Pin Hunting

We seem to be pretty popular with the rangers that are in the Shoreline Section here at J. Strom Thurmond COE.  They are responsible for checking the boundary lines surrounding Thurmond Lake to ensure there is no encroachment by people onto government property.  There are over 1500 miles of property line boundaries that  have to be inspected on a five year cycle, each ranger is assigned a chunk of these lines and have to inspect fifteen mile sections annually.

The boundaries have been surveyed and there are pins hammered into the ground to mark the various twists and turns of the property lines.  Each pin has a unique number on it and is plotted on a master map.

The problem is the pins often get buried in the woods, or accidently damaged or destroyed by landscapers, lawn mowers or even washed away in heavy rains.  That is why the inspections have to take place.

Marti and I set out to cover another section of COE boundary lines, much of it around a summer community next to the lake.  Here you can see orange markings on the trees showing the lines.  The dot at the top indicates there is a survey pin near the tree.

In the community, they had some additional markers placed by some of the pins making them easy to find.

Others took some searching around with a metal detector to locate them.

Sometimes you search,

and search,

and you never find the pin.  That gets marked on the map so the area can be resurveyed and a new pin put in.

One pin was deep in the ground and took a bit of digging.

And more digging,

finally finding it about a foot down, the area had been landscaped and fill had covered it.  We were amazed that the metal detector located it.

Then the lines ran off into the deep woods.  We had to be careful, going from marked tree to marked tree so we didn’t get lost.

We spent five hours and found almost every pin.  The best part was there were no encroachments, although some folks built right up to the line.  You can see the orange marks on the tree indicating the boundary.

It was a good day, we completed the location we were assigned.  We hiked around three miles and there was only one mishap.  Marti fell down crossing a ditch.  I was told in no uncertain terms that there was to be no picture taken if I knew what was good for me. :cO

We enjoy the work, getting out in the woods, enjoying the fresh air and seeing the country.  We haven’t seen much wildlife, but there was some kind of animal following us.  We aren’t sure what it is but I did get a fast picture of it before it ran off.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.