Main Page
Welcome to the Geohashing Community Wiki. Geohashing is a Spontaneous Adventure Generator, brought to you by the xkcd webcomic.
Contents
- 1 What is this?
- 2 How it works
- 3 Active Graticules
- 4 Implementations
- 5 Recent and Upcoming Expeditions
- 6 Tuesday 3 June 2008
- 7 Monday 2 June 2008
- 8 Sunday 1 June 2008
- 9 Saturday 31 May 2008
- 10 Friday 30 May 2008
- 11 Thursday 29 May 2008
- 12 Wednesday 28 May 2008
- 13 Tuesday 27 May 2008
- 14 Known Issues
- 15 FAQ
- 16 Related Projects
What is this?
xkcd comic #426, published on 21 May 2008, contains an algorithm that generates random coordinates around the world1 every day. Everyone in a given region gets the same set of coordinates. As such, these coordinates can be used as destinations for adventures, à la Geocaching, or for local meetups.
For a little more interactive discussion, consider joining the #geohashing IRC channel on Foonetic.
1. For time zone issues in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, see 30W Time Zone Rule for an addendum to the algorithm rules.
How it works
Play with the coordinate calculator at http://xkcd.com/geohashing. All coordinates refer to the WGS84 datum.
Every day, the algorithm generates a new set of coordinates for each 1°×1° latitude/longitude zone (known as a graticule) in the world. They are randomly placed -- they could be in the forest, in a city, on a mountain, or even in the middle of a lake! You can use this wiki to document the daily coordinates (geohashes) you've been to.
Unless you can accurately predict the stock market down to the penny, you can't figure out what the coordinates will be ahead of time. You can first calculate a weekday's coordinates at about 9:30am ET, and on Friday you can calculate the coordinates for each day that weekend.
When visiting geohash locations, please respect the area you are visiting. Absolutely do not litter or otherwise disturb the natural integrity of the area. However, if possible, creating some kind of a marker out of nearby materials (i.e. cairn of stones, blair-witch-style 'stick figures', etc.) is encouraged.
Official xkcd meetups
Official xkcd meetups happen every Saturday afternoon at that day's normal geohash coordinates. All meetups start at 4:00pm (local destination time). If you go at these times, you might encounter other readers of xkcd. Bring games!
In such cases when it is unwise to attempt to access the generated coordinates, the Saturday meetup is postponed until a day when the algorithm provides a more suitable location. Alternatively, when the coordinates fall within a body of water, you can rent a boat and win the Water Geohash achievement.
Active Graticules
Want to find geohashers in your local area? See Active Graticules for a list of graticules with active users in them.
An interactive map is available for Google Earth or on Google Maps.
You can also attach your photos to this Google Maps layer
Implementations
A full list of reference and practical implementations can be found on the Implementations page.
Recent and Upcoming Expeditions
The coordinates for the Saturday meetups on 2 November 2024 are now available. The coordinates for the next Saturday meetups, scheduled for 9 November 2024, will be based on the Dow’s opening price published at 09:30 EST (14:30 UTC) on Friday 8 November. See timeanddate.com to convert this time to your local time zone.
View expedition archives for: November 2024 | October 2024 | September 2024 | More...
Tuesday 3 June 2008
Coordinates
West of -30°: 0.9579926703969455, 0.12893491871843724 East of -30°: 0.7427834473658905, 0.6356494013762755
Expeditions
- 2008-06-03 London South, Ontario, Canada - Cleric999 went to the spot at the edge of a busy highway, and left a chapter of maison ikkoku (as he will from now on).
- 2008-06-03 Hamburg, Germany - Hermann and Felix have been there.
- 2008-06-03 Cologne, Germany - Kliment will be there late in the evening with a friend. Yay for a field in the middle of nowhere!
- 2008-06-03 Providence, RI - Near a state park in Tauton, MA. The site was successfully reached around 4:30 PM.
