2015-05-29 37 -122

Location

On a walking path by Lake Merritt in Oakland, California.

Participants

Codae

Plans

I was planning to run some errands in the city that morning, so when a geohash showed up I just had my brother drive the van home alone while I planned to return by public transportation.

Expedition

The errands went well, and I proceeded to travel by bus from Berkeley to the hashpoint in Oakland. I had never been to the lake before, and it was pleasant, if cool. There were many birds there, including mallards, Canada geese, an egret, and what I later determined to be a cormorant. An interpretive sign gave goose counts for each month of the year, with most months sitting in the 400s but June and July at about triple that population: late May is close enough to peak that the quantities I saw should be unsurprising.

I was a bit worried about the unexpectedly steep, artificial banks, as they meant that a small Google Earth satellite imagery offset could put the geohash in inaccessible water. But this was not a problem: Google Earth accurately located the hashpoint on the path itself, and I easily acquired the right coordinates. I then headed home by bus, BART, and (on one segment where there wasn't a bus at the right time) foot.