2015-01-16 37 -122

Fri 16 Jan 2015 in 37,-122: 37.3949609, -122.3359767 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

A field on some private property in the hills behind Stanford University

Participants

Erik

Plans

Bike about fifteen miles to the geohash, quickly take some photos, and haul back to Stanford campus in time for a meeting with my professor at 4:30.

Expedition

I left Stanford campus at 1pm on my bike. The spot was 15 miles away and up quite a big hill, but I thought I'd be able to make it, and be back for a meeting with my professor by 4:30.

The way to the hash point was uneventful. I biked through some beautiful forested areas, but the uphill was tough. When I finally made it - starting to be concerned about getting home in time for my meeting - I found that the point was disappointingly in some fenced off private property, surrounded by lots of "No Trespassing" signs. Thus I got to within a few hundred feet of my goal, but not quite there.

The real adventure came on the way back. My back tire almost immediately burst, and this was on a backwoods, abandoned road. I walked two miles to get cell service, but it was spotty. Luckily a UPS truck showed up and took me to a restaurant that was a couple miles away. At this point my phone had died, so I had trouble contacting people back at the University to get picked up.

By 5:00 - having missed my meeting - the restaurant opened, and they let me charge my phone. Also a woman in the parking lot saw my bright orange jacket and assumed I was the Valet, which was amusing. Anyway, after a long time of waiting at the restaurant, with bad communication, and the faulty impression that someone was coming to pick me up, it became apparent that that was not happening. So I resigned myself to calling a taxi, and waited a good 40 minutes for it to show up.

At this point - a bit before 7:00, the taxi shows up and it is the craziest cab I've ever seen. The guy was swearing like a sailor, blasting music at an alarming volume, and the cab was all lit up in green and blue. The cab ride perplexingly took over a half hour, and was quite the adventure, though I was a bit scared of the guy's driving habits.

All this would have made for a fine adventure if not for a few things. First of all I missed my meeting, which was disappointing. Much, much worse though was the $100 taxi bill I got stuck with, which seems to have been the only way for me to get off that mountain. Lesson: bring a tire repair kit next time.

Achievements

Erik r earned the Train wreck consolation prize by failing to reach the (37, -122) geohash on 2015-01-16 Bike tire did not cooperate (got a flat). Technically this was just as I got to the end of where I could bike anyway but...I suffered for it..

Erik r earned the No trespassing consolation prize by almost reaching the (37, -122) geohash on 2015-01-16.