2009-08-23 44 -86

Sun 23 Aug 2009 in Manistee: 44.9003524, -86.0261624 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

About

The day's geohash coordinates were located in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, about 1000 feet from the shore of Lake Michigan!

Expedition

excellentdude: On our way from our previous hash attempt to this one, my girlfriend and I saw what had thus far been a cool and cloudy day give way to a sunny, beautiful day. As we were driving, we saw signs that we had entered the national park. We were seeing lots of great views of inland lakes, and we could tell we were nearing something really cool. We kept driving toward the hash and eventually passed it to park right on the shore of Lake Michigan. As close as we were, we decided to go to the beach, take some pictures, and wade into the gorgeous lake before going to the hash. Having done that, we put our shoes back on and headed back up the road toward the hash on foot. The hash itself was less than 1000 feet from the lakeshore, so we didn't have far to go. We passed a tourist store, a ranger station, a blacksmith shop, and two houses. Before we reached the intersection with the next road, we went east off the road toward the hash. There was no fence and we were in a national park, so we assumed this was public land. Having not been to the lakeshore before, we were amazed at how sandy it was as far from the lake as we were. Furthermore, we were surprised to see how many plants were growing in this very sandy land. We got some pictures of those to post below. We eventually reached the hash, which was a couple meters beyond the sandy brush into some woods. The normal pictures were taken; then we quickly left to explore some of the rest of the park with our time restrictions in mind. Though not pictured below, we made our way to the dunes the park is named for. They towered over the parking lot below. We spent several minutes climbing to the top of one to see what the view was. As it turns out, it was of more dunes. We learned that from this point it was a "three-hour strenuous hike" to the shore of Lake Michigan even though we were only three miles away. We clearly did not have time for this if we were going to make it back to Lansing in time to help our friend move. Besides, we didn't have water bottles and we were not in that good of shape.  :-) We played on the dunes and explored them for over an hour. Then we made our way back to my car and headed off for our next hash attempt, which was more or less on the way home. We decided that this park was definitely a place we wanted to come back to sometime when we had more time. We also want to get in better shape so we can make the hike through the dunes at some point!

Achievements

excellentdude earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (44, -86) geohash on 2009-08-23.

excellentdude earned the Multihash Achievement by reaching 3 hash points on 2009-08-23. It's a Triple Hash.

excellentdude earned the Graticule Unlocked Achievement by being the first to reach any hashpoint in the (44, -86) graticule, here, on 2009-08-23.

Photos

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  We parked just feet from Lake Michigan

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  The Lake from the beach near my car

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  We made it!

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  Goofy grins at hash

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  Julie's ready to see the rest of the park

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  The hash itself in front of the center tree

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  Cool looking local flora

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  They grow in a very sandy area

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  It was amazing how much was growing in the sand

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  The ranger station close to the hash