2010-06-27 46 -121
| Sun 27 Jun 2010 in 46,-121: 46.1820999, -121.3370455 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
In the hills east of Mt. Adams in Yakama country in a virgin graticule.
Participants
Plans
It's about four miles uphill from what I think is a paved road, in nearly uninhabited wooded hilly country in the west part of the Yakama reservation. DeLorme's Gazetteer and the (forty-year-old) USGS topo map like it at least.
Something like two of those miles are on some kind of road... probably gravel? Hopefully drivable in the Hyundai sedan. Then two more on what looks to be an ATV trail, though DeLorme's claims that it is in fact a road, and not even an "unimproved" road. Not counting on it being drivable, but it might. Walking shouldn't be that bad though.
Then a few dozen yards through the trees. Bringing heavy clothes in my pack this time to avoid the fate of my last expedition.
Graticule deflowered, if all goes well.
Expedition
I forced myself awake in Seattle at 6 am... pulled out of the garage at 7... drove up over Snoqualmie Pass and down I-82 into Yakama country... gassed up and rested in Wapato... drove down back roads through a gorgeous farming valley... passed the last town, White Swan... got really excited to be finally nearing the virgin geohash, on a brand-new paved road... rose up onto a bench south of the valley... rounded a bend toward the hills... and encountered...
Photos
... this.
Given how amazing the country was, though, ...
I can't really blame them.
Mt. Adams to boot.
Expedition continued
Suddenly faced with nothing to do in Eastern Washington at 10:30 am, I salvaged the day by walking around Fort Simcoe, eating at the Yakama Heritage Inn Restaurant, touring the American Hop Museum (where I learned what all those weird-looking gardens of poles with mesh canopies out in the valley were), and finally driving through the Yakima Canyon and buying a big bag of fresh Eastern Washington cherries on the way back to Seattle.
All in all, not a bad day.
