Introduction
Warning: May contain nuts.
Ekorren - that's the european brown squirrel, scientifically sciurus vulgaris. Jumps around, collects various stuff, hides things and never finds all of it again.
I found the link to geohashing on some geocaching forum. Ok, I thought, so there's something even more crazy, so let's try it ;) Then I read all of the past XKCD comics and suddenly felt at home. Given that my list of regularily read webcomics is all but short there's really no excuse that I didn't find XKCD earlier.
For a spontanous expedition bicycle will be the only reasonable mode of transport for me, so I'm somehow restricted to the nearer surroundings of my home coordinates which are roughly N 48°31' E 9°3', as well as weather-restricted. Though, the first geohash I visited was far away from home...
Statistics
|
successful |
failed
|
| Expeditions total |
16 |
1
|
-  saturday 4 pm |
3 |
|
| Graticules |
4 |
|
-  virgin graticules |
2 |
|
| Countries |
2 |
|
| - virgin countries |
1 |
|
| Expeditions by type of transport: |
|
|
-  foot |
- |
|
-  bike |
10 |
1
|
-  public transport |
6 |
|
| Reasons for failure: |
|
|
-  No trespassing |
|
1
|
Past Expeditions
| Date
|
Grat.
|
Transport
|
|
|
Comments
|
| 2008-10-28
|
49 6
|
 
|
|
  
|
On a meadow near Fentange, south of Luxembourg. Virgin graticule and virgin country.
|
| 2008-11-15
|
48 9
|
|
|
|
Near Kusterdingen, on a field. Saturday 4 pm, but didn't meet anyone as nick_mz was late and I didn't expect anyone to come.
|
| 2008-11-18
|
48 9
|
|
|
 
|
Reutlingen, on a cycle path between Ohmenhausen and the city centre. Déjà vu geohash and probably the only expedition worldwide on that date.
|
| 2008-11-19
|
48 9
|
|
|
|
Wannweil, at Gärtnerei Hespeler.
|
| 2008-11-22
|
48 9
|
|
|
  
|
Tübingen, Rammert forest, near Hofgut Eck. A XKCD'ish snowman (no eyes!) was built and I met nick_mz.
|
| 2008-11-26
|
48 8
|
|
|
|
Pforzheim, in front of the slaughterhouse. Met Danatar.
|
| 2008-11-29
|
48 9
|
|
|
30px
|
Sonnenbühl-Genkingen, Öschenbachtal. Ice and slope is a bad combination.
|
| 2008-12-12
|
48 9
|
|
|
30px
|
St. Johann-Würtingen, with a lot of snow getting in my way.
|
| 2008-12-15
|
48 9
|
|
|
|
Hattenhofen, failed due to fenced area, and there was noone I could ask to be let in.
|
| 2008-12-17
|
48 9
|
|
|
|
Reutlingen, and once more too much ice and snow
|
| 2008-12-27
|
48 9
|
|
|
|
Dettenhausen, in the Schönbuch forest
|
| 2009-01-02
|
49 10
|
|
|
|
Satteldorf-Gröningen, in a strange tree plantation
|
| 2009-01-03
|
48 8
|
|
|
|
Rottenburg am Neckar
|
| 2009-01-04
|
48 8
|
|
|
|
Rottenburg-Ergenzingen
|
| 2009-01-07
|
48 9
|
|
|
|
Pliezhausen-Rübgarten, in the Schönbuch forest
|
| 2009-01-10
|
48 8
|
|
|
|
Muggensturm
|
| 2009-01-12
|
48 8
|
|
|
|
Lauterbourg (France), a long walk with Ilpadre
|
How I use the symbols in this table
Achievements
Template:Virgin graticule
{|border=1
|
| Ekorren earned a hash collision honorable mention by finding the geocache GC11ZMH near to the 2008-10-28 49 6 hash (and other caches near later hashes).
|}
Template:Virgin graticule
|
Ekorren earned the Frozen Geohash Achievement
- by reaching the (48, 9) geohash on 2008-12-12 while the temperature was around -3. This was the third sub zero hash where he couldn't bring an accurate thermometre, but this time it didn't get above zero the whole day anywhere in the area...
|
|
For the following achievements the rules had to be stretched a bit, usually because of insufficient proof.
I put the ribbons here anyway but don't insist on counting them, and will definitely try to replace them.
Template:Mnimb geohash
I can't decide whether 2008-11-29_48_9 and 2008-12-12_48_9 qualify for a MNIMB. They were both made difficult by snow, ice, and a terrain that provides generally no easy trails. After careful examination I came to the conclusion that they beat some of the existing MNIMB hashes but are themselves still beaten by quite a number of others which leave me humble and in awe. I'll take the ribbon for now.
Tools
I run another of those online hashing tools, built to contain everything important on a glance and work on virtually every device not entirely uncapable of browsing. See here.
36 / m / 48,9
saturday 4 pm
virgin graticules
foot
bike
public transport
No trespassing
| Ekorren earned a hash collision honorable mention by finding the geocache GC11ZMH near to the 2008-10-28 49 6 hash (and other caches near later hashes).
|}
