2015-02-07 42 -78

Location

In the woods North of Ashford, NY

Plans

While the hashing gods did not make things easy, this hash looks somewhat accessible and not too far from home. I've been anticipating this hash all week since it is my Birthday. My plans are to head to the hash after a nice lunch and park on the closest main road since there will be lots of snow around. I really don't want a repeat of the last expedition and I checked for ditches in potential parking places. I look safe from that at least. I hope the snowbanks are pushed back enough to park though.

As long as parking is not an issue, I will walk the short distance down Bird Road to the train tracks which I will walk down to get closer to the hash. The area looks a bit swampy but with all the REALLY cold weather we've had, I think the area should be pretty frozen over. As long as the ice holds up and there are no posted signs, I should be able to reach my first B-day hash. Perhaps I can actually make it at 4pm too for my first official Meetup(Time-wise anyway since I'm the only hasher in the graticule).

Participants

Pedalpusher (talk)
Simon the dog

Expedition

Things started out well with a nice lunch with the in-laws and a quick visit to the house. They left around 15:00 which gave me an hour to get there for the official Saturday meetup so I got Simon in the car and we were on our way a little after 15:20 and we arrived a bit after 16:00. We parked on the main road since the shoulders were clear and I knew from the Google street-view there were no ditches around. We parked right in front of an old abandoned house which I planed to take a few pictures of when I got back.

With Simon on the leash as we walked down Bird Rd to the train tracks, we passed a few houses and a farm with cows. The cows were interested in what we were doing but not so much that they came over to investigate. About halfway to the tracks, I saw a cat that was crossing the road, but with my 'live hashscot' with me, the cat was not at all interested in sticking around so my Hashcat Ribbon will have to wait.

We got to the tracks and saw that they were used so we would have to keep an eye out for trains. I wasn't too worried since we stand out quite well with the white snow background and the tracks were extremely level and straight so we could see far down them in both directions. With no cars to worry about now, Simon got to be free and enjoyed running all over and exploring while we made our way closer to the hash.

Now, I like to walk where it is easy for as long as possible so my plan was to get as close as I could on the tracks and then turn perpendicular to the tracks and walk to the hash. However, right at that point was the first of the telephone poles and on it was the posted sign. Resigned to not making it, I decided to continue walking down the tracks and practice my photo skills. I have attached some of the better photos I took in the gallery.

We walked to the next road the tracks crossed, but right before the road was a stream and the bridge over it had large openings between the ties so I was worried about Simon if we tried to cross. We turned around and made it back to the car without seeing a train and headed back home for leftovers from lunch.

I also noticed on the way back that until that first telephone pole, there were no posted signs, so had I cut in earlier, I likely would have gotten stuck wading through the deep snow instead. If I stepped off the railroad bed, I was over knee deep in the snow and I'm not sure how things would have been on top of the swampy area between the hash and the tracks. Perhaps it was good that it was posted...

Photos

I parked on the main road so I wouldn't get stuck again and this old abandoned house was right there.
Walking down the side road, I passed these guys who were interested in what I was doing.
Simon was happy to be able to run and the scenery was very nice.
Move off the track-bed though and the snow got deep! Simon was practically swimming in a few places.
Posted again!
Still pretty far away.
The hash landed on that hill, and I think it's a bit behind those pine trees.
Sad to not make it for the second time in a row.
But now I have time to practice my photo skills...here I'm playing with a different perspective.
Interesting landscape.
Almost made it to the next road, but we weren't crossing that bridge.