2009-03-21 30 -86

Bloody but successful expedition in the Crestview, Florida graticule by Liberian, Powertool and the Bos.

Sat 21 Mar 2009 in Crestview: 30.7980280, -86.4404097 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Planning

In pretty dense trees about 1 KM from Poverty Creek Rd. Looks like open field to within 200 meters of the hash. Liberian, Powertool and Bos will try for 1700 meetup. --Bos 19:26, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Expedition Report

By Liberian

Both locations this weekend are on land in apparently accessible areas. Bos, Power Tool, and Liberian met up in Niceville at 3:00 (the meet-up time being 5:00 in this graticule) and headed north towards Crestview and the meet-up location. They took in three geocaches around Bob Sikes Airport on the way up but found no opportunity to "commit aviation," to use Bos' term. Heading east along Poverty Creek Road to a point north of the location, where the maps showed a faint road going south. A friendly local came over to ask what they were doing and Bos explained ("You know the game where pilots throw a dart at a map and then go fly to the place where it sticks?"). They invited the local man to join them but he declined, wishing them luck and mentioning that they should look out for the gators. And then into the forest it was; the faint road on the map was nowhere to be found. After about a quarter of a mile through thick undergrowth they came upon a wide open area which they followed for another good quarter of a mile. Then it was into the thick undergrowth again for the final quarter mile. Liberian and Power Tool got separated from Bos by a few hundred feet and were at the point of giving up 300 feet northeast of the location. They stopped to listen for Bos and heard him making steady progress to their west. They called out to him asking how he was doing and he said he was about 100 feet from the location and making progress. Power Tool and Liberian backtracked a bit, bushwhacked west to catch up with Bos, and the three of them all arrived at the meet-up location around 5:30. "Gentlemen, this calls for a celebration," said Liberian, and broke out three bottles of Gator-Ade. That was as close as the group came to gators that afternoon. After taking photographic proof for the Velociraptor Award (giving blood while on a geohash), they realized that the sun was starting to go down and they still had to get back to the road. After another quarter-mile through the thick undergrowth (easier this time, since they weren't aiming for a specific point), they came out to the clear area and followed it half a mile east to the road. Half a mile later they were back at Bos' van and picking up two more geocaches on the way home.

By Powertool

When my boss saw my arms at work today she asked me if my cat had attacked me(I don't have a cat). I then explained what I did this weekend.

By Bos

Summary

Successful mission, survived with minimum casualties through exceptional perseverance, aggressiveness and tenacity

Weather perfect on this, the first day of spring, clear skies, temperature 70 F

• Flesh eating insects still dormant (except fire ants) - little wildlife observed

Departed parked potato wagon 16:28:34 CDT (see GPS track below)

• Arrived hash about 17:30 - Avg speed about 1 KPH
• Delayed by repeated attacks from hostile vegetation
  • Attacks effective but ultimately unsuccessful

Departed hash about 17:40

• Arrived back at Potato 18:22:48 - Avg speed about 2.5 KPH
• Took more prudent longer route through meadows and cleared lane

Execution

Neighbor across the street from parking was name of Jerry

• Good guy thought we may have car trouble - offered help
• Briefed him on the mission - objectives and tactics
• Said he'll call reinforcements if we not out by dark

First 100 meters very nice over easy, wide grassy trial

Next 400 meters fairly dense forest underbrush but passable

Then broke out into open meadow for next 250 meters

Last 250 meters was very difficult

• Way impeded by dense local plant called Titi (long i )
• Dense undergrowth flourishing due to lack of overhead canopy
• Thankfully relatively little smilax or black vine (razor sharp thorns)

Amazingly broke out into small, relatively clear area at hash

No one else at hash - no xkcd sign - why am I not surprised?

• Maybe other geohashers got bored and left  ;=)

Didn't even consider leaving sign for other expeditions

Gatorade was great - Liberian even packed out the empties for us

Didn't get near alligator habitat this trip

But was beset on all sides by velociraptors

• Not a mission for skirt and heels
• Looked like those pictures of Jesus at Easter - Liberian said no, missing the beard
• We all had wounds but I got the worst of it - Point man often does
• Wish I'd gotten picture of Liberian's shredded plastic bag

Recommended equipment for next mission

• Long sleeved velociraptor armor
• Kevlar (tm) bullet proof vests
• Machetes

Photos

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  West track ingress, east egress. Final 250 meters brutal.

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  Initial trail easy

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  Thirty four minutes late - Delayed by hostile vegetation

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  Liberian's Gatoraid very welcome

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  Powertool shows Liberian attack cactus - note long shadows

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  Took this shortcut so we could be together longer

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  Last 1/4 mile west on paved road

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  Fireants - We learn to avoid them pretty fast.

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  Results of raptor attack.