2011-07-19 46 -117

This is why we didn't try to hike in from the road.

Location

In a canyon west of Asotin, Washington.

Participants

Expedition

This was the first known attempt to hash the Pullman graticule.

I saw on Google Maps that the hashpoint was on a road and, like a fool, checked no further. We left curvy Washington State Highway 129 at Asotin and forged westward on the "only possible road" (as I believe I said) that would take us to the hashpoint. It was a lovely canyon road. And really, it dived towards the point like an arrow! For about a dozen miles! ... until we were about two miles out, when it began a sadistic loop south.

We got to within a mile and a half, but by then an enormous ridgeline blocked the way. We didn't give up! We continued on the "only possible road" as it kept curving to the right, as if it just might, just might, curve back on itself and head back towards the hashpoint. But eventually we got to a National Forest map posted by the side of the road that removed all doubt. The only possible road did not, and would not, reach the hashpoint.

I was VERY puzzled. I triple-checked the coordinates I had fed the GPS. I checked to see if I had entered them in the wrong format. I hypothesized that there might be a parallel road running just across the ridge. But it was Mrs.5000 who had it right: a private ranch access that I hadn't even noticed on the way in turned out to be the road I had seen in the morning. It was gated and plastered with no-nonsense warnings.