2020-02-29 54 9

Location

on a very muddy meadow beyond a forest in Jahrsdorf (70 km by bike)

Participants

π π π (talk)

Expedition

log from April 2020

Oh boy, this is quite a story. Definitely my longest as well as most adventurous, frustrating and eventful expedition.

(I will write the full report sometime.)

first part (report from January 2021)

Note: I'm writing this log in January 2021, so I have forgotten a lot of details.

I was determined to get a Leap geohash, because I didn't want to wait 4 years for it. So when the locations came out, I was annoyed, because none of the hashpoints were remotely easy for me to reach. I checked train, bus, and bike routes and times extensively and then discarded my plan to go to 53,9, because the train station I'd have to get off had unfortunately just been revoked validity for my student ticket. So, after a lot of pondering, I decided to go for this hash by taking the train to Bad Bramstedt and then cycling km to the hash, by far my farthest distance yet. I had tried to get a train ride to Hohenlockstedt just north of the hash, but the digital infrastructure for trains is so outdated that you have to print out your ticket, and additionally it was impossible to book a return ticket, and also there was a problem with the transfer in Neumünster, and lastly the ticket was way overpriced. So I dropped the whole plan with the train and decided that I could take it on the way back if I didn't feel like cycling a lot. Because of the rarity this quadreannial event, I thought I'd use this hash to cross off a few achievements. So I took a small kite with me, looked up nearby geocaches, and planned on doing others. Before setting off, I searched for everything I'd need, and then decided to not take a backpack, but try to stow it all on my notoriously unreliable carrier. The weather forecast was good, and I set off around am.

Here's where it all went wrong: I always listen to audiobooks while transiting, but just after I got onto the train to Bad Bramstedt, I noticed I'd forgotten my headphones on the shoe shelf. I considered getting off the next stop and cycling back, but the next stop was quite far and these trains only arrive once an hour (in retrospect, I should've done that). So I figured I'd just put my phone in my upper jacket pocket and put the audiobook on speaker, how bad could that be? I tried to memorise my route to the hash on the train ride, and started my cycling trip in Bad Bramstedt. I took some wrong turns early on (and throughout the whole journey) and had to look up my route, but no major missteps. But I realised after some kilometres that a) I couldn't hear a word of the audiobook when a car passed me and b) my phone kept slipping into the bottom of the pocket, and then I couldn't understand anything (it was even difficult when everything went smoothly). And unfortunately, the app only has a "back 30 seconds" button, so I kept having to rehear every other passage. I decided this wouldn't work, so I'd just hold my phone near my ear with one hand. That worked, but it was pretty uncomfortable and hard to keep a decent speed while doing this. I still kept it up for almost the entire way there, except for some brief pauses. I cycled through many small villages, past fields, over bridges (including the bridge across the river Stör, a beautiful spot), and up and down hills. Once, the recommended route led me onto a small and extremely muddy track, so thick that it became extremely hard and then impossible to cycle. Additionally, the stuff on my carrier kept falling off several times (especially once I'd gained a lot of speed), overcoming my increasingly sophisticated mounting methods. But I managed it all and eventually arrived in Jahrsdorf around pm with a very sore behind.