2021-08-14 42 -78

Location

In the woods of Golden Hill State Forest

Participants

Pedalpusher
J
Simon the dog
Myka the dog

Expedition

Having already visited Golden Hill back in May, I kind of knew what to expect for this expedition. The wild-card this time is my ankle that's still healing. From the previous expedition, I knew there was another dead-end road near where I went into the woods for the other hash and I should be able to drive in pretty close. My girlfriend was interested in joining us too, so we planned on meeting at my house around 14:30 in order to make the Official Saturday Meetup time. This worked out especially well as she had some errands in the morning and I was helping a friend move.

Everything going to plan so far, we got everything together and we were on our way right on time. Finding the State Forest road without trouble this time, we drove as close as we could to the Geohash. As expected, the gate was open on the internal forest road and we were able to park on the loop at the end of the road nearest the hash. The dogs were very excited to jump out and explore, but I quickly realized I should not have worn my hiking boots. They are high ankle boots but because the cut on my ankle was still healing, the pressure from the boot was painful to walk with. I found that if I didn't lace the right boot up to the top, it was easier to walk, but after that, we were on our way to the Hash.

Slowly navigating through the woods, I thought it was weird that the GPS was saying to go in a different direction, and yet, we were still getting closer to the hash. Getting a little concerned that I was going to be heading in the wrong direction or do very large loops trying to find the hash, I pulled out my phone and started up the HashDroid app in tandem. The app had enough for a signal and was able to more easily guide us to the hash. As we approached, the GPS didn't quite match up to the HashDroid app, but with a good reading there, I used that instead. We then got some pictures and started heading back a slightly different way.

Heading more in a Northern direction, we ended up finding a trail through the woods and since it was heading in the right direction, we followed that back toward the car and ended up coming out of the woods right where we parked! Seeing as my ankle was still doing well, we decided to head back into the woods to explore the trail for a bit longer. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes in, the dogs got into something with high excitement. Concerned they were eating something they shouldn't be, I called them back and with some hesitation, they returned. Not thinking much of it, the dogs continued to run around, but Simon seemed to have some strands of something hanging out of his mouth. Calling him over, I realized they were porcupine quills and knew we needed to take care of this asap. I was able to pull a bunch out of his upper snout, but the ones in is lower jaw were in kinda deep. Plus, he had a couple in his lips too. We turned back for the car, but honestly, the needles sticking out of his face didn't seem to phase him at all. Back at the car and on our way home, I called the vet and made an emergency appointment. Unfortunately, they couldn't see us until 19:30 so we were going to have some time to kill.

To make things easier, J ordered some subs for when we got back into town and were able to pick those up for an easy dinner. Then, to distract Simon and keep him from rubbing his face and possibly pushing the quills deeper, we took him for another walk around town. We timed it perfectly and made it to the vet right on time. They looked him over and explained the procedure and since I live right around the corner, we walked home and hung out until he was ready.

We were able to pick him up around 21:00 but he was still kind of groggy and weirded out from the anesthesia so it took him a long while to settle down for the night. Since he was feeling much better the next day, I was able to take them again for the next day's Geohash in McCarty Hill State Forest and make this the start of a Consecutive Hash.

Hopefully, we never run into another porcupine again...apparently, dogs just don't learn their lesson in this case.

Photos

On the way to the hash, we found this boot in a tree. No GeoTrash ribbon today as the tree had grown around it!
Made it!
Close enough for me for the Official Saturday Meetup.
J posing with the dogs at the hash.
View South from the Hash.
The dogs photobombing the view North.
Standard Stupid Grins at the hash.
On the way back to the car, found this cool rock with what looks like fossils in it.
Quills McQuillFace patiently hanging out in the car while J went in to get our dinner.