2012-12-05 36 -114

Wed 5 Dec 2012 in Mesquite: 36.0914459, -114.9905048 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Just north of the Pabco trailhead, north of Henderson.

Participants

• Thomcat

Plans

Take the 212 bus east from the South Strip transfer, get off at Pabco and Sunset, and walk north.

Expedition

Headed south on the strip on time. Why do they call it an express? Freakin' bus stops everywhere. Fortunately, mid-day, not much traffic on the strip.

Arrived at the south strip transfer, but no idea which bay to go to next. Signage could use improvement. Figured it out just to see the bus had pulled away a minute earlier.

• Missed the 3:00 bus east, next one in 20. Will I reach the geohash in daylight? -- Thomcat @36.0683,-115.1657 15:09, 5 December 2012 (PST)

Sat and studied, then re-read the schedule and figured out which bus I would now be on.

• Worse news - 212 only every hour. On 402 which gets close. Do I walk it? -- Thomcat @36.0663,-115.0666 15:52, 5 December 2012 (PST)

Got off this bus a little less than a mile short of where the other bus would have dropped me off, and then walked.

• 

  Never a good sign. Then there's the lady I met there who told me there are coyotes. @36.0717,-114.9918

This lady had three dogs she was walking, and possibly using for protection. Now coyotes - up north, wolves are more the norm, but both are pack animals. They aren't going to attack an upright male solitaire, unless they are scared or starved or both.

The paved road led down around the corner, past a few more barricades, then ended... right into a freshly grated road. Clearly this is a development to be.

So from here, I walked north in the middle of the grated road - not only would a coyote be foolhardy to attack me mano-a-mano, but I would see him coming for a good 20 feet.

But it did continue to get dark. Turning, I oriented myself on a neon landmark, then continued to the end of the grated road. I shot a video as well - it was now dark enough to require lights while playing baseball, but still light enough to see for several more minutes.

• Could make it in familiar territory, but out here it's time to call it quits. Stupid bus! -- Thomcat @36.0833,-114.9869 16:49, 5 December 2012 (PST)

At this point, I turned and headed back, shooting another video. I reached the paved road when it was dark enough to hide colors, and reached streetlights by the time I couldn't see outside of them anymore.

So, had I been on the proper bus I would have been half an hour earlier and quite a bit closer - call it 45 minutes. I stopped less than a kilometer short of the geohash - as the crow flies. Call it a mile walking - easy to cover in 20 minutes, and aerial photos show this to be a road of some sort.

Would I have seen coyotes closer to the hash but half an hour earlier (and lighter)? No idea. Perhaps that bus saved my life tonight - but I prefer to think of it as a stupid bus anyhow.

Returning to the strip, I ended up on not one but two buses that reached the end of their line and went out of service - three bus transfers in all to reach my hotel.

Geohash failed, expedition succeeded, coyotes remained unphotographed (by me).

Stupid bus.

Achievements

Thomcat earned the Train wreck consolation prize by failing to reach the (36, -114) geohash on 2012-12-05 due to a missed bus.