2009-06-20 50 -112

Sat 20 Jun 2009 in 50,-112: 50.1625773, -112.7251129 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Near Picture Butte, in the Bassano graticule. The location itself was in the coulees (sloping hills that usually have valleys at the bottom, for those not familiar with this geographical feature) in Southern Alberta, Canada.

Participants

• Shell
• Shell's roommate and best friend, Dsnan (not a Hasher, but he was the one with a car)

Plans

My roommate, Dsnan, and myself, were planning to go to Calgary, AB on the weekend in question. Elbie suggested we go on our first hash because it was on the way. We ended up going on a hash instead of making the trip to Calgary, but it was still a fine time.

Expedition

Departure

The trip was much less smooth than I'd hoped it would be. Dsnan and I left at about 18:00 by car from Lethbridge, AB. We had water and a few snacks, and there was a nice, cool wind, so the drive couldn't have been nicer. We went along Highway 3 on our way out of town, which took us through Coalhurst (a small town composed almost solely of a collection of suburban houses, a school, a couple of gas stations, and a trailer park), Diamond City, and Picture Butte. Regarding Picture Butte and Diamond City, they are slightly larger than Coalhurst, amicable, small prairie towns of the usual description: a couple of gas stations, medical clinics and antique shops in the main part of town, a number of peaceful-looking war cottages and houses dating from approximately 1950-1970, a few motels, and one or two fast food places. As this is southern Alberta there are usually at least two Christian churches of various denomination per town, no matter how small it is.

Getting to Picture Butte

As is typical for the small towns in Southern Alberta and the area in general, this drive included spectacularly open skies, green and golden farmer's fields, picturesque cattle, the less picturesque smell of cattle, a few horses, and the chance to drive through the previously mentioned small towns. Long, straight roads characterised the drive to the Lomond graticule. As a note, I agree with Elbie's suggestion to rename this graticule to 'Vauxhall' because that town is better known in the region.

Getting to the Hash Point

We encountered some trouble around Picture Butte. Our map had been printed from Google, as neither Dsnan nor myself has a GPS, and this meant we got lost quite quickly. We tried to drive up road 845, ended up driving over to a small town called Turin, which was off-route (predictably, we must have taken a wrong Turin somewhere) and ended up driving north through Enchant, which was farther still from the hash point. Enchant is similar in description to Diamond City and Picture Butte, save for being smaller.

Eventually, after being unable to find our way back towards the graticule point, we admitted defeat and drove back towards Lethbridge. It was about 19:30 and neither of us wanted to be out for too long, and lose the rest of the evening. In addition to which, the camera we had carefully remembered to bring along with us had dead batteries, and we were out of chocolate. Somewhat disappointed, but still enjoying the warm summer night, Dsnan and I returned along a simpler version of our original route.

Achievements

• unknown