2011-04-23 49 -122

Location

Adjacent to a baseball diamond in Coquitlam. In Google satellite view there was construction next door so it was a but of an adventure, however Juventas had correctly deduced that the construction was a park expansion, meaning that it was a spot almost literally made for geohashing.

Participants

four more people whose chosen internet names I don't know
Osmie
Rhonda
Xore
Robyn
Wade
Dagny - Wade & Robyn's dragalong

Plans

The geohash was so gloriously simple, in a real public park on a sunny day that the only plan posted was ...

4PM, of course!

Expedition

Robyn, Wade & Dagny

We have little to report beyond a pleasant Easter drive along the Barnett Highway to the park. We knew Rhonda and Xore would be there, so we looked for them as we walked along a park path towards the site. Eighteen metres away, a child sprang out and informed us that "if you're looking for something that's in the bushes, it's up there," pointing up a slope beside the path. We looked and then in the next pace we came face to face with a stranger who asked us if we were geohashing. It turned out to be no stranger to geohashing, but rather Osmie, who created many of the original graticule pages for our province, but this is the first geohash she has managed to reach. As soon as that introduction was complete, we found the rest of the group.

Rhonda & Xore

We had a simple, uneventful drive along highway 1 then the Lougheed into Coquitlam. Just past where the Lougheed made a sharp right, a sign directing us to the geohash indicated that we were 1.5km from our destination. Unfortunately, due to the busy street, we couldn't stop and take a photo, but you can see it for yourself any day. It said "Town Centre Park", just as Juventas had said.

We found parking in the construction zone from the photo, and realized we hadn't checked terrain view; there was a hill between the road and the baseball diamonds, which contained the stand of trees. Fortunately it wasn't too steep. Xore thought he saw geohashers in the trees, but Rhonda's GPS said those weren't the trees containing the hashpoint, plus they were kids playing. When we were closer, we saw Robyn and her crew, and joined them.

Together

Rhonda and Wade started the GPS dance while everybody else set up a picnic. As they located the spot, right on the edge of a cluster of trees and thorns, a child's voice called out "the nerd group is up there".

There were all together ten people, including two children, plus three hashcots, two chocolate cakes, three or four picnic blankets, a Twister set and lots of happy chatter. That, my friends, is how geohashing is meant to be.