Converting Legal Description to GPS Waypoints

I have a nearly square 20 acre property in North Idaho which has been
surveyed. I know the physical location of one of the metal survey
markers. I want to locate the other 3 corner markers. Is there a way I
can convert the legal decription data into a form that is usable in a
GPS to enable me to at least come close to the marker locations.

Here is part of the legal description so you know what you know the
type of information I have:

"A tract of land in the North half of Section 17, Township 58 North,
Range 1 East, boise Meridian, Bonner County, Idaho more specifically
described as follows:

Beginning at a point on the North line of said Section 17, distant
South 80-05-10 West 4231.19 from the Northeast corner of said Section
17;

thence south 0-30-34 East 822.01 feet, more or less, to a 1/2 inch
rebar as noted on Survey, recorded July 2, 1979 under Instrument No.
XXXX and also noted on Survey recorded October 12, 1986 under
Instrument No. XXXX, records of Bonner County, Idaho;

thence south 89-05-09 West (also known a North 89-57-42) a distance of
1059.49 feet,more or less to the West line of said Section 17;

etc etc....

If a GPS will be useful, please let me know if there is any particular
functionality I will need. Or maybe I could do this just as easy with a
compass.

Thanks for your help.

Dave

gc2rangerbob@yahoo.com wrote:


Those are "Quadrantal Bearings", a Google search will lead to lots of
explanations. The one at ccsu.edu was easy reading.

I didn't have any real starting reference for GPS measurements, but I could
still find the corner posts using the directions and distances.

I was also able to locate a parcel map of my property, overlaid onto
topographic maps and aerial photos, at my county web site. Side by side
comparison of that, with the same maps exposed in ExpertGPS, allowed me to
make waypoints for my GPS that let me use my GPS to find the corner markers
for my property. Try a google search of XXX county gis mapping.

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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

'Scratch-Plot' can layout a legal description.

Convert your four-quadrant bearings to azimuths which are clockwise angles
from North. Get UTM North and East coordinates of the found monument. Set up
a scale in 'Scratch-Plot based on the UTM coordinates and largest dimension
of the tract. Enter the UTM coordinates for a point layout, select Azi mode,
and enter the direction and distance calls as lines around the tract...back
to the starting point for a graphical closure.

Finally, navigate to the 'Scratch-Plot' application folder, open the
'Scratch-Plot' file with a text editor, and find the resulting UTM North and
East coordinates within concatenated strings.

Here is a user link to 'Scratch-Plot':

http://www.kbhscape.com/plot.htm


Of course the result is approximate because the regional survey is not on
the same directional orientation as either latitude / longitude or UTM...and
only a field survey using any two points could determine the actual
difference in directional orientation...(However, if we assume that the
Federal land subdivision is on the same directional orientation as modern
latitude / longitude then each forward description direction must be rotated
by the amount of convergence found at each starting point...where the
convergence can be found as the difference between latitude / longitude
directions and UTM grid directions between the starting point N,E and a
hypothetical point N + 1852, E .)

(In other words the forward legal description directions would be rotated to
UTM directions using UTM convergence found at each starting point of the
forward direction.)

Oh, the tract description should also be converted from feet to meters if
working with UTM...