2009-04-13 49 -122

Mon 13 Apr 2009 in 49,-122: 49.0852286, -122.6236062 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Today's Vancouver geohash would have been a thirteen hour round trip by road, ferry and kayak, but in the neighbouring graticule of Surrey it falls in what looks like a residential back yard, not far from the Fraser Highway in the city of Langley.

Participants

• Rhonda
• Robyn

Expedition

Rhonda

The translink website said that there was a bus stop on a community shuttle route on that very corner, so Rhonda decided that the bus was an excellent way to do this geohash.

Rhonda's 2.5hr transit expedition to the hash point covered all four examples of public transit in Greater Vancouver - and exactly one segment on each. From her starting point in North Vancouver, she took the seabus across burrard inlet, the skytrain all the way to Surrey, a regular bus to Langley, and then, her first transit pass expired, she pulled out a new ticket to board a community shuttle for the last leg of the trip to the hash point. There was no coin box apparent on the community shuttle, and the driver grinned at Rhonda's obvious confusion and said "It's free."

The mini-bus meandered around Langley, then let Rhonda off at the geohash bus stop, but it disappeared around the corner before she thought to get her camera out to take a picture of it.

While waiting for her GPS to figure out where it was, Rhonda consulted the map she had printed before leaving, then noticed that the building directly across from her had a driveway and open space clear through to the backyards in which the hashpoint was located.

She was slightly nervous about going on somebody's property (having never done a city hashpoint before) and wasn't sure if she should ask permission before entering or explain what she was doing if stopped. There didn't seem to be anybody around, so she walked up the driveway, following her GPS arrow. It led her around a small outbuilding named "the Studio" then to the corner of a garden and a very tall hedge, where it indicated 3m remaining, straight into the hedge.

Rhonda walked back out to the street to see if she could find a way to the other side of the hedge, but the neighbouring house had a fenced backyard. Since her GPS didn't have an accuracy display and the accepted accuracy of GPS was more than 3m anyway, she decided to head back to the hedge and garden. As she walked up the driveway for a second time, she saw somebody in a red jacket crossing the end, hunched over a GPS.