2015-04-24 41 -73

Fri 24 Apr 2015 in 41,-73: 41.0612694, -73.9483724 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

In the parking lot of Starlight Limousine Service in Blauvelt, New York

Participants

OtherJack

Plans

This morning I biked from my home in Manhattan to work in Rockland County (about 27 km), for the very first time since starting this job three months ago (my employer had organized the riding for Earth Day.) Then at 2pm I finally got a chance to check geohashing.info ... and where should today's hash be but 7.3 km from work, in a clearly public parking lot off a main road! And with bike-friendly roads or bike paths most of the way there. I would never normally have a chance to get such a hash, since on all other days I'd taken the shuttle bus to work. Clearly the universe was asking me to go for it.

However, I did not want to bike all the way home afterward (food options are slim up here, plus I had stuff to do in the city) so I really needed to catch the last bus home at 6pm. I figured I'd leave work at 4:45pm and that would be plenty of time for the 16 km or so.

Expedition

However, time slipped away and I didn't even leave my office until after 4:50... around when I posted

• Going for it now... I happen to be 7km away with a bike! -- OtherJack (talk) @41.0040,-73.9056 16:50, 24 April 2015 (EDT)

So by the time I'd gotten my bike from the basement and set off, it was already 4:55. This was not nearly as comfortable as leaving at 4:45. I figured the ride back would take considerably longer than the ride down, since my work is on top of a >100m hill but the hashpoint was down in the valley... so I needed to reach the hash by 5:20 to be on pace (25 minutes down, 40 back up.) I rode hard.

At first I made good progress with the downhill, but there was a stiff W/NW headwind. Once I was in the valley by Sparkill, the going got very slow with the wind and I started to freak out a little. It didn't help that a portion of the bike trail marked by Google as paved was unpaved... and that the trail didn't have any access ramp to route 303, forcing me to overshoot by a few hundred meters.

(To be continued)

• Made it! Pic upload not working but see coords... -- OtherJack (talk) @41.0613,-73.9484 17:26, 24 April 2015 (EDT)