2009-04-12 42 -84
| Sun 12 Apr 2009 in Lansing: 42.3646909, -84.9192714 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Contents
About
This geohash was located in a harvested corn field near Michigan's Lake of the Woods.
Expedition
excellentdude: This expedition concluded my three-day weekend of geohashing. On Friday, I was able to geohash in Ionia County. Today, the point fell in Calhoun County. As was the case Friday, reaching this point would take me one step closer to a reverse regional geohashing achievement in the Lansing, Michigan, graticule. Aside from that, geohashing is fun, and the hash appeared to be in an accessible field. So off I went.
On the Google map very close to the hash, you can see the Lake of the Woods. This is not to be confused with the much bigger and more famous Lake of the Woods on the borders between Minnesota, Ontario, and Manitoba. This Lake of the Woods was merely a drainage pond for several nearby fields. Even though that was the case, since it did have a little bit of size and it was labeled on the map, I figured there would be a place to park near it.
When I showed up, that was kind of the case. There were no private property signs, but the short road off the county highway leading to the lake was full of large ruts and potholes and clearly not maintained. A truck with a boat trailer was parked there, and I saw two fishing boats out on the lake. As I parked my car, no one seemed to care so I set off toward the farm house adjacent to the field containing the hash on foot. There were a couple hills on the road between the lake and the house, but the walk was very manageable. When I got to the door, a woman answered, and I explained geohashing and my purpose there. She saw no problem with it, but went inside to ask her husband just to make sure. I soon heard loud footsteps approaching the door. The sound resembled that of my dad's footsteps through the house when he was angry about something, so I feared my geohashing expedition was soon to come to a quick end. The man reached the door and came out on the porch to great me. We shook hands, I re-explained geohashing for him, and handed him my diplomatic passport. Thankfully, he was very amiable. We talked for a moment, and he asked if this was something for school. I told him that it was not, but that I was a new MSU student attempting to get to know more about the area through this activity. We shook hands again, he went back inside, and I was on my way.
I walked most of the way back down the road to where my car was until I got to a place where the latitude was close to correct and the fence surrounding the field was especially low and easy to get over. Originally, I thought the geohash point would be a little closer to the drainage ditch than it ended up being. (I'm still working on estimating distances of more than a few feet. :-)) Eventually, I found the spot in the middle of the harvested corn field and took the usual pictures. On the way back to the car, I got a couple pictures of the drain leaving the field, the drain entering the lake, and the lake itself. For as middle of nowhere in farm country as this geohash was, it was in a nice scenic setting with a small number of decently nice houses around. All in all, a good geohashing trip!
Achievements
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excellentdude earned the Land geohash achievement
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excellentdude earned the Consecutive geohash achievement
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excellentdude earned the Ambassador achievement
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Photos
Lake of the Woods as seen from the road
The house of the owner
The rest of his farm buildings
The hash is in this field, over the hill
I made it!
The hash itself
Goofy grin
The house as seen from the hash
The drain (left-to-center) and road (right) from the hash
Drain leaving the field...
...and entering the Lake of the Woods
My car parked at the lake
The Lake of the Woods
