2010-06-05 42 -71

Sat 5 Jun 2010 in 42,-71: 42.4318804, -71.2300218 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Near Clarke Middle School in Lexington, Massachusetts.

The point is in the woods between some subdivisions and a sports field. Access is best by Marrett Rd. May or may not by private property, but it is secluded and not in someone's yard.

Plans

• Phyzome: I live in Arlington Center, so this is a quick jaunt up either the bikeway or Mass Ave. I can meet up with other hashers pretty much any time Saturday. 11:00 AM is not going to work -- I just got up @ 10:15. Contact me if you want to coordinate, otherwise I'll probably do the 16:00 thing. I have an event in the evening, but afternoon works for meetups.

Update 14:06 EDT: Sara is sending her dad to meet me near the hashpoint!

Because this hashpoint is at my junior high school, I really wanted to participate, but I couldn't go in person because my children would have been really mad if I had made them ride in the car for several hours to get there. Sara

Participants

• Phyzome
• Sara's dad

Expedition

Phyzome

The point was in a small wooded area in Lexington, MA. Sara sent her regrets that she would not be attending, as this was on the grounds of a school she attended as a child. However, she would be sending her dad, Allen, to meet me!

I cycled hard along the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway, dodging walkers, joggers, rollerbladers, dog-walkers, and other cyclists, then turned onto Maple Street, continuing onto Marrett Road. It was horrendously hot and humid, and I was running a bit late, but I made it to the neighboring soccer field before 16:00... only to find my GPS receiver was off in la-la land. ("Satellites? What's all this fuss about satellites?") I met Allen (who was wearing a Tux hat) and we wandered off into the woods.

There was a trail hidden in the woods, and another trail leading up to it from the soccer field. OpenStreetMap showed the main trail, and the hashpoint was marked as just off of it. Unfortunately, there was very heavy tree cover, so we couldn't orient on our surroundings very effectively. Using the Google satellite view, we lined up our position farther down the trail with one of the sections of a tennis court, then used dead reckoning to choose a likely location. In fact, the hashpoint itself may have been farther up or down the trail, but there was poison ivy to the left and right, so we stuck with the area that just had briers and Virginia creeper.

I snapped the photo and called it good. We left the woods when thunder started in the distance and I felt a few drops of rain. I wish I could have stayed longer to chat, but the storm was moving in quickly and while I had no problem with getting wet, I wasn't sure how he felt about the prospect.

I dumped all my electronics into my weather-proof bike bag and rode like a bat outta hell back down the Minuteman. A few minutes in, the storm broke. It was an exhilarating ride -- 20 mph in pounding rain. (I was riding far beyond my braking distance, come to think of it.)

All in all, a great hash. I may not have hit the point as exactly as I would have liked, but I met a cool person and had a great time -- which is what counts.

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  "Danger: Do not look at water"

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  View of sports fields

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  Looking back down the side trail

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  Main trail

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  Me and Allen!

Footnote: My GPS receiver lives! Hooray!

Phyzome earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (42, -71) geohash on 2010-06-05.

Phyzome earned the No Batteries Geohash Achievement by reaching the (42, -71) geohash on 2010-06-05.

Sara

I'm sorry to hear about the demise of your GPS receiver, Phyzome.

My Dad said he met Phyzome and they went way into the trees, into a patch of poison ivy and reached the hashpoint and that it was raining "only a little bit". He seemed to have enjoyed himself. Unfortunately I forgot to tell him to bring a camera.

Sara's Dad earned the Oldest Geohash Achievement by geohashing on 2010-06-05 by geohashing at the age of 69 years.

Sara (as puppet master) earned the Déjà Vu Geohash Achievement by reaching the (42, -71) geohash on 2010-06-05, and previously on school days from 1982 through 1985.

Sara earned the Puppet Master Geohash achievement by manipulating someone to reach the (42, -71) geohash on 2010-06-05.