2009-01-03 36 -77

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We decided to conquer this virgin graticule because the N36 W77 geohash would take us to Lake Gaston, and an area we seldom visit. There was freezing rain last night, but by the time we started our trek, the roads were drying off. We first went to our cabin to thank our kind-hearted and hard-working neighbors who repaired the washed-out road in the neighborhood. We did some target practice with our handguns then drove east to the geohash.

We navigated the old-fashioned...well, 20th Century way, using only the state road map and arrived at the geohash parking area at about 1540. We were amazed that the area looked relatively unchanged from the Google Earth image. We guesstimated the geohash point and I oriented the map and moved so we were aligned with the northern triangulation point - the bluish-green storage building (now two of them) almost directly north. The woods were thinned out and the lack of foliage meant we could see the three triangulation points clearly. We then shifted further south until we were aligned with the trees and the intersection just SE of us. The tree line matched up, so we knew we were pretty close to the geohash point - probably just as accurately as if we had used the GPS...which was turned off and in the truck.

We photographed our success and looked for signs of wildlife. After waiting 15 minutes for other XKCDers, we gathered up our hashing equipment, bear, and camera and headed to the truck. We brought trash bags prepared to do some geotrash collection - but the area was spotless. A credit to the residents of Timber Lodge.

Participants

Eisen & Bear - NCBears

Geological Features

Rolling farmland (mostly corn and cotton). Geohash was located ~10 meters inside wooded area. About 375 meters from Lake Gaston and 4.0 miles/6.5 km south of the Virginia border. Open field between Geohash and road was used for corn crop. See Google Earth screenshot below.