| Sun 31 Oct 2010 in Edmonton: 53.4792340, -113.6218138 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Just because you have a GPS, doesn't mean you won't get lost...
Location
The hash is in a big park and so close (1.4km) to where I'm staying I could almost see it! I could definitely walk there... if only there wasn't a river in my way. Still, it's so close I'd be pretty lazy even by my standards to pass up such a good one.
I decide to brave my second try at driving in Edmonton (in my friend's car too, so fingers crossed) in order to get around the river and to the park.
Participants
Expedition
Well...normally I'm good with directions. But I manage to not only take a wrong turn (just a slight detour thankfully) but get a "what the frick are you doing!?!" sign from a fellow road user. Seems the rights of way are a bit different to back home - apparently it was my turn to go. In Perth, drive ahead and I would've been risking a rather large smash to my wing/dignity/ribcage. At least this way was just my dignity.
After some driving around the neighbourhood I find a good place to park and set off with the dog owners and cyclists into the park. The whole place is full of trails though thick bush - and geocaches! I'd never been here before, but already it's turning out to be one of my favourite places in Edmonton. I do start to wonder if I should've brought the dogs though because I'm quite alone in there. Would anyone hear my screams...? "WAIT DON'T HURT ME, I HAVEN'T GOT THE HASH YET!!" Unfortunately the trails aren't on my map so I just head in the one that looks to go in the right direction/less creepy.
An hour and a cache later, I emerge from the thick bush to a grassy area with a hundred or so metres to go. And just in time - hashing through the forest would've been significantly less easy and I'd already ripped a hole in my jeans from mindless GPS-lead bushbashing once this week! There even seems to be a little tiny path worn into the grass from the trail to the hashpoint. I wonder if any other hashers were here earlier....
After a cheesy grin photo and a moment to enjoy my self-satisfaction, I head back to the car via two more caches. Unfortunately the GPS is not as much help on my subsequent drive to Walmart or back home and I manage to get lost a few more times that day. It's the roads, OK.
(Gratuitous) Ribbons
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Phi-loci-raptor earned the Halloween geohash
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