Q 144 RESET

This was the first mark we attempted on our quick Route 102 benchmark run after a delicious lunch of lobster roll and lobster quesadilla in Northeast Harbor. We parked in the fire department lot across Pretty Marsh Road, and I headed across the road to search for the mark.

I could see the witness sign as soon as I got out of the car, so imagine my surprise when I entered this grove of pines and looked all around the witness sign without spotting the mark. I did, however, spot the line of flags that indicated an invisible fence, probably for the four labradors on the property mentioned by JRO in 2018. That made me nervous, so I took a quick photo of the area and went back to the car to compare my photo with the photo attached to the NGS benchmark datasheet.

When I returned to the spot, I still couldn’t find any trees that matched up with those in the NGS photo, but I happened to turn my head at just the right time, just the right angle, and I thought I spotted something blue and slightly shiny half-buried in the pine needles. It was indeed the mark! It was about 20 feet into the yard, and I felt a bit exposed when trying to clean it off and photograph it, but no one bothered me. This one is likely in danger of being covered over completely with the pine debris; it is too bad that the witness sign was placed so far from the mark, but its placement was likely to keep it in the right-of-way of the roadway and not in the private property. The disk is in good condition and is likely to be stable, but also easily susceptible to being obscured by pine debris in the near future. As noted on the datasheet, it is stamped Q 114 RESET rather than Q 144 RESET.