2009-05-02 48 -122

Sat 2 May 2009 in 48,-122: 48.9585510, -122.0748822 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

The point is just by the side of Silver Lake Road, less than a kilometre from Silver Lake Park which has a campground.

Planning

We really wanted to climb Garibaldi Mountain for the Vancouver are but there's still too much snow in the area, and this one is less than a hundred metres from Silver Lake Park, so will allow us to get the Camping geohash. The location allows driving, cycling or part transit/part cycling. All are welcome.

Detailed (and ongoing) planning on Talk:2009-05-02 48 -122.

Participants

• Robyn by bicycle (and a little SkyTrain) with T-Rex
• Rhonda part transit, part bike

Expedition

Robyn

I was going to do this as a pure bicycle geohash, riding the entirety of the 110 km from my house to Silver lake Park, but I was rendezvousing with Rhonda at a fairly arbitrary point along my route, and stressing about being late to the meetup or about being overtired by the end of the day and unable to carry my camping gear up the last hills to the campground. The terrain view in Google Maps did not show an elevation change at the end, but it is possible for there to be significant hills without countour lines in undulating terrain. And this lake is in the foothills of the Cascade Range. I elected to take the SkyTrain past the most tiring of the city traffic and over the Fraser River. That cut about 15 kilometres off my route.

Leaving transit I crossed under the SkyTrain tracks and coasted down King George, following the route I had plotted through the Fraser Valley, avoiding the nastiest hills and working my way towards the Sumas border crossing. I turned left on highway 10, then down 152nd Street to 32nd Avenue, turning right at 192nd, left on 28th, right on 208th, and then left on 16th all the way to 264th. My planning worked even better than I expected, and I can't remember meeting any especially long or especially steep hills. I reached the corner of 264th Street and 16th Avenue after having ridden sixty kilometres in under three hours, and with plenty of energy to spare for the rest of the trip. My efficient route did get me to the corner forty-five minutes ahead of the agreed meeting time, but Rhonda is almost always early, so I probably wouldn't have to wait more than thirty minutes. Meanwhile I could sit down for a bit, program my GPS properly, sort out my maps, and have a snack.

I did all those things and also made a flower chain necklace out of roadside dandelions, for T-Rex, but still there was no Rhonda. I couldn't see her coming down the road, either so she wasn't almost here. It's not like she's late for failing being fifteen minutes early. In fact I started to be very impressed with her timing abilities. It's hard to travel a long way and be there exactly on time. It's easier when you're coming by transit and have schedules to go by, but she also had 32 blocks to ride after unloading, and not having ridden the route before, I knew she would leave herself extra time.

When she still hadn't arrived at quarter after the appointed hour I started to worry. Could she have mechanical problems or have missed her bus? Maybe she woke up this morning with severe swine flu. I chalked a note on the road, in case she arrived from an unexpected direction, and headed north on 264th to see if I could find her.

On to the next geohash

The adventure continues with 2009-05-03 48 -122.