- 2008-06-03 Springfield, MA - chrisinajar will be going with his girlfriend to take some pictures for the Facebook group!
- 2008-06-03 Sydney, Australia - John won't be there, but it's just off Old Bathurst Rd, between Emu Plains and Blaxland. Might be a little hard to get to, as it seems to be on the cliff, but it's only a couple hundred metres off the road.
- 2008-06-03 SW Minneapolis, Minnesota - Today's spot is right on a residential road in St Paul.
- Successfully reached by Joel at lunchtime.
- Also reached by Erica and her cousin Lauren around 4pm.
- 2008-06-03 San Francisco, CA - Successfully reached by Mystitat.
- 2008-06-03 Fort Worth, TX Looks like a field in Grapevine. Nevermoor and friends will be there around 6:30 PM
- 2008-06-03 New Orleans, Louisiana - mtastic reached the barbed wired, padlocked fence just in front of the exact coordinate...looked like a Restricted Area Geohash. [photos]
- 2008-06-03 Middlesbrough, United Kingdom - Bluecont got as close as possible to today's spot.
Photo Gallery
Monday 2 June 2008
Coordinates
West of -30°: 0.5095264463869317, 0.5215911826227673 East of -30°: 0.3859189793932023, 0.0292893119354716
Note:
The above coordinates are indeed correct. The coordinates for west of -30° were originally disputed due to an error in the reference implementation using corrupted data for Monday 2 June. If you have concerns, direct them to Talk:2008-06-02.
Expeditions
- 2008-06-02 Norrköping - A quick driveby geohashing by Effbot. The target was on a field near the lake Hövern [aerial photo] [pics]
- 2008-06-02 Singapore - In the Straits of Malacca, but the alternative graticule (1, 104) yields a spot on land currently under reclamation in Pulau Tekong (military use) -- a potential Restricted Area Geohash. [map]
- 2008-06-02 Wellington - This graticule (-41, 175) is in Cook Strait off the Wairarapa Coast - would be better to make it somewhere closer, at the end of Lake Ferry Road perhaps
- 2008-06-02 San Francisco, CA - Approximately a half-mile west of the intersection of Ocean Blvd & Madrone Ave in Moss Beach. Bring a towel.
- 2008-06-02 Oklahoma City - Crown Heights Park in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Crown Heights is an historic preservation district in Oklahoma City. [map] [photo]
- 2008-06-02 Brisbane - Not in the 75% ocean in this graticule (-27, 153) for once, over a house just off the street in Chermside. Ubethatway, KzazB and Cpt.Hardthing reached this geohash after a nearby GeoSquishy. [map]
Photo Gallery
Sunday 1 June 2008
Coordinates
All locations: 0.3491079341188037, 0.9162389042702137
Expeditions
- 2008-06-01 North West Netherlands - Celebithil reached the hashpoint, which was located almost 1km from his house.
- 2008-06-01 Helsinki, Finland - Peldie, delsku and Wildmage spontaneously went for a geohash and reached the destination near an recycling plant. - Now with pictures!
- 2008-06-01 Sussex, New Brunswick - Booberfish drove within 25 metres on the highway at about 4 pm. In trying to get closer he found a lake, log cabins, and horses!
- 2008-06-01 Rhine Neckar Area, Germany - Nearly reached the spot
- 2008-06-01 Berlin, Germany - In the woods near Spreehagen; we plan to hit the spot at 4.
- Batesville, MS - MS35 exit off I-55. It should be at the back of a gas station lot. I should be there between 2 and 3 pm, CDT.
- 2008-06-01 Canberra, Australia - 800m off Paddy's River Road, just past Pierces Creek. Psud, Kieran, Nemo, Joanna and Andi all made it out for a picnic amongst the pine trees and blackberry brambles, and invented the first Geohash Card Game
- 2008-06-01 Eindhoven, Nederland - Paul succesfully cycled to the hashpoint near Meijel.
