2009-09-06 44 -92

Location

A bit Southeast of Afton, MN, near the St Croix River, about halfway down a crazy steep road.

Participants

Mark

Expedition

Having just leaped into the 21st Century the night before, with his first GPS, first mp3 player, first text messaging plan, and first data plan, all wound up in the form of an iPhone, Mark started his day with the essential GeoHash app. With delight he saw that day's hash was not far away, and right by a road. No time for breakfast, he headed off toward Afton, MN.

The drive was not bad at all, aside from a road closure that threatened to complicate things, but a quick map check showed the an alternate road was just past the original one. A few map checks and he was on the target road. Signs indicated that it was a dead end, but the map looked like it went far enough. Just ahead of the target point, the road began an dramatic descent. Enough so that one must slow down to be sure the blind downhill doesn't conceal any surprises. Mark turned around at the bottom and parked halfway up the hill to look for the spot.

The iPhone wasn't as easy to use as a GPS as Mark had hoped. The MotionX-GPS Lite app was okay to use, but a little tricky to get the coordinates transfered from the GeoHash app, and then the compass didn't work worth a toot so it was hard to figure out where exactly to go. Eventually the "waypoint distance" said zero, and the accuracy was listed at 156 ft which was greater than the coordinate discrepancy, so Mark called it good, snapped a photo, and hopped into the car for a Speed Racer Achievement. It may have been wise to have just coasted backward down the hill, as starting forward sounded pretty ugly on the approx. 15% grade.

No speed limit signs were found on the road, and the sudden blind downhill made it reckless to go very fast, so at just shy of 40 mph Mark claimed the Speed Racer Achievement. The Graticule Unlocked Achievement was also claimed as no record of a previous successful expedition in this graticule could be found.