2021-01-13 54 38

Location

Somewhat close to Gorodishche~1 (Stupinsky district, just Городище stop on OSM) bus stop, in a small forest near the place where Kashirka (lacks English wiki page) flows into Oka.

Participants

V1993 (talk)

Plans

After figuring out that tomorrow's geohash is somewhat reachable (have a direct bus route from my city to a nearby bus station), I've decided to give it a go.

Expedition

It was a little nervous, but I guess pretty good for a first expedition (it was adventurous, that's for sure).

I've caught a but from my city to Gorodishche~1 bus stop at 09:55 and arrived there around 10:23. As one can see on map, it's essentially in the field, with actual buildings going away from this hash. Looking at the field revealed what seemed like some sort of light fence, as well as some little building on "road" to the field (it is hardly a road during wintertime). With things looking slightly bleak (it would be essentially impossible to reach hashpoint without going through field), I've decided to give little house (that I suspected to be a security post). Upon closer examination "security post" turned out to be a "vegetables and potatoes" kiosk (closed), and weird fence with huge "L-T" sign turned out to be portable irrigation system. With that out (or in?) my way, I've walked into snowy field, trying to keep following the road. With few centimetres deep snow it turned out to be a pretty exhausting walk.

I've also noticed some paw prints on the snow, also leading to forest, seemingly belonging to some moderately sized animal (given which animals live around here, it probably was a fox). At this point I was also given a quick introduction to quirks of batteries in cold, with my phone suddenly jumping from ~70% to 30%. Luckily for me, it stayed at 30% until the end of my travel.

After crossing said field while following the road (which turned out to be a very good idea due to presence of some artificial hills 1-2m high which road went through), I've started by entering the forest while still following existing road, where it was considerably less windy. At the end of said road there turned out to be a nice view at Kashirka river as well at pretty steep way down, which probably wouldn't be exactly easy to climb back closer to geohash (or in general, for the record). Finding out that this wasn't a good way to hash, I've headed back to the field.

Field road (once again, windy one, compared to calm forest) going along the forest border eventually led me to what looked like a promising entrance to forest. After having few cups of tea from thermos I've brought with me, weighting roaring faintly sounding from somewhere deep in the forest and "102 meters to point" message from osmAnd I've decided to give it a go and entered forest.

Apparently, aforementioned paw prints also were here, conveniently hinting at some of optimal ways around fallen trees and sudden elevations. After breaking through the forest, I've finally found the hashpoint at 11:30. After walking around to some distant noises of unclear origin and taking screenshot with proof I've decided to leave that place in case of author of noises getting impatient at protecting their territory and trying to attack.

As I've started to leave, however, noises actually decided to follow me pretty quickly. Trying to get out of forest as quickly as possible left me down is a canyon that tuned out to be a little tricky to get out. Author of noises also showed up soon, which turned out to be equally freaked out old man making them to scare another potential animal making noises around which to his relief was actually me. Letting out few swears, old guy kept walking his way, while I was still in canyon for a while, trying to get out, failing to, finally getting out on the other side, figuring out that I'll have to cross this canyon to leave forest, getting down the canyon again and finally getting out of it on the right side, as well as leaving forest pretty quickly to same road in the field.

On the way back to bus station I've made a few photos of things around me, as well as a grin. I've also managed to somewhat narrowly miss a bus at 12:17, leaving me to enjoy some remaining tea for about half an hour, while having a good look at tractor trying to get snow off the road, getting stuck in said snow, eventually getting out of it and finally actually pushing snow off the road. I got on a bus at 12:53 and arrived at home bus station at 13:35.

I've also wanted to provide a tracklog, but at some point osmAnd stopped recording it and I'd probably do so anyways to conserve battery charge. All in all, it was a pretty cool expedition, in all meanings of word cool.

Photos

This forest is a lot worse than it might seem
Hooray!
Obligatory grin
Irrigation systems on field (on the very left you can also see "vegetables and potatoes" kiosk)
Tractor getting stuck
I really hope this counts as frozen geohash proof