire, presumably from 1948, appears to have been used to hold the tripod in place,
that would have originally been set over the benchmark and used for triangulation |
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| Reference marker #1 wasn't too hard to locate . . . but #2 proved to be a challenge! |
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| Note the arrow on the reference marker points to the benchmark |
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Trying to locate reference marker #2 . . .
We know it is set in a rock, but don't know the distance it is from the benchmark . . .
Kent thought maybe it was under this ant pile . . . nope! |
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Looking west at the fields that surround Hamilton Fort . . .
Hard to believe I-15 is between this hill and the fields! |
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Kent is not giving up on finding reference marker #2 . . .
Maybe it's under this old log . . . nope! |
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After 30 minutes of trying to locate the marker, we finally gave up . . . we'll leave it for Tom to find . . .
Afterall, he's the one who's passed on his passion for these markers, to us! |
Although, not a remarkable hike, our searching got us to an area we hadn't been to before. We parked our truck early on so we could get some exercise. We ended up making this a 1.6 mile (r/t) hike with only about 250 ft of total elevation gain. One more benchmark down . . . and a thousand more to go!
