2009-10-10 33 -84

Graticule

About

Expedition

NWoodruff

I rode out to the hash spot on my motorcycle, half hoping that I would run into LuxMundi. Nobody there. I park my bike by the side of the road. 300 and some odd feet to go from the road. The first 100 feet into the woods was easy, sparse trees and almost no under brush. At about 200 feet to go, it starts with thick brush. At 175 feet to go, heavy thorn bushes. It takes me 20 minutes to go 20 feet. I stop and take a picture of the thick brush. At 90 feet there is this mound of dirt 10 feet high full of thorn bushes. It takes another 10 minutes to climb this 10 foot high wall of dirt.

Once on the top of the wall of dirt, I slip and fall to the other side scratching up my arms and back. At this point I have dropped my camera. It takes me 2 to 3 minutes to find my camera in the thick brush. 79 feet to go. I make it another 60 feet in about 30 minutes. I get to 20.6 feet to go and give up. There is no way that I am going to do the GPS dance in this very thick thorn brush. I turn my camera on, hold out my eTrex and press the button on the camera to take a picture and..... Nothing. I press the button again.... Nothing.

There is dirt in the camera from when I dropped it. I open up the battery compartment and there is water in it. I take the batteries out and dry them off in my shirt. I put them back in and turn the camera back on. I go to snap the picture and nothing. It took almost an hour to get to this point and I can't even take a picture of it. I do have the tracklog though.

I turn around and fight my way back to the street. It takes almost another hour to get out of the brush. I make it 100 feet away from the Geohash spot and it starts to rain. What a day. This is the worst Geohash spot that I have ever made it to.

I'm scratched, hurt and bleeding, but I make my way back out. I scratch XKCD 10-10-09 in the pavement for LuxMundi to find. I hop back on my motorcycle and leave the area is fast as I can.

I get home and put the memory card from the camera in the card reader and the memory card is corrupted. Every picture I took is gone. As a last resort, I do a ScanDisk on the memory card and it recovers the pictures that I took. My camera still won't take picture, so I'm thinking that my camera is now permanently broken.

I'll upload the picture later tonight or tomorrow.

LuxMundi

I was supposed to stay home and do a "honey do" list, but woke up early and made my escape! I was planning on a Sunrise Hash, but once I made it to Fayetteville, the Dwarf House started calling me, and I ended up eating a huge breakfast while dawn broke. This Dwarf House is a favorite hangout of cops, and today was no exception, with both F'ville and County officers at their usual tables. Suddently, I hear the rumble of VTwins, and who walks through the door but one of one of the most notorious MCs in Atlanta.... the MooCow Bikers. http://moocowbikers.com/ Naturally, I made a hasty exit before things got really ugly!

The hash point was just a few minute's ride. My distant relatives founded the Mundy's Mill, and it is always cool for me to go through that area. I took another did not reach due to posted warnings all along Hwy 19/41. After reading NWooodruff's report, I'm glad I didn't get any closer.

Gallery

Photo Gallery
347 feet to go from the road.
138 feet to go with thick thorn bushes.
I'm being attacked!!
105 feet to go and a 10 high dirt wall to climb. This is the last picture my camera took.
LM: Posted sign.
LM: Intersection closest to the hash.
LM: Consolation prize, still smiling.
LM: Hashing, girls washing my bike: the best day ever.