- 2008-06-01 Hartford, CT - Quentin St, Hamden, CT. Residential neighborhood.
- 2008-06-01 Linköping, Sweden - Effbot et al almost got lost in the woods southeast of Linköping. [pics]
- 2008-06-01 Munich, Germany - successfully seen by BB at 1700h. Ate half a chicken.
- 2008-06-01 Pine Hill Reservoir, MA - The actual spot can't be reached, except by boat. It looks like a pretty area for a day hike.
- 2008-06-01 Providence, RI - SUCCESSFUL geohash made by Patrick - pics to come!
- 2008-06-01 San Jose, CA - Successfully reached by a disparate group of eleven geohashers, who then retired to a nearby Quizno's for dinner.
- 2008-06-01 Singapore - Inside Paya Lebar Airbase, near Kaki Bukit sand store. Good for a Restricted Area Geohash. r0d3n7z was doomed to fail, but tried anyway.
- 2008-06-01 Stockholm, Sweden Was successfully encircled by Bobbert (The exact spot was in the middle of a small lake)
- 2008-06-01 Sydney, Australia - Outside 12 Park Rd, Woonona.
- 2008-06-01 Ulsteinvik, Norway - Just off the road from Ulsteinvik to Hareid. AshleyMorton made it. Played solitaire. Read The Economist. See pictures on the event page.
- Detroit, Michigan - In the middle of a field just north-west of Dexter, Michigan.
- 2008-06-01 Lac Leman, Switzerland - In the fields, reached by Kh and a friend.
- 2008-06-01 Exeter, United Kingdom - Accidentally got pretty close. See page for details.
Photo Gallery
Saturday 31 May 2008
Coordinates
All locations: 0.0374870832648067, 0.2812664767643918
Note:
The above coordinates are indeed correct. They were originally disputed due to an error in the reference implementation fetching Dow data for Friday 30 May. If you still have concerns, direct them to Talk:2008-05-31.
Expeditions
- 2008-05-31 Denver, Colorado - 10 people, easy location for NW graticule. 5 went to dinner afterwards, mostly frisbee and GO.
- 2008-05-31 Edmonton, Alberta - Extremely rural location in the middle of a sod farm. Nice day, no meetup.
- 2008-05-31 Paris North, France - Geohash successful within 10 or 20 meters, meetup missed by more than an hour. But I will keep trying!
- 2008-05-31 Aurora, Illinois - Brett detoured to the coordinates while on his way to Chicago. He was unsurprised to find no one else there since he arrived half an hour late and the coordinates were far away from... everything.
- 2008-05-31 Encinitas, California - Successful geohash expidition in Carl's Jr parking lot. No one else there except someone sleeping in a car in the parking lot.
- 2008-05-31 Madison, Wisconsin - Really in McFarland, in an unfinished industrial park off Marsh Rd. Total of five of us in two cars. Hopefully the others will post their pictures.
- 2008-05-31 Nashville, Tennessee - In the middle of a cow pasture. Successfully reached at 3:50pm local time by Pieater and no one else was there. Waited about half an hour and had a picnic with my wife and puppy before the cows infringed on the meet-up point.
- 2008-05-31 Fresno, California - Successfully reached by Meggers
- 2008-05-31 Columbus, Ohio - In the middle of a field. Very nice breezy day, with pop-up storms nearby. Very nice day to go for a walk, dodging last year's corn stalks.
- 2008-05-31 Frederick, Maryland - Unsuccessful attempt to reach the point by Ciel. Couldn't get closer than 700 feet without trespassing.
- 2008-05-31 Minneapolis, Minnesota - Successfully reached at 4pm by Joel but there was no one else there. It was an interesting spot and a scenic hike. Older: Seems to be right on the Mississippi. There's a bar near there, Baggans Pub?,3720 E River Rd, Minneapolis, MN. It's 2:31 Central, should be at bar at 3 for warm up and at river at 4 for smoke break.
