Difference between revisions of "2013-01-12 -37 145"

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[[Image:2013-01-12 -37 145 12-00-49-521.jpg|thumb|left]]
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{{meetup graticule  
 
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__NOTOC__
 
__NOTOC__
 
== Location ==
 
== Location ==
<!-- where you've surveyed the hash to be -->
+
In scrub off a 4wd track, 10km from the Eildon-Jamieson Rd, in Big River State Forest.
  
 
== Participants ==
 
== Participants ==
<!-- who attended: If you link to your wiki user name in this section, your expedition will be picked up by the various statistics generated for geohashing. You may use three tildes ~ as a shortcut to automatically insert the user signature of the account you are editing with.
+
* [[User:Stevage|Stevage]]
-->
 
  
 
== Plans ==
 
== Plans ==
<!-- what were the original plans -->
+
A short distance into a 200km training ride, I discovered the existence of the hash. I've seen so many of these hashes around Eildon, that are completely inaccessible - a very long drive along a windy road, then probably dozens of kilometres of dirt road, and probably more kilometres of bush bashing. It's steep, sometimes mountainous terrain. So, this one looked kind of...doable. My route for the day already involved the whole Jamieson-Eildon Road, so, why not? (Because you were on a road bike, idiot! And because there was no phone reception so if you got injured no one would find you until days later when Felix eventually would deduce that you must have gone looking for the geohash...)
 +
 
 +
Anyway, I had a hundred kilometres to think about it. Healesville. Black Spur. Narbethong. Buxton. Taggarty. Thornton (egg and bacon roll, what was I thinking?). Eildon. And...the turn-off.
 +
 
 +
An image had been building in my mind of what the hash would look like. It would be 6 kilometres of high quality dirt road, with families camping in the bush with their four wheel drives. A short distance down a nice little track, and a pleasant 200m walk through open scrub, stopping to chat with a couple of confused middle aged bushwalkers along the way. The worst thing was the extra kilometres would almost certainly mean falling short of my planned dinner destination, the Hunt Club Hotel in Merrijig. Bugger.
  
 
== Expedition ==
 
== Expedition ==
<!-- how it all turned out. your narrative goes here. -->
+
Of course, it was nothing like that. As soon as I saw the "high quality dirt road", my heart sank. It sucked. It was a rough track with lots of big, sharp rocks all over it. A sign warned that due to recent bushfires, it was a dangerous place to be. Leaf litter everywhere indicated that no one ever goes down there. In trepidation, I set off. The GPS showed about 11km to the hash. Eleven very slow kilometres.
 +
 
 +
The road tyres hated the stones. I tried to pick my way through on dirt. I winced with each bump, waiting for the first pinch flat. Seven kilometres later, it came. Pissed off, hot, sweaty, I realised what a stupid decision I'd made. This was no place for a road bike. I had two spare tubes, but at this rate, I might need more. Then for the first time, I actually looked at the bush I was planning to stroll into soon. I was on the side of a steep ridge, with incredibly dense scrub, full of thick, sharp, scratchy nasty stuff. I wouldn't go 10 metres into that, let alone 250. Fuck. Get me out of this shit.
 +
 
 +
One of the tubes had a dodgy patch. The other was just plain dodgy - I'd spent an hour previously trying to fit it in this same tyre, and ended with a huge bulge.
 +
 
 +
Then...something good happened. The tube went in. My mood lifted. Maybe I'd go just a bit further down the track - it was only a couple of kilometres until the turn off onto four wheel drive track. I was curious - I wanted to at least see that track.
 +
 
 +
It was good! Smooth. Packed earth, none of the crappy stones. Fun, almost. I got into the rhythm of mountain biking...on my road bike. A couple of fallen logs, and a few steep up and downs, then I was at the bush-bash point.
 +
 
