2009-01-03 36 -77

Report

We decided to conquer this virgin graticule because the N36 W77 geohash would take us to Lake Gaston, an area we seldom visit. There was freezing rain last night throughout this region, but by the time we started our trek, the roads were drying off. We first went to our cabin to thank our kind-hearted and hard-working neighbors who repaired the washed-out road in the neighborhood. After some target practice with our handguns we drove east to the geohash.

Google Earth indicated the 36 -77 Geohash was right inside some woods close to the entrance to Stonehouse Timber Lodge, a lake front community and resort area. So, in an attempt at the No Batteries Geohash, we navigated the old-fashioned...well, 20th Century, way by using only maps and a compass.

After driving an hour we arrived at the geohash parking area at 1540. Amazingly, the area looked relatively unchanged from the Google Earth image. We walked across the field and into the woods and guesstimated the geohash point. We then oriented the map and checked our location to the triangulation points. In order to be aligned with the northern triangulation point, a bluish-green storage building lying almost directly north, we had to move further back (i.e. west) into the woods. But, since the woods were thinned out and there was no foliage, you could still see the three triangulation points clearly. We then shifted south until we were aligned with the second triangulation point, the trees and the intersection just SSE of us. Now that we were aligned with the first two, we checked the azimuth to the third point, the tree line to the SE. There it was, so we knew we were right on the geohash.

We photographed our success and looked around for signs of wildlife. After waiting 15 minutes for fellow XKCDers, we gathered up our hashing equipment and panda bear. We had brought trash bags prepared to do some geotrashcollection, but the area was spotless. A credit to the residents of Stonehouse Timber Lodge.

Participants

Eisen & Bear - NCBears

Geological Features

Rolling farmland (mostly corn and cotton crops, and cattle and horse farms). Geohash was located ~5 meters inside wooded area, about 375 meters from Lake Gaston, and 4.0 miles/6.5 km south of the Virginia border. Open field between Geohash and road was used for corn crop. See Google Earth screenshot below.