2016-01-19 50 7

Location

A wood near Ruppichteroth and Honscheid.

Participants

Plans

Reaching the hash by public transport and running.

Expedition

The hash was 40 km away by car, and I would have needed an hour to get there - according to the Falk route planner. But near the village Merten, only about 2.5 km away from the hash, was a train station of the S-Bahn S12.

So I took the train which was planned to be there just 36 min later. Alas, there were complications on the path so I lost the time benefit and left an hour later at the train station where was nothing around except wood and a small path to Merten itself. After some minutes I reached the rather deserted and dark village of Merten. No people were on the street (at 6 p.m.!), and on my whole way to the hash and back I met only seven cars which passed by into the darkness.

Well, not a complete darkness for there was a waxing, three quarter moon above me. I took the Schloßstraße and followed it to the north. The temperature had been at -8°C the whole day and I guessed that it did not get warmer in the evening. But I forgot a thermometer so I couldn't get the Frozen Geohash Achiement. I walked from Merten to Bruch swiftly.

In Bruch a chapel was my orientation point - the next path after the crossing would be the way to the hash. Up here the street was icy and there was snow on the ground. Well, at least no mud!
Now it was time to walk westward along a narrow, frozen path into the darker wood without moonlight. After about 300 m I changed my course to north because the hash was near. The forest floor was partly free of snow, and there were big gaps between the trees so I got on quick until I reached the coordinates. I had made no poster because nobody would find it here - and I didn't expect another geohasher... or anyone (though there was some rustle in the shadows).

On my way back to Merten, I jogged from Bruch and made the 2 km to Merten in ten minutes. There may be many of you who could have done this faster but I was contented under the circumstances - on a lampless street only illuminated by moonlight (and sometimes in shadows), in winter clothing, with trekking shoes, at freezing temperature, after a working day, with a backpack. Not stopping in the village, I ran the whole way back to the train station.

As on my last expedition, the Motto was: "When life gives you a distance, then jog."

With some photos of the S12 at last, this expedition was my second documented Public Transport Geohash.

(And, now looking back from 30.1.2016, I see that nobody else was on an expedition at this day so I may add the Last Man Standing Achievement!)