 +
I dumped my bike, grabbed water, phone/camera and GPS. I left a big arrow made out of sticks pointing in the direction of the hash. The terrain had mellowed a bit, but was still fairly steep. You could fairly easily walk between the bushes, but still lots of scratchy grass and creepers. My legs soon bore the trademark scars of serious geohashers. At every step I feared snakes. I stomped hard to scare them off.
 +
 
 +
I had 40 metres to go. Then I was there! Relief! Pain! Scrambling back up the hill! Found the bike! Got the fuck out of there on a better track than I came in on! Forded a creek! Forgot to use the opportunity to get water, so had to smash through blackberries at the next one! But still! So happy to be on my way back to civilisation!
 +
 
 +
Best of all...I did make it to Merrijig for dinner after all. 220km ridden for the day, a new record.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
  
 
== Tracklog ==
 
== Tracklog ==
<!-- if your GPS device keeps a log, you may post a link here -->
+
* http://app.strava.com/activities/37446834
 +
 
 +
[[File:Screenshot 2024-05-14 at 12.39.22 am.png|400px]]
  
 
== Photos ==  
 
== Photos ==  
<!-- Insert pictures between the gallery tags using the following format:
 
Image:2012-##-## ## ## Alpha.jpg | Witty Comment
 
-->
 
 
<gallery perrow="5">
 
<gallery perrow="5">
 +
 +
Image:2013-01-12_-37_145_12-00-11-711.jpg | Success!
 +
Image:2013-01-12_-37_145_12-00-49-521.jpg | Photo of the geohash - note the blackened trees from some previous bushfire.
 +
Image:2013-01-12_-37_145_12-02-09-631.jpg | The 4 wheel drive track.
 +
Image:2013-01-12_-37_145_12-02-31-783.jpg | Proof
 +
Image:2013-01-12_-37_145_12-03-30-457.jpg | This would have been a great spot to fill up water bottles.
 +
Image:2013-01-12_-37_145_12-05-37-590.jpg | Gratuitous bike shot. This is on the train home on the day after.
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  
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<!-- Add any achievement ribbons you earned below, or remove this section -->
 
<!-- Add any achievement ribbons you earned below, or remove this section -->
  
 +
* Land geohash
 +
* Bike Geohash?
 +
 +
Note: Calculating elevation gain is not straightforward. Strava gives 4840m, BRouter gives 3512.
 +
 +
{{Climb
 +
 +
    | latitude = -37
 +
    | longitude = 145
 +
    | date = 2013-01-12
 +
    | elevation = 3512
 +
    | mode = bike
 +
    | name = Stevage
 +
}}
  
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[[Category:New report]]
 
  
<!-- Potential categories. Please include all the ones appropriate to your expedition -->
 
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[[Category:Expedition planning]]
 
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<!-- An actual expedition:
 
 
[[Category:Expeditions]]
 
[[Category:Expeditions]]
-- and one or more of --
 
 
[[Category:Expeditions with photos]]
 
[[Category:Expeditions with photos]]
[[Category:Expeditions with videos]]
 
[[Category:Expedition without GPS]]
 
-->
 
 
   
 
   
<!-- if you reached your coords:
 
 
[[Category:Coordinates reached]]
 
[[Category:Coordinates reached]]
 
+
{{location|AU|VIC|MU}}
 
 
--><!-- or if you failed :(
 
[[Category:Coordinates not reached]]
 
-- and a reason --
 
When there is a natural obstacle between you and the target:
 
[[Category:Not reached - Mother Nature]]
 
 
 
When there is a man-made obstacle between you and the target:
 
[[Category:Not reached - No public access]]
 
 
 
When you failed get your GPS, car, bike or such to work:
 
[[Category:Not reached - Technology]]
 
   
 
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[[Category:Not reached - Did not attempt]]
 
 
 
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Latest revision as of 22:26, 13 May 2024

2013-01-12 -37 145 12-00-49-521.jpg
Sat 12 Jan 2013 in -37,145:
-37.3984046, 145.9858954
geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox



Location

In scrub off a 4wd track, 10km from the Eildon-Jamieson Rd, in Big River State Forest.