- 2008-05-31 Canberra, Australia - Successfully reached by a group. Photos and story attached.
- Syracuse, New York - Location is in a residential neighborhood in Camillus, near the old Camillus mall. (will show up if others respond),
- 2008-05-31 Sacramento, California - Location is in a field on the north side of Stockton, between I-5 and CA highway 99.
- 2008-05-31 Conway, Arkansas Successfully reached by L33tmoomba!
- 2008-05-31 Cologne, Germany - In the graticule north, 51, 6, Baal, NRW, corner of Güterstrasse and Krefelder Strasse. Kliment was there with food. Noone else showed up.
- 2008-05-31 Boston, Massachusetts - Just south of a campground area in Foxboro, MA. Successfully reached by two separate groups.
- 2008-05-31 Chicago/Schaumburg, Illinois - This is the closest graticule out of the four to the city. Not that that necessarily means it is the best.
- Kansas City, Missouri - In a wooded area between two courts in Blue Springs.
- 2008-05-31 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - Lancaster. A bit far.. I plan on going to the Williamsport, PA's hash.-Jon
- 2008-05-31 Baltimore, Maryland - At the mouth of the tidal Chester River as it meets Chesapeake Bay off Love Point. Could be done with a boat. Landlubbers can meet in the last block of Love Point Rd. where Riverview Rd. jogs. Just the fact that the nearest land is called Love Point should be of interest to xkcd fans in search of love. Dan
- 2008-05-31 Los Angeles, California - Nearby to USC. It is right on (or under) the 10 Fwy.
- 2008-05-31 Springfield, Massachusetts - I'll be there at the meeting time. I'm stopping at Brattleboro on the way. If anyone else is going, let me know!! chrisinajar
- 2008-05-31 St. Marys, Pennsylvania Although I had planned to hash the State College area, I'll be going to this one.
- State College, Pennsylvania - This one is waay too far from me, but...
- 2008-05-31 Williamsport, Pennsylvania - Successful. We were in amish country (not surprising in PA) However the field was right next to the public recycling point, so Jon and Frank met Clint with family and friends. Went to the state park a few miles off.
- 2008-05-31 Rochester, New York - Location was very reachable -- between Macedon and Palmyra, ESE of Rochester -- and reached successfully by five of us! Exact location was on a vacant farm lot, with nearby swamp puddle and awesome treehouse! Click link for pics. danierrr
- 2008-05-31 Portland, Oregon - Actual location is in the middle of nowhere.
- Melbourne, Florida - nurbles is bummed out because the new (corrected) location is several miles offshore and he doesn't own a boat. detzold is also bummed and has canceled the party!
- Toronto, Ontario - Actual location is unfortunately somewhere halfway from St. Catharines to Welland. UPDATE Why don't we use Friday's spot? It's located in a sand trap in a golf course in Markham.
- Pakenham, Australia - paritybit Will be in the SOUTH EAST Melbourne (aka Pakenham) graticule with a group of 5-8 around 3:30pm or so.
- 2008-05-31 Cambridge, United Kingdom - New location seems to be on the middle of a field near Safron Walden, could meet at the corner of Ashdon Rd and Butlers Ln which is 500 Ft away?
- 2008-05-31 San Jose, California - A mile south of Hwy 152, on a ridge with an existing fire road.
- 2008-05-31 Muncie, Indiana - In the middle of Summit Lake, in a section marked "No boating" by the DNR. Old location was near the Mississinewa reservoir, so we'll be going there to play disc golf as originally planned, around 3pm.
- 2008-05-31 Surrey, British Columbia - Between two houses in Abbotsford. People from Vancouver should use this graticule again, since the actual Vancouver one is over the water. UPDATE: Successfully reached by four people (see the page for more details).
