2009-02-22 36 -77

Report

Today’s hash was located in the north east portion of Medoc Mountain State Park. We are frequent visitors to this park, doing volunteer work and hiking on and off the trails 2-3 times a month. In fact, we were planning to attend a Park program yesterday, but the Alligator River NWR Geohash was simply too good to pass up.

Even more incredible is the fact that we were planning to hike into this part of Medoc this weekend to search for an old homestead. So we were thrilled and somewhat in awe to discover that today’s coordinates landed in the very area we planned to visit. Surely this deserves a "Premonition Geohash Achievement"...so we made one up by modifying the Cubicle Geohash Icon.

When we pulled into the parking area at the Visitor Center, Ed, a Park Ranger we’ve known for years, walked over to greet us. Little did he know that he had become an unsuspecting pawn in our Police/Park Ranger Geohash Achievement. Ed even offered to leave the Center’s bathrooms unlocked for us, proving that Medoc Mountain is the best State Park in North Carolina.

We had originally planned a No-Batteries hike from the Visitor Center, across the Bear Swamp Creek bridge, and then cross country 2+ miles/3.2km, to the homestead area/Geohash. We’d been this way before last year, to within at least a ½ mile of the hash area. But the cold rain and wind were a real concern – we’re not of the weather-hardened caliber of The Ru or the fearless youthfulness of…well, almost all the other hashers. So, after hiking in a kilometer and getting wetter and colder by the second, we decided to abandon the death march and drive north and park to within about 0.25 miles/0.4km from the hash.

We parked along the edge of the road and headed out again the pouring down rain. After a quick survey of the homestead, we hiked further southwest into the woods and crossed a stream before climbing the hill to the Geohash. The GPS had a hard time staying locked on through the rain and dense trees, but we managed to get there. Bear wisely suggested we could do the Picnic Geohash back in the truck.

Participants

NCBears

Geological Features

Medoc Mountain State Park, hilly and wooded terrain with numerous streams and outcroppings. Old growth hardwoods and pines.

Wildlife Encounters

Sightings - Geese, ducks, swans, sea gulls(!?!), song birds, domestic cats, goat.

Other - Coyote (heard howl!), Bobcat prints, deer prints, domestic dog prints (these are from hunting dogs who were running on the State Park yesterday as part of “field trials”…grrrr!!!)

Weather

Low 41.7.0°F/5.4°C, rain, winds steady 5+mph/8+kph gusting to 12mph/19kph

Pictures

It’s 2 miles north cross country from here…or 0.25 mile from the road.
Flowers at abandoned homestead
Old Homestead
WG Harper, Co 1 12 Regt NC Inf, Confederate States Army, June 25 1837-Sept 25 1892. My Great Grandfather was in the 14th Regt.
Geohashing in the rain
Entrance from road
Medoc Mt. Visitor Center
Forgotten
North Carolina Native Bottle Tree

Achievements


Sun 22 Feb 2009 in 36,-77: 36.2803137, -77.8701622 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox