Difference between revisions of "2015-04-25 37 -122"

Revision as of 01:33, 3 May 2015

Location

In an office building in Walnut Creek, California.

Participants

Plans

I recognized that I was unlikely to secure access to the roof, meaning any geohash here would require entering the building. Entering an office building on the weekend is usually a nontrivial task, but this particular building has a gym on the ground floor, of the 24 Hour Fitness chain. True to its name, this location's hours of operation were listed as "24 hours a day" online. I did not deem it worth it to attempt GPS usage indoors, so on Google Earth I scouted that the hashpoint was 80 feet from a particular outdoor staircase and calculated this as 32 steps.

Expedition

The gym offers free passes via online application, intended for prospective customers. My utter lack of interest in becoming a member of a gym in another city, however, in no way prohibited me from acquiring one, although they did mandate the provision of contact information. So armed, I drove to the nearest BART station, which system brought me to the city block adjacent to that of the geohash. (On the way back, I determined that the building containing the geohash is, in fact, visible from the train platform.)

I counted my steps from the stairs to the floor-to-ceiling windows at the part of the gym full of weight machines, then headed to the main entrance to redeem my free pass. Doing so involved what's probably the most detailed explanation of geohashing I've given to a new acquaintance, a friendly guy who welcomed me to the facility and professed an interest in IT. I headed around to where I had left off counting steps and continued picking my way through the weight machines, but at about 28 I ran into a wall.

I searched for a way around the wall, hoping it wasn't the back of the gym, and found a tiled passage some distance to the right. The hashpoint, to the best of my reckoning, was within the restroom. Fortunately for me, it was the men's restroom, so I entered and paced back to the geohash. (Had the restroom containing my goal not been designated in accord with my gender, I suspect I would have waited around agitatedly, verified the position a bit more carefully, and finally given up.)

I then left and returned home the same way I had traveled out. My main regret is failing to think the schedule through well enough to be there at 4 PM.

Tracklog

Photos

Achievements

Codae earned the Land geohash achievement

by reaching the (37, -122) geohash on 2015-04-25.

Codae earned the Restricted area achievement

by accessing the (37, -122) geohash at a restricted men's restroom site on 2015-04-25.

(I feel like gaining access to the gym itself should be worth a ribbon, but I neither paid money for the opportunity nor asked permission to visit the hashpoint specifically nor happened to have access rights.)

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 == Location ==
 <!-- where you've surveyed the hash to be -->
+In an office building in Walnut Creek, California.
 == 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:Codae|Codae]]
 == Plans ==
 <!-- what were the original plans -->
+I recognized that I was unlikely to secure access to the roof, meaning any geohash here would require entering the building.  Entering an office building on the weekend is usually a nontrivial task, but this particular building has a gym on the ground floor, of the 24 Hour Fitness chain.  True to its name, this location's hours of operation were listed as "24 hours a day" online.  I did not deem it worth it to attempt GPS usage indoors, so on Google Earth I scouted that the hashpoint was 80 feet from a particular outdoor staircase and calculated this as 32 steps.
 == Expedition ==
 <!-- how it all turned out. your narrative goes here. -->
+The gym offers free passes via online application, intended for prospective customers.  My utter lack of interest in becoming a member of a gym in another city, however, in no way prohibited me from acquiring one, although they did mandate the provision of contact information.  So armed, I drove to the nearest BART station, which system brought me to the city block adjacent to that of the geohash.  (On the way back, I determined that the building containing the geohash is, in fact, visible from the train platform.)
+I counted my steps from the stairs to the floor-to-ceiling windows at the part of the gym full of weight machines, then headed to the main entrance to redeem my free pass.  Doing so involved what's probably the most detailed explanation of geohashing I've given to a new acquaintance, a friendly guy who welcomed me to the facility and professed an interest in IT.  I headed around to where I had left off counting steps and continued picking my way through the weight machines, but at about 28 I ran into a wall.
+I searched for a way around the wall, hoping it wasn't the back of the gym, and found a tiled passage some distance to the right.  The hashpoint, to the best of my reckoning, was within the restroom.  Fortunately for me, it was the men's restroom, so I entered and paced back to the geohash.  (Had the restroom containing my goal not been designated in accord with my gender, I suspect I would have waited around agitatedly, verified the position a bit more carefully, and finally given up.)
+I then left and returned home the same way I had traveled out.  My main regret is failing to think the schedule through well enough to be there at 4 PM.
 == Tracklog ==
@@ Line 43: / Line 53: @@
 {{#vardefine:ribbonwidth|800px}}
 <!-- Add any achievement ribbons you earned below, or remove this section -->
+{{Land geohash|latitude=37|longitude=-122|date=2015-04-25|name=Codae}}
+{{Restricted area|latitude=37|longitude=-122|date=2015-04-25|site=men's restroom|name=Codae}}
+(I feel like gaining access to the gym itself should be worth a ribbon, but I neither [[Admit one achievement|paid money for the opportunity]] nor [[Ambassador achievement|asked permission to visit the hashpoint specifically]] nor [[Restricted area achievement|happened to have access rights]].)
 <!-- =============== 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]]
 <!-- ==REQUEST FOR TWITTER BOT== Please leave either the New report or the Expedition planning category in as long as you work on it. This helps the twitter bot a lot with announcing the right outcome at the right moment. -->
 <!-- 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]]
-[[Category:Expedition without GPS]]
--->
-<!-- if you reached your coords:
-[[Category:Coordinates reached]]
---><!-- or if you failed :(
+[[Category:Expeditions]]
-[[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:Coordinates reached]]
-[[Category:Not reached - Technology]]
-When you went to an alternate location instead of the actual geohash:
-[[Category:Not reached - Did not attempt]]
-(Don't forget to delete this final close comment marker) -->


Sat 25 Apr 2015 in 37,-122: 37.9071015, -122.0651694 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox