2018-03-31 42 -78

Location

Just off Rt 219 near a wildlife 'vista', north of Ellicottville

Participants

Pedalpusher

Expedition

Wow, it's been a long time since I've gone on an adventure...with the long commute I have to work every day, I have found that I'm really not interested in driving very far for a random point any longer and now fully understand and appreciate those with personal gas/distance limits.

I'm still willing to drive places though on occasion, especially if I can get the dogs out on a good hike. Since this hash landed half way to Allegany on a weekend, I was certainly willing to make this drive.

After lunch around 13:30, I got the dogs in the car and we were on our way. I was hoping for an Official Saturday Meetup so I passed the Hash on the way to Allegany and figured we were going to be a little late but still within the 16:00 hour. I parked by the Red House Admin Building and we started up toward the Conservation Trail. As soon as we hit the woods, I knew it would be a bit of an extra challenge. At the beginning of the month, we got a bad snowstorm. The snow, as it came down, was very heavy and wet so it stuck to everything and had a chance to really build up on the trees. With all the weight, many trees lost branches or fell over completely. There was a lot of walking off trail around downed branches and tree-tops.

Never-the-less, we still had a great hike and even passed 2 small groups of hikers which I wasn't expecting. About half way around the loop, I checked the time and saw we were approaching Hash O'Clock. We were going to be pretty late for that Official Meetup...

We made it back to the car close to 17:00 and didn't get back to the pull-off for the 'vista' until quarter after. Since we were so close to the busy 219, I left the dogs in the car as I made my way next to the roadway and toward the hash. Getting to a clearing in the small bushes that populated this section of semi-swampy depression in the land, I zeroed in on the hash. I got my pictures and then made my way toward the closest Geocache for a Hash Collision event. Based on the description on the cache page, I assumed it was in a tree close to the parking area, but as I made my way back toward the hash-mobile, the GPS indicated it was a lot closer. Locating this cache, I realized I forgot to grab a pen from the car so I had to do a back-and-forth. Signing the log, I took a picture of the hash from the cache to show direct line of sight for an actual Hash Collision!

Walking back to the car, I started picking up some of the cleaner garbage that idiots have tossed out windows. I would have picked up more, but without a plastic bag to put stuff in, I didn't want to get the new car scummy/beery from the stuff that has been out there for a long time. I still put quite a few items in the passenger seat foot-well which were put in the recycle bins when I got home.

Being over an hour late, despite me being the only active Hasher in the Buffalo Graticule, I think it's pushing it on the Official Sat. Meetup. I won't be claiming it for this expedition, but I am happy to report on my 2⁷th Successful Expedition!

Photos

When I first arrived, there were some geese, and they waddled away before I got a pic, but there were also some Turkey Vultures flying around too.
Walking down the road off the shoulder, I can see the hash is somewhere in this clearing.
Yeah! All 0's!
Accuracy.
Standard Stupid Grin.
For the Hash Collision, distance to the Cache.
Before finding the Cache, I thought it was by the parking area so I wanted to show I could still see the car.
Locating the cache, it was way closer than the parking area...
...so I took a picture of the Hash from the Cache for a full Hash Collision event.
For extra proof, distance from the Cache to the Hash.
Garbage I picked up by the parking area and along the road.