Difference between revisions of "2024-11-02 44 -93"

Revision as of 17:56, 3 November 2024

Hash location, covered by aspen trees, as seen from south

Location

Inside the Vermillion River Wildlife Management Area in Farmington, Minnesota.

Participants

Plans

Was driving from my hometown up to the Cities and this was on my way – my very first geohash! Grabbed an orange t-shirt (see below) and thought, what's the worst that could happen?

Expedition

I arrived on the scene after driving through some 'minimum maintenance roads', a category I wasn't aware we had in Minnesota. Pulled over and parked only to find I was not alone. This was expected — it was a weekend in November in the Midwest, and that means hunting season. I was honestly rather concerned about being mistaken for a deer or turkey and shot... I only had one orange t-shirt on, after all. Even upon arrival I could see four or five guys in blaze orange vests and waders further down the road. As I got ready and surveyed my options, they (and their dog) eventually caught up with me, and I asked them a couple questions about how best to get to the hash site. They were relatively helpful but seemed to overestimate my skill level in tramping through this kind of terrain.

The chief obstacle, I realized, was going to be the grasses/wetlands situated between the road where I started and the birch forest where I knew the hash was located. Thank goodness it had only rained once in the past couple weeks or all of this would be muck, I think. I started into the tallgrasses, trying as best as I could to follow the ghosts of trails that deer or hunters had trampled into existence at some point in the past. Lots of burs and lots of uneven terrain (I was pretty concerned about rolling my ankle out there, as I'd have a very rough time getting back.) Gall wasps too, y'all know about those? I tried my luck with dipping into some edge forest, but the swampy ground and thorny edge species (thanks, ecological niches!) made that even worse.

Eventually I got into the aspen (birch? aspen.) forest where things became thornier but less dense and so somewhat easier to pass through. Semi-aimless wandering led me to the coordinates, where I confirmed my location via several Google Maps GPS readings (see image). I snapped a couple photos under the aspen and took in the crisp Saturday air. Even if they're largely being used for hunting, I'm glad these kinds of managed 'natural' lands exist, broadly speaking. I returned through the grassy wetlands via a different route, attracting much more burs but arriving at the road quicker. The guys I met were still at their truck packing up their guns and their quarry (two pheasants by the looks of it). 'Did you find what you were lookin' for?' 'Yep!'

Photos

Looks promising...
Moo.
At the parking lot. Sign's seen better days.
I knew the hash was somewhere in there. Now how to get there?
Trickier terrain than it looks, especially with my healing ankle.
Success!
Me at the hash, featuring my improvised 'don't shoot me' orange outfit.
"If you're wondering where's my ass been / It's been cavorting amongst the aspens"

Achievements

Kyrkazakh earned the Land geohash achievement

by reaching the (44, -93) geohash on 2024-11-02.

Kyrkazakh earned the Two to the N achievement

by reaching 2⁰ hashpoints on 2024-11-02 44 -93 and is promoted to Level 0 (Coordinates reached).

