2015-11-29 43 -79
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| Sun 29 Nov 2015 in 43,-79: 43.7865146, -79.1550080 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
Bus stop in a residential neighborhood in Toronto's east end.
Participants
Plans
The bus stop is on Lawson Road at Irvine Road in the Port Union area. Since it's a bus stop, what better way to get there than to take the bus. :) The 38A Highland Creek eastbound bus departs from Scarborough Centre RT station every 12 minutes, and arrives at the bus stop in about 20 minutes (schedule unavailable).
The hashpoint is closer to the west end of the stop, so get off using the rear doors for maximum efficiency.
Expedition
I was originally planning to do this expedition around 1pm today, after lunch. However, much to my surprise, I woke up at 11:30am, so 1pm would be just after breakfast. I found that too early, so I decided to push it to after lunch. The downside to doing this around 4pm though is that it's about to get dark soon, and I guess I didn't think about that...
I packed my camera, marker, transit passes and some food in my camera bag and left home at 4:20 (heh). I walked over to the bus stop, and waited for whatever the first bus was. Luckily I got 1505, one of the new buses my local transit agency just started running a few weeks ago or so, and this is my first time on one of these.
Once I got on the 199 bus, the driver asked me whether I was talking a picture for a project. I said no, and that I was just going somewhere and documenting my trip there, although I didn't really tell him about geohashing. Maybe I should have...
As my 199 pulled into Scarborough Centre station, I saw the 38 bus waiting. I was afraid I would miss it, so I asked the driver if he thought I'd make it. He pulled over just two platforms away, so he didn't even need to answer me. I ran towards the 38 bus, and noticed there was no driver so I guess I didn't really have to run. I started taking pictures, then the driver of that bus came up behind me and I got a little talking-to about taking pictures... (which is technically allowed because the bylaws don't forbid taking pictures for personal purposes.)
26 minutes later, I'm at the bus stop. It's a rather quiet area, as expected. I reached the hashpoint at around 6:00pm. I didn't really do much walking around; I had to find the hashpoint and get out of there before the next bus arrives in 10 minutes. The geohash app on my phone couldn't get me any closer than 0.25 m (just under a foot) from the hashpoint though, so I said "screw it" and put the marker there.
I get on the 38 bus, but instead of going home directly, I decided to take the bus the rest of the way (the end was only about 5 more minutes from the hash). Then at the end of that route, I was planning to take the 85 bus going home, but that bus was'nt coming for another 20 minutes. Meanwhile, a 54 bus was about to leave, so I had to run to make it.
Only after getting on the bus did I realize that the bus was going in the wrong direction yet again. More bonus points though, since I could again ride this route to the end then double back and go home. I stayed on the bus after it turned around then transfered to the subway system, then back on the 199 bus from before.
When the 199 bus left Scarborough Centre, I noticed a strange sound coming from the underside of the bus... Wasn't sure what it was, but it sure sounded like something was broken. Later in the trip, the bus suddenly turned off. Driver doesn't say what exactly the problem was, but he talked to the supervisor and got permission to turn the bus off then back on to see if it fixes that issue. We sit in the dark for about one or two minutes then he turns it back on, and we're off again. Another 30 minutes later I get back to my home station, where I get my dad to pick me up and take me home.
4:33 YRT 99 4:47 - 4:55 TTC 199 5:32 - 5:34 TTC 38 6:00
6:06 TTC 38 6:12 - 6:12 TTC 54A 6:14 - 6:19 TTC 54A 6:52 - 6:58 TTC 3 7:03 - 7:13 TTC 199 7:53 - 7:59 TTC 53 8:06 - 8:08 car 8:11 - 8:15 home.
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Sammi earned the Land geohash achievement
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Sammi earned the Public transport geohash achievement
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Gallery
First bus on YRT route 99.
Arrived at Finch.
Bus on TTC route 199.
On the way to Scarborough. Note how much darker the sky is since I left home.
Bus on TTC route 38.
Arrived at the bus stop where the hashpoint is.
Hash marks the spot! I have the coordinates to 5 decimal places. This is about as close as I could get to the hashpoint, so I just left the card here. The URL on the card points here (Toronto geohash on 2015-11-29).
Not much in the area. Looking left...
...and right...
Then hopped right back on the next bus out of there. You can see the card on the ground in this picture.
