2012-05-21 49 -123

Location

Sunshine coast, up a logging road in the hills above the highway between Gibsons and Sechelt

Participants

Anyone who is in the graticule that day.
Wijnland

Planning

It is never too soon to prepare for Geohashing Day. Lessons from 2011 suggest that this should be done by physical exercise, acclimatizing to cold water, cultivating relationships with boat and SCUBA rental establishments, and researching cake recipes.

We'll also have to come up with something awesome and unpredictable. Anyone know where we can rent a submarine or hovercraft?

You're planning to be unpredictable? :-) Jiml 13:58, 24 September 2011 (EDT)

Just like the algorithm. -- relet 14:01, 23 March 2012 (EDT)

You know that no matter what we plan, the actual co-ordinates will cause us to come up with something suitably epic on short notice. -- Rhonda 14:06, 22 May 2011 (EDT)

Also, this is Victoria day. If the hash involves ferries, we must be prepared for a very long wait.

I've had to remove Category:Expedition planning for now, so it doesn't sit at the top of the current events page all year.

Oh and why shouldn't it?

Now that it's only 2 months away, maybe we should put it back up. Since it's probably getting close to time for people to plan to participate or not. -- Rhonda 12:43, 18 March 2012 (EDT)

But that's what it is! -- relet 14:00, 23 March 2012 (EDT)

One thing to note in planning this day's festivities is that Robyn and I have signed up for a race that morning, so the two of us won't be able to start our expedition until after the race is over. If the rest of the Vancouver crew want to start the expedition by cheering for us at the finish line, we'd love it :-) although it's also possible that you will have to go without us if it's an all-day sort of expedition that won't work if delayed until 10AM or so. -- Rhonda 00:20, 2 April 2012 (EDT)

To be precise, Rhonda and I will be starting the race around 9 a.m. at Ron Andrews Rec Centre, 931 Lytton Street, North Vancouver. We'll spend about 15 minutes in the pool, 40-45 minutes on the bikes and half an hour on the run course, plus it may not be possible to get our bikes back out of the transition zone immediately on finishing, so I think eleven a.m. is a better estimate of when we will be ready to embark on an expedition. I suspect I will be tired, but Rhonda is superhuman, so that won't be a problem for her. It's too late for you to sign up and enter, but I love having people cheer for me. -Robyn 00:41, 18 May 2012 (EDT)

Speak for yourself, Robyn :-) ...my start time for the swim is about 9:40, and I'll be spending nearly 20 minutes swimming. I'm a slowpoke there. The other time estimates are reasonable however. -- Rhonda 08:14, 18 May 2012 (EDT)

I figured that seeing as you implied you could be done the whole thing by ten, than you were going to do the swim in ten minutes. :-) -Robyn 23:12, 18 May 2012 (EDT)

Ha! That 10AM time was posted before I knew what my start time would be :-) (I had thought the race started at 8, actually!) -- Rhonda 23:23, 18 May 2012 (EDT)

blog

so far i made it to gibsons where i am having a tea in the starbucks. I almost. Missed the ferry, and the weather is awful. But, i will make it there to defend vancouvers honour! Wijnland 15:52, 21 May 2012 (EDT) @gibsons

We know about the weather - finished the triathlon and realized there was no way we'd make it out and back. We're cheering for you! -- Robyn and Rhonda and Wade

Rhonda, Robyn & Wade are in Horseshoe Bay for dinner, at Troll's. Let us know when your ferry gets in and maybe we can meet. ---Wade 21:32, 21 May 2012 (EDT)

I made it to the coordinates and back home again (just barely, I am near dead now) I got the 18.50 ferry back (these ones had no wifi, so no updates...) but was to tired anyways for diner. Will file some report later, now shower and sleep... Wijnland 00:58, 22 May 2012 (EDT) @home

Excellent! Thank you for sucessfully defending Vancouver's honour. --Wade 01:04, 22 May 2012 (EDT)

Expeditions

Wijnland: after waking up early to check the coordinates I overslept a bit to make it on the 9.30 ferry and I also hoped for a bit that someone else would dare to join me. I had to hurry to make it to the 11.30 ferry because I forgot to account for boarding times etc. It was raining a lot and I was half soaked when I made it onto the ferry just in time. On the other side the first thing was this very long uphill climb to gibsons where i decided i needed a break and a warm beverage. Than another lag of biking and at the end of the paved road there was about 6km left on logging roads that were also quite steep. I biked a bit and walked up with my bike until a gate and what looked like even worse road conditions. 2,5km hiking left. The last 200m were bushwhacking through a cutblock with quite some large woody debris and the last bit was even denser and somewhat of a swamp. It was about 1600 when I made it to the coordinates, but I did make it!!!

The road back was the reverse track, walk, bike (on dangerously steep gravel), bike some more rushing to make the 1850 ferry, ferry, bike home from horseshoe bay. total km ~120. I also learned that it is not allowed to go in the ferry cafeteria barefoot (my shoes were very wet, so i took them of for a bit). This was maybe the least fun for a geohash I ever had...but I did make it on character, and it was a good workout. I don't know why they call it the sunshine coast there, I saw sun nor coast.