Participants

Plans

A short distance into a 200km training ride, I discovered the existence of the hash. I've seen so many of these hashes around Eildon, that are completely inaccessible - a very long drive along a windy road, then probably dozens of kilometres of dirt road, and probably more kilometres of bush bashing. It's steep, sometimes mountainous terrain. So, this one looked kind of...doable. My route for the day already involved the whole Jamieson-Eildon Road, so, why not? (Because you were on a road bike, idiot! And because there was no phone reception so if you got injured no one would find you until days later when Felix eventually would deduce that you must have gone looking for the geohash...)

Anyway, I had a hundred kilometres to think about it. Healesville. Black Spur. Narbethong. Buxton. Taggarty. Thornton (egg and bacon roll, what was I thinking?). Eildon. And...the turn-off.

An image had been building in my mind of what the hash would look like. It would be 6 kilometres of high quality dirt road, with families camping in the bush with their four wheel drives. A short distance down a nice little track, and a pleasant 200m walk through open scrub, stopping to chat with a couple of confused middle aged bushwalkers along the way. The worst thing was the extra kilometres would almost certainly mean falling short of my planned dinner destination, the Hunt Club Hotel in Merrijig. Bugger.

Expedition

Of course, it was nothing like that. As soon as I saw the "high quality dirt road", my heart sank. It sucked. It was a rough track with lots of big, sharp rocks all over it. A sign warned that due to recent bushfires, it was a dangerous place to be. Leaf litter everywhere indicated that no one ever goes down there. In trepidation, I set off. The GPS showed about 11km to the hash. Eleven very slow kilometres.

The road tyres hated the stones. I tried to pick my way through on dirt. I winced with each bump, waiting for the first pinch flat. Seven kilometres later, it came. Pissed off, hot, sweaty, I realised what a stupid decision I'd made. This was no place for a road bike. I had two spare tubes, but at this rate, I might need more. Then for the first time, I actually looked at the bush I was planning to stroll into soon. I was on the side of a steep ridge, with incredibly dense scrub, full of thick, sharp, scratchy nasty stuff. I wouldn't go 10 metres into that, let alone 250. Fuck. Get me out of this shit.

One of the tubes had a dodgy patch. The other was just plain dodgy - I'd spent an hour previously trying to fit it in this same tyre, and ended with a huge bulge.

Then...something good happened. The tube went in. My mood lifted. Maybe I'd go just a bit further down the track - it was only a couple of kilometres until the turn off onto four wheel drive track. I was curious - I wanted to at least see that track.

It was good! Smooth. Packed earth, none of the crappy stones. Fun, almost. I got into the rhythm of mountain biking...on my road bike. A couple of fallen logs, and a few steep up and downs, then I was at the bush-bash point.

I dumped my bike, grabbed water, phone/camera and GPS. I left a big arrow made out of sticks pointing in the direction of the hash. The terrain had mellowed a bit, but was still fairly steep. You could fairly easily walk between the bushes, but still lots of scratchy grass and creepers. My legs soon bore the trademark scars of serious geohashers. At every step I feared snakes. I stomped hard to scare them off.

I had 40 metres to go. Then I was there! Relief! Pain! Scrambling back up the hill! Found the bike! Got the fuck out of there on a better track than I came in on! Forded a creek! Forgot to use the opportunity to get water, so had to smash through blackberries at the next one! But still! So happy to be on my way back to civilisation!

Best of all...I did make it to Merrijig for dinner after all. 220km ridden for the day, a new record.



Tracklog

Screenshot 2024-05-14 at 12.39.22 am.png

Photos

Achievements

  • Land geohash
  • Bike Geohash?

Note: Calculating elevation gain is not straightforward. Strava gives 4840m, BRouter gives 3512.

OWN Ribbon.jpg
Stevage earned the Colossal Climb achievement
by climbing 3512m primarily by bike during their (-37, 145) geohash expedition on 2013-01-12.