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <!-- If you did not specify these parameters in the template, please substitute appropriate values for IMAGE, LAT, LON, and DATE (YYYY-MM-DD format)
 [[Image:{{{image|IMAGE}}}|thumb|left]]
 Remove this section if you don't want an image at the top (left) of your report. You should remove the "Image:" or "File:"
 tag from your image file name, and replace the all upper-case word IMAGE in the above line.
 And DON'T FORGET to add your expedition and the best photo you took to the gallery on the Main Page! We'd love to read your report, but that means we first have to discover it! :)
--->{{meetup graticule|date=2024-11-02|lat=44|lon=-93}}
+-->
+[[File:Vermillion hash site from afar.jpg|thumb|left|Hash location, covered by aspen trees, as seen from south]]
+{{meetup graticule|date=2024-11-02|lat=44|lon=-93|graticule_name=Minneapolis SW
+| graticule_link=Minneapolis SW, Minnesota}}
 == Location ==
-<!-- where you've surveyed the hash to be -->
+Inside the Vermillion River Wildlife Management Area in Farmington, Minnesota.
 == 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:Kyrkazakh|Kyrkazakh]] ([[User talk:Kyrkazakh|talk]])
--->
 == Plans ==
-<!-- what were the original plans -->
+Was driving from my hometown up to the Cities and this was on my way – my very first geohash! Grabbed an orange t-shirt (see below) and thought, what's the worst that could happen?
 == Expedition ==
-<!-- how it all turned out. your narrative goes here. -->
+I arrived on the scene after driving through some 'minimum maintenance roads', a category I wasn't aware we had in Minnesota. Pulled over and parked only to find I was not alone. This was expected — it was a weekend in November in the Midwest, and that means hunting season. I was honestly rather concerned about being mistaken for a deer or turkey and shot... I only had one orange t-shirt on, after all. Even upon arrival I could see four or five guys in blaze orange vests and waders further down the road. As I got ready and surveyed my options, they (and their dog) eventually caught up with me, and I asked them a couple questions about how best to get to the hash site. They were relatively helpful but seemed to overestimate my skill level in tramping through this kind of terrain.
+The chief obstacle, I realized, was going to be the grasses/wetlands situated between the road where I started and the birch forest where I knew the hash was located. Thank goodness it had only rained once in the past couple weeks or all of this would be muck, I think. I started into the tallgrasses, trying as best as I could to follow the ghosts of trails that deer or hunters had trampled into existence at some point in the past. Lots of burs and lots of uneven terrain (I was pretty concerned about rolling my ankle out there, as I'd have a very rough time getting back.) Gall wasps too, y'all know about those? I tried my luck with dipping into some edge forest, but the swampy ground and thorny edge species (thanks, ecological niches!) made that even worse.
-== Tracklog ==
+Eventually I got into the aspen (birch? aspen.) forest where things became thornier but less dense and so somewhat easier to pass through. Semi-aimless wandering led me to the coordinates, where I confirmed my location via several Google Maps GPS readings (see image). I snapped a couple photos under the aspen and took in the crisp Saturday air. Even if they're largely being used for hunting, I'm glad these kinds of managed 'natural' lands exist, broadly speaking. I returned through the grassy wetlands via a different route, attracting much more burs but arriving at the road quicker. The guys I met were still at their truck packing up their guns and their quarry (two pheasants by the looks of it). 'Did you find what you were lookin' for?' 'Yep!'
-<!-- if your GPS device keeps a log, you may use Template:Tracklog, post a link here, or both -->
 == Photos ==
-<!-- Insert pictures between the gallery tags using the following format:
+<gallery perrow="6">
-Image:2024-##-## ## ## Alpha.jpg | Witty Comment
+Image:Vermillion Minimum Maintenance.jpg | Looks promising...
--->
+Image:Vermillion Cows.jpg | Moo.
-<gallery perrow="5">
+Image:Vermillion WMA.jpg | At the parking lot. Sign's seen better days.
+Image:Vermillion hash site from afar.jpg | I knew the hash was somewhere in there. Now how to get there?
+Image:Vermillion Terrain.jpg | Trickier terrain than it looks, especially with my healing ankle.
+Image:Vermillion GPS.PNG | Success!
+Image:Vermillion Kyrkazakh.jpg | Me at the hash, featuring my improvised 'don't shoot me' orange outfit.
+Image:Vermillion Aspens.jpg | "If you're wondering where's my ass been / It's been cavorting amongst the aspens"
 </gallery>
 == Achievements ==
 {{#vardefine:ribbonwidth|100%}}
-<!-- Add any achievement ribbons you earned below, or remove this section -->
+{{land geohash
+|date=2024-11-02
+|latitude=44
+|longitude=-93
+|name=[[User:Kyrkazakh|Kyrkazakh]]
+|image=Vermillion Kyrkazakh.jpg
+}}
+{{Two to the N achievement | count = 0 | latitude = 44 | longitude = -93 | date = 2024-11-02 | reached = true | name = Kyrkazakh }}
 __NOTOC__
 <!-- =============== USEFUL CATEGORIES FOLLOW ================
 Delete the next line ONLY if you have chosen the appropriate categories below. If you are unsure, don't worry. People will read your report and help you with the classification. -->
-[[Category:New report]]
-<!-- Potential categories. Please include all the ones appropriate to your expedition -->
-<!-- If this is a planning page:
-[[Category:Expedition planning]]
--->
-<!-- An actual expedition:
 [[Category:Expeditions]]
--- and one or more of --
 [[Category:Expeditions with photos]]
-[[Category:Expeditions with videos]]
--->
-<!-- if you reached your coordinates:
 [[Category:Coordinates reached]]
---><!-- or if you did not reach the coordinates:
-[[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]]
-(Don't forget to delete this final close comment marker) -->


Sat 2 Nov 2024 in Minneapolis SW: 44.6767519, -93.0912509 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox