2011-04-23 49 -122

Four expeditions converged on a hillside in a happy adventure about as close to textbook as geohashing ever gets.

Location

Adjacent to a baseball diamond in Coquitlam. In Google satellite view there was construction next door so it was a but of an adventure, however Juventas had correctly deduced that the construction was a park expansion, meaning that it was a spot almost literally made for geohashing.

Participants

one more person whose chosen internet name I don't know
Osmie
Abigailme
ZZ
SoBe
Rhonda
Xore
Robyn
Wade
Dagny - Wade & Robyn's dragalong

Plans

The geohash was so gloriously simple, in a real public park on a sunny day that the only plan posted was ...

4PM, of course!

Expedition

Robyn, Wade & Dagny

We have little to report beyond a pleasant Easter drive along the Barnet Highway to the park. We knew Rhonda and Xore would be there, so we looked for them as we walked along a park path towards the site. Eighteen metres away, a child sprang out and informed us that "if you're looking for something that's in the bushes, it's up there," pointing up a slope beside the path. We looked and then in the next pace we came face to face with a stranger who asked us if we were geohashing. It turned out to be no stranger to geohashing, but rather Osmie, who created many of the original graticule pages for our province, but this is the first geohash she has managed to reach. As soon as that introduction was complete, we found the rest of the group.

Rhonda & Xore

We had a simple, uneventful drive along highway 1 then the Lougheed into Coquitlam. Just past where the Lougheed made a sharp right, a sign directing us to the geohash indicated that we were 1.5km from our destination. Unfortunately, due to the busy street, we couldn't stop and take a photo, but you can see it for yourself any day. It said "Town Centre Park", just as Juventas had said.

We found parking in the construction zone from the photo, and realized we hadn't checked terrain view; there was a hill between the road and the baseball diamonds, which contained the stand of trees. Fortunately it wasn't too steep. Xore thought he saw geohashers in the trees, but Rhonda's GPS said those weren't the trees containing the hashpoint, plus they were kids playing. When we were closer, we saw Robyn and her crew, and joined them.

Osmie, Abigailme, ZZ & SoBe

After a day driving gradually eastward—birdwatching at Burnaby Lake, late lunch in Coquitlam—Osmie realized that we were within striking distance of the day's geohash. This was startling, as she'd never actually made it to a meetup before, but a public park, on Saturday of a long weekend, just up the hill from Abigailme's school? Such destiny shall not be denied.

So we drove across Coquitlam to Town Centre Park, arriving about 3:45pm, and navigated by a cached Google Maps satellite view to the trees. A nerdy-looking fellow leaned against a stone wall nearby, but he had no visible GPS so Osmie said nothing. (Silly Osmie!) ZZ and SoBe played while Abigailme and Osmie sat on the hill, unsure what to expect, until Osmie wandered back down toward the path about 3:59pm.

Suddenly three separate expeditions charged in from two directions! "You must be the people I was hoping I'd run into," Osmie babbled to the person carrying a dinosaur, who turned out to be Robyn—"Oh, there's Rhonda," Robyn said, pointing behind me—"So you are geohashers," said the nerdy-looking fellow, walking up behind Wade—and thus up was met.

Together

Rhonda and Wade started the GPS dance while everybody else set up a picnic. As they located the spot, right on the edge of a cluster of trees and thorns, a child's voice called out "the nerd group is up there".

There were all together ten people, including two children, plus three hashcots, two chocolate cakes, three or four picnic blankets, a Twister set and lots of happy chatter. That, my friends, is how geohashing is meant to be.