- 2008-05-31 Winchester, Hampshire, United Kingdom - We'll be meeting at the Percy Hobbs pub close to the geohash coords at around 3. We'll bring games. See You there! -- SinJax
- 2008-05-31 Manchester, United Kingdom - Location almost reached, to within 10-20 yards. The area was so beautiful I didn't want to leave. Tommy 01:48, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
- 2008-05-31 Christchurch, New Zealand - Location is in the middle of nowhere! Lovely tussock highland in the Lees Valley. 2 1/2 hr drive mostly on gravel roads, followed by a 1 hr hike.
- 2008-05-31 Cincinnati, Ohio - Looks like a beautiful location for a meetup: southeast of the city, an undeveloped field just outside an exurban residential community. Pity I won't be able to make it - enjoy, hashers! - Danny
- 2008-05-31 Sudbury, Ontario - Located roughly 80km south of the city, near Killarney Provincial Park. We're going to head there for 4pm. Exact site is 1.8km south of the road. Worst case, we'll just stay on the road, but we might walk into the bush. No FRS radio, but I will have a 2m HAM radio on 146.520 simplex.Dtompsett
- 2008-05-31 Munich, Germany - successfully visited by User:Abunai
- 2008-05-31 Ottawa, Ontario - Two of us turned up and took pictures of a field in Winchester Springs. Didn't see anyone else. Still, saw some country we wouldn't have otherwise.
- 2008-05-31 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Successfully reached by Kelly and Emily. Location was up a wooded hill then in a clearing next to the edge of private property. No others showed to either the location or the starting point.
- 2008-05-31 Lexington, Kentucky - Successfully reached by Steven and Erin. Location was just of Interstate 64 between Lexington and Winchester, near a trailer park. No other geohashers located.
- 2008-05-31 Dothan, Alabama - Located about 200 yards south of Alabama highway 53, about a mile and a half east of the highway 55 junction, outside town of Cottonwood, AL. Located on private property - took a picture from the road. Hour and a half motorcycle ride to get there. Nice countryside. No one else located. Munkee
- 2008-05-31 Reno, Nevada - Located in very rugged ranch land northwest of Yerington. Paveman went as close as possible via 4-door sedan, hiked up a nearby hill, and snapped photos. Gorgeous vistas, but the official location required rock climbing gear. No other geohashers located. Paveman
- 2008-5-31 Fayetteville, Arkansas Made it to the intersection of Little Elm and Richards...
- 2008-5-31 Richmond, Virginia Shoofle, Paul, and Julie met way out in Suffolk County in a field.
Photo Gallery
Friday 30 May 2008
Coordinates
West of -30°: 0.8531025811716042, 0.2446021959360299 East of -30°: 0.3227205387098275, 0.7045834347042035
Note:
The above coordinates are indeed correct. The coordinates for west of -30° were originally disputed due to an error in the reference implementation fetching Dow data for Friday 30 May. If you still have concerns, direct them to Talk:2008-05-31.
Expeditions
- 2008-05-30 Helsinki, Finland - Successfully reached by isani at approximately 15.30. A beautiful forested area next to a road and a lake. A patch of wild flowers and summer cottages nearby.
- 2008-05-30 Melbourne, Florida - Sadly, the error from the map tool has struck and we once again find that our location is many miles offshore. At least Sunday looks to be in (or near) a swamp!
- 2008-05-30 Munich, Germany - zb went and tried to get there around 8:30p. Got drenched in rain and got drenched again from the wet leaves and branches in the forest while trying to find the spot. Missed it by about 100 m. Nice long bike ride, but no luck in findig the location. No one else seems to have been stupid enough to go in this kind of weather.
- 2008-05-30 Providence, Rhode Island - Unsuccessfully attempted by Patrick. Located in private property off Route 44 in Rehoboth, MA.
- 2008-05-30 Singapore - Successfully reached by r0d3n7z at approximately 17:00 SGT. Couldn't gain access to the secured compound, but managed to get pretty close.
