2023-05-30 42 -78

Location

In the woods of Nine Mile Creek State Forest

Participants

Pedalpusher
J

Expedition

Driving home after a great weekend in MD with J, I didn't see any decent hashes along our route home until we got back to our home area. It wasn't difficult to cut across PA and catch this hash on the way back home, and probably only added about 45 minutes to the drive. J was agreeable with the detour so after saying our goodbyes, we punched in the Coordinates and were off...only to hit some heavy traffic around Baltimore. Once clear, we had a pretty easy ride, with the exception of Harrisburg where I missed about 4 turns and ended up criss-crossing the city and over the river a couple times. It was a frustrating time of missing signs, weird directions from the Phone GPS and just plain missing a turn.

Once clear and after a couple stops, we were back in New York. Soon after that we found the State Forest and drove in. From the Forest Map, I was expecting to have to park about a mile away from the hash at the gate, but luckily we found it open for us. Able to keep going, we parked about as close as we could to the hash on the road at a fork (and didn't worry about blocking that road because the gate there WAS closed). With just under 200 meters to go, we made our way through the forest (and more than a few spider webs) to the Hashpoint. I was able to get a good reading right away since I had zoomed in on the whole area earlier when I had a signal so I had clear maps to work with. The location pin seemed to be unaffected by the lack of signal as it still read the parking spot correctly so I figured it was good in the woods too.

On the way back to the car, we were walking in a dried out creek where it was a little easier to move, and I saw an old mylar balloon. Annoyed, I grabbed it as this was a somewhat remote area where there were no trails and I figured if it wasn't removed now, it would never be. So I'll happily take a GeoTrash ribbon for this, knowing that is no longer affecting the ecosystem there. I really hope these mylar balloons are banned soon as they are really bad for our waterways and nature.

Normally we don't mind walking/hiking, but after being in the car for 6 hours+, it was nice to stretch our legs, but also nice not to have to walk 2 Miles/3 KM before having another 1.5 hour drive to get the rest of the way home.

I was also happy to see I could add another Centicule to my Buffalo Map as the last time I was in the 15 square, I had not made it to the hash.

Photos

Taken on the way out, but the signage for Nine Mile State Forest.
Made it!
View East from the Hash, back toward the forest road.
View North from the hash.
View West.
View South.
Standard Stupid Grins.
Looking back, a view of the hash area.
Following the dried up creek on the way back, I grabbed this mylar balloon to get it out of the woods.
Getting out of the woods, the walk back to the car on the forest road.