2012-09-10 47 8

Location

A riverside in Baden

Participants

Plans

Jump on Steedy and drive there.

Expedition

Calamus had often found himself at steep cliffs and cursed himself for not consulting height maps in advance. However, he had always found a way -- or been able to make one. Until the 2012-09-10 geohash in Baden.

Because of its thermal source (which is only half as abundant than the one at Baden-Baden) and location at a river, Baden was a prosperous center of culture, commerce and the art of healing for many centuries. Then the Romans lost it to the Argovians at the beginning of the third century. However, it recovered and became what it is today: a middle-sized town with a nice center and confined importance.

The river flowing by Baden is called the Limmat and flows from Lake Zurich into the Aar. Thus Calamus's plan was easy: just follow the Limmat, which also promised to be a nice bike tour.

How the trail was probably planned.

It was half past ten AM when he passed the Confluence, the place where the rivers of Limmat and Sihl converge and which is said to have been the favorite place of writer James Joyce. From there, a bike trail leads along the river. Calamus progressed quickly towards the Argovian border. Maybe he was biased, but the trail really seemed to be harder from there. In particular, there were steps where none were needed, and they all went up. He wondered whether this was done on purpose to keep Zurichois out. But he stopped thinking about it after almost running over a squirrel.

The hashpoint was supposed to be beside the Limmat, so the trail was supposed to lead Calamus right to it. And that was when his constant inability to use a height map caught up with him. The spot was just about ten metres from the trail. Vertically.

Calamus looked for an other approach. The spot was right next to the water, so maybe there was a footpath next to it? There was one, but it ended about fifty metres from the point, and Calamus's endeavour to climb over to it was cancelled after a few metres.

There were some weidlings next to the river, a Celtic type of boat Calamus was well able to handle, but it was of course illegal to borrow boats without asking, and he didn't find a stick sturdy enough to use as a spurfork.

For the first time after fifteen successful geohashing expeditions, Calamus accepted a failure. He would have been able to reach the point, if only he had checked the terrain properly and brought a long rope. But he hadn't, and the internet was going to understand. And hey, how many people had done a CoD and a MKfaB at the same time?

Calamus shrugged and went on to Baden to eat lunch and investigate some ruins.