2009-05-14 49 8

Thu 14 May 2009 in 49,8: 49.7025246, 8.8509093 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Participants

• lyx
• Nora
• relet
• Andreas and Antje on a bench nearby.

Plans

Well, could we make holidays in 49,8 without having visited a hash in the graticule once? No. And as we have learned later, we managed to miss on ilpadre not once, but twice: The first time at our improvised alternate meetup in Heidelberg, and the second time when we decided not to visit Speyer, but Weinheim instead. That would have connected our island in the Meetup graph to the mainland. But no such meetup has ever happened yet.

Expedition

On our way to visit the Felsenmeer of Reichenbach, we stopped near the village of Unter-Ostern (lower Easter) for a quick hash'n dash of todays coordinates. From the parking spot, a paved path took us up the hills. We met geochicken, which were not much impressed by Andreas attempt at conversation. We expected the hash to be in the middle of a meadow on these rolling hills (but weren't all too sure, as we had been without Internet proper during our holidays).

Soon, it became apparent that the hash would lie in a bit of forest rather than in the fields. All the better, as the fields were, somehow, protected by immensely powerful force fields. I say somehow, because the fences were not consistently corralling any particular piece of meadow, but rather providing arbitrary barriers between the road, some meadow, or another piece of meadow. Usually, you would able to get to the other side of the fence by walking around it, or up a bit of slope. This allowed us to start our first approach towards the forest by walking around a particular fence and across a meadow. Lyx was soon stopped by a small rivulet, and another piece of fence between the meadow and the forest.

We backtracked our steps and approached the hash from another direction. It was a bit steeper, but there was an entrance into the forest.

Following lyx directions, we climbed the steep forest until almost to the top. We discovered a hunting stand, and some trees. Intensive scrutiny with our tricorder followed to determine the right tree for today. Commander lyx knows about the importance of accurate measurements. Private Nora is not yet as convinced of the method, and slightly out of breath. Once again, we surprised an unsuspecting tree with the news of its eligibility for a Couch potato achievement. It immediately struck a victory pose in between the two ladies.

We left the forest using the easier exit across the neighbouring meadow. It was straight downhill, where we were greeted by Andreas and Antje, who had waited for us on a neighbouring bench.

Now, the easier way out is not always the safer one. And while we in Europe are not at risk of encountering poison ivy in the forests, the presence of ticks in low vegetation doubly makes up for that loss. We therefore spent the next half hour picking a multitude of these little beasts off our trousers and legs.

Tracklog

coming.

Photos

inline.