2022-01-06 42 -71

Location

Within an old industrial park in Billerica, Massachusetts.

Participants

Expedition

I'm writing this the week after it took place, so my memory of the expedition isn't all that fresh. Luckily, there's really not much to remember. I took this one on after not having been able to go on an expedition in months because I missed the thrill of it all, which I'm sure I don't need to explain to the dedicated geohashers reading this. This definitely wasn't the ideal scenario for a return to the geohashing scene though: it was in the opposite direction of my drive home, on a cold night, in the middle of Iron Horse Park, a complex in Billerica that used to be a repair facility for a railroad. Just as a PSA, for those not from the Boston area, it's pronounced Bill-rick-ah, not Bill-ere-ick-ah. I'd like to save you the ridicule I endured when I mispronounced it for the first time.

Anyways, it wasn't possible to drive right up to the hash, so I decided to park in a nearby lot and see if I could walk there. My first attempt didn't work, as the road to get closer to the hash looked like it went into a scrap yard or something else auto-related. A large truck drove down the road right before I planned to walk down it, and I didn't want to follow the truck and have them interrogate me. So, I got back in my car and tried approaching the hash from a different direction. I pulled into another parking lot, where all I would have to do is walk behind one building to reach the spot. Unfortunately, I saw a sign that strongly dissuaded me from trying to make the trek. It seemed quite likely that some security camera would pick me up and I would be heading down a path I really didn't want to take, so I trusted my gut and called the whole thing off. I wasn't too bothered, since any of these failed expeditions count towards the Posted achievement I would love to get someday. I was still glad to ring in 2022 with another expedition, my third in the Boston area. With all of the houses and private property around, it's definitely not conducive to this hobby, but I'll still gladly give it a shot.