2013-09-07 42 -71

Sat 7 Sep 2013 in 42,-71: 42.2431893, -71.5270279 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

The Chipmunk Trail in Hopkinton State Park

Participants

Unbreakable

Plans

I planned on parking at the parking lot on Rafferty Rd. near the Chipmunk trail, going to the closest trailhead, and going straight to the Chipmunk trail. Trail Map

Expedition

I started out late, so I was a little rushed for time, and I forgot a few essentials like sunscreen and bug spray. I didn't even get to the area until 4:00. I ended up driving past Rafferty Rd., so I had to turn around, but then I realized that I could probably just park at the park headquarters and be closer, so I did that. I'm still not sure if I was supposed to do that, but none of the rangers or firemen I saw seemed to mind. I found a trailhead off of the headquarters parking lot, and I thought it would be the Chipmunk trail, but then I realized that I had gotten onto the Ledges trail instead. I decided it would be better to keep going and loop around on the Chipmunk trail instead of turning around, so that's what I did. I've done some hiking and jogging in parks before, and these trails weren't that long, anyway. Unfortunately, instead of hiking boots or running shoes, I had chosen to try out my Vibram five-fingers "shoes". This meant I had to tread carefully and avoid the sharper rocks and big sticks. Along the Glebe trail in between the Ledges trail and the Chipmunk trail, I discovered a beautiful creek that feeds the reservoir there. I also found bunch of thorny vine plants, one of which managed to stab my foot through my footwear. I pressed onward, onto the Chipmunk trail, which seemed to be maintained a little better - at least it was a lot softer on my feet. I pulled my phone out at this point, and it seemed like the closest I could get to the point while staying on the trail was about 12 meters away. I wanted to be a responsible park visitor, so I didn't leave the trail. I put my phone away and made an "XKCD" marker with sticks on the side of the trail. I proceeded to get my phone and camera out, so that I could get a shot of the XKCD sticks and my phone's GPS coordinates at the same time, but as I was readying the shot, I realized that my phone now said I was 20 meters away from the point. I walked down the trail a little bit, and got to within 5 meters of the point, which I consider a great success, given the precision of my phone's GPS. I moved my stick XKCD marker down the trail to this new location and pulled out my phone again, which said I was about 12 meters away from the point again. I waited a little bit to see if it would get back down to within 5 meters, but at this point I noticed something else. I was being eaten alive. The mosquitoes here were the worst I've experienced in a long time. They weren't bad when I was walking along the trail, or when I paused briefly to take a few pictures, but now that I had stayed in roughly the same spot for 5 minutes, they were in a feeding frenzy. I'm used to getting a few bites when I go outside, but I had received about a dozen bites and multiple face bites since stopping at the geohash point. I took a quick picture of my XKCD stick marker and got out of there. Despite being discouraged by the mosquitoes, I decided I had to go visit the Duck Pond, since I had gotten really excited about it when I saw it on the trail map. The Duck Pond trail was a little less buggy, and I ended up hearing some ducks on my way there. Right when I got to the pond, 3 ducks got startled by me and took off, and it was the perfect moment that made the trip completely worth it.

This was my first geohash adventure. I don't think I'll do another one, but it was fun.