2009-06-06 51 -121

Sat 6 Jun 2009 in 100 Mile House: 51.6184255, -121.2322508 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Just off an ATV track, east of 100 Mile House along Horse Lake Road.

Participants

• Rhonda
• Rhonda's mom

Expedition

I was in 108 Mile House for the weekend, for a cousin's wedding. Before leaving home, I checked the locations for all of the graticules along my route (the Duffey Lake Road). None were reachable. The Saturday point for the 100 Mile House graticule, however, was less than half a kilometre from a named road, and google's satellite view showed what appeared to be a track of some sort leading almost directly to the point.

Because the wedding was in the afternoon, I decided not to try for the 4pm meetup acheivement and went in the morning instead. Mom and I drove to 100 Mile House and found Horse Lake Road, then Young Road. At the end of Young Road, we parked and were greeted by a friendly black dog from one of the nearby houses, before heading out along a track on foot. This track was clearly used by four-wheeled, motorized vehicles, and just as clearly not passable by my station wagon: several knee-high or higher bumps and dips would have left the car with parts other than the tires holding its weight. It was, however, easy walking, and we watched the GPS as it counted down from 450m at the car to 15m straight into the bush.

The ATV track kept going away from the hash point, so we turned into the bush, pushing through young trees, stepping over fallen logs, and having our bare ankles greeted by wild roses.

The GPS was somewhat confused under the trees, and kept changing its mind about where and how far away the hash point was, despite claiming an accuracy of 8m. For several minutes, it believed the hash point was 15m away, no matter how often we walked 15m in the direction in pointed. Eventually, we came out onto another track, and wondered if this road was the same one we had been following. Since the GPS was most accurate while moving, I walked back and forth along the road, trying to triangulate the hash point from the road. While there, it consistently pointed to a tiny clearing some 10m in, so back into the bush we went, trying to get within the accuracy limits of the GPS.

A few metres short of the clearing, the GPS claimed 4m in a different direction. That was, however, within the accuracy limits, so we took a picture just in case it didn't get any better, and continued the few more steps to the clearing we had identified. The GPS distance remaining kept changing even though I wasn't moving any more, and even briefly showed a sub-1m distance. Too briefly to get a photo, however. We left an xkcd marker made of fallen sticks, took pictures, and headed back to the ATV track.

On the way back, we saw a deer and a large woodpecker with a bright red crest, but couldn't get the camera out in time for either of them.

After

Between ceremony and reception, my parents went to 100 Mile House for other reasons in their jeep, and while there, Mom decided to show Dad the hash point. The jeep handled the ATV track with no problem, and Mom pointed out the hash point, but they didn't get out of the jeep.

Just as the jeep wheels touched pavement on their way back, Mom looked at the clock and saw that it said 3:59.

"Oh no!" she said. "If we'd stayed there we could have got the meetup acheivement ribbon!"

But, they had to get back for the reception, so did not turn around and go back in.

Photos

• 

  At the hash point

• 

  Obligatory GPS shot

• 

  xkcd marks the spot

• Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

  Rhonda's mom

• 

  Rhonda

• 

  The road was not for my car

Rhonda and Rhonda's mom earned the Graticule Unlocked Achievement by being the first to reach any hashpoint in the (51, -121) graticule, here, on 2009-06-06.