2009-05-08 42 -71

Recon

The hashpoint is in an alley next to Caldwell Bank in Cambridge. Approaches:

Huron Ave: From Google Street View, it appears that the alley is blocked off by a stairway and a wall.
Concord Ave: There's a parking lot, but the alley might not be accessible from there.
Royal Ave: Residential. We could try asking permission to go through their yard.

Planning

Phyzome: I'll try to make it. I have a UPS delivery sometime today, but I might blow them off and wait around for it tomorrow instead.

Report

1 person showed up.

Phyzome

I arrived at around 15:45 and lurked suspiciously around the Huron Ave side. The alley had stairs going up to the left and down to the right. At the bottom of the latter was a retaining wall, and beyond that... the coordinates! I taped a sign to the wall with my username and phone number, then scoped out the other approaches.

A little after 16:00 I climbed over the wall (maybe 4-5 feet tall?) and onto the dirt floor of the alley. I rechecked the satellite image and noticed that the spot was marked precisely by a drainspout coming off of the building to my left. (A good thing, too, because my GPS receiver was failing to turn on.) I scooted up the wall a bit—does that count as an air geohash? :-P

I hung around the sidewalk near the alley until 16:30, when my linguistics professor from the fall semester happened to bike past. I explained to her about geohashing (a bit disappointed that that was not her reason for being there), then headed home. On the way back to Harvard Station I spotted a woman wearing an XKCD shirt. I mentioned I was geohashing, and encouraged her to check it out.

All in all, a decent hash, but I would have been happier if other people had showed up (especially the ones who said they would...)