- 2008-05-30 Atlanta, Georgia - Conveniently located at the end of a road to an office park. Successfully reached around 23:30 EDT. Took pictures.
- 2008-05-30 San Francisco, California - The nearest point not on private property was reached and photographed by Relsqui at 7:00pm PDT.
- 2008-05-30 Denver, Colorado - Mike made it to the location after 9pm. Quite a journey! Took more than 2 hours and involved trains.
- 2008-05-30 Eugene, Oregon - Right behind the baseball stadium at Western Oregon University. Just a tiny bit north and Haschel Cedricson could have gotten the first Couch Potato Geohash.
Photo Gallery
Thursday 29 May 2008
Coordinates
West of -30°: 0.4647015535871903, 0.0341244048140951 East of -30°: 0.2783266160961512, 0.7411420442829273
Expeditions
- 2008-05-29 Gliwice, Poland - Successfully reached by Jajcus
- 2008-05-29 Munich, Germany - (Almost) successfully reached by zb.
- 2008-05-29 Clearfield, Utah - Successfully reached by Kaldric. I left a geocache for future visitors.
- 2008-05-29 Seattle, Washington - Successfully reached by Thomcat
Wednesday 28 May 2008
Coordinates
West of -30°: 0.6874508850272152, 0.21220759334309575 East of -30°: 0.7104414955290416, 0.11273220876887029
Expeditions
- 2008-05-28 Boston, Massachusetts - Successfully Reached by mechfish, but not by his camera. Separately reached by Loch who accessed the building with his camera in hand.
- 2008-05-28 Haifa East, Israel - Unsuccessfully reached by Ynor
- 2008-05-28 Denver, Colorado - Successfully reached by Mike. Despite the weather, the view from the location/hill was beautiful.
- 2008-05-28 Mansfield, Ohio
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Coordinates
West of -30°: 0.20967755786283662, 0.10144168461237785 East of -30°: 0.12536718896775, 0.577110915397159
The first day the 30W Time Zone Rule is in effect. These coordinates became available east of -30° on Friday 23 May by combination of a Dow holiday (Memorial Day) on Monday 26 May and the new 30W Time Zone Rule, which posits that Tuesday's open would come too late in the day for eastern longitudes.
Expeditions
- 2008-05-27 St. Paul, Minnesota - Successfully reached by Marktraceur and friends.
- 2008-05-27 Munich, Germany - Successfully Reached by bock and zb.
- 2008-05-27 Bilbao, Spain - Unsuccessfully reached by Loggie: I got kidnapped instead
- 2008-05-27 Boston, Massachusetts - Successfully Reached independently by Loch and Noc.
- 2008-05-27 Clearfield, Utah - Successfully reached by Tsen and Tyler.
- 2008-05-27 Austin, Texas - Successfully reached by s3g2.
- 2008-05-27 Conway, Arkansas - Sucessfully Reached by l33tmoomba
- 2008-05-27 Vancouver, British Columbia - Successfully reached by thepiguy and srs0.
- 2008-05-27 Mansfield, Ohio
Older Events
View expedition archives for: November 2024 | October 2024 | September 2024 | More...
Known Issues
Several known issues are presented at Known Issues. There is an ongoing discussion on these and other issues at Talk:Main Page.
FAQ
Q: Is there a facebook group for my area?
A: Take a look at the Facebook groups page.
Q: I tried to use the md5sum from my unix/linux command line and the hash was not the same as the comic. What is the correct command line?
A: You probably forgot the "-n" (echo without a newline). Try this to match the example:
echo -n 2005-05-26-10458.68 | md5sum
The md5sum command may be called md5 instead.
Q: What should I bring?
A: See What to bring.
Q: What do I say to puzzled locals?
A: See Cover Stories.
Q: What do I do when I get there?
A: Poke around, take pictures, have a picnic, and, in general, have fun! The world